Sacred Symbols+, Episode 156: Mergers and Whack-quisitions

LOL.

Colin Moriarty

Spoiler Alert for Uncharted 4! So now at the end of Uncharted 4 Nathan Drake is playing an Xbox IP…

Edwin

Definitely great for GamePass!

Colin Moriarty

I have very mixed feelings. Sure it's gonna be great for Game Pass members. But I don't like seeing Microsoft gobbling up all these publishers. It smells like the beginning of a monopoly. It could fuck up the games industries ecosystem. Sony is probably gonna start buying more developers now. I don't see them grabbing the big publishers. Because they can't really afford EA, Take Two, etc... I don't want them to go down that road.

Michael Pasqualicchio

That's a caching issue, then: The broken audio was up for 10 minutes three days ago. Sorry I can't be of further service!

Colin Moriarty

It puts people in a protective shell. It's too bad.

Colin Moriarty

I saw your comment on the other post.

Colin Moriarty

Microsoft is not a neutral arbiter. Sony isn't, either, but the good news is we don't have to worry about them making these sorts of seismic moves. At least, we didn't.

Colin Moriarty

Welcome. <3

Colin Moriarty

Hi. Just fyi, I use podcast addict on android. I deleted and redownloaded the podcast and the parts where Dustin's voice cuts out were still present. I'll just download from here today

Michael Kurzer

To be honest while it would be terrible, I'm hoping Sony buys EA or Ubisoft not because that's what I want but because it might be the only way I get to continue to play my favourite series' on PlayStation. I can't trust the industry at this point to not hope for some kind of Sony purchase. Not because it looks good, or is a good response, or wins some console war points but yeah it's potentially that or access ripped away from franchises and communities that mean a lot to me.

Sean Mobsby

Nintendo showed us that quality matters. Sony showed us that technology matters. Microsoft showed us that community and interconnectivity matter. But then, I would argue that Sony showed us something else matters. Content matters. The exclusivity deals that Sony have been relentlessly pursuing are significant. Some IP carry so much weight. Final Fantasy and Persona are two huge JRPG franchises. The same is true for Street Fighter among fighting game fans. In regards to the KOTOR remake and Elder Scrolls VI, had Sony had their way, both would have been exclusive for an indefinite period of time. Those games ARE the WRPG genre. Sony doesn't own Square Enix, but the effect is the same. Sony would not have owned Bethesda Game Studios, but the effect would have been the same. Sony showed us that content matters. That’s what this Activision/Blizzard/King acquisition was about. Sony, in my opinion, has brought us here.

Ian Everett Trout

No way I could be excited about this. Still one of the worst things to happen in the gaming industry was Microsoft buying Rare and letting them rot. They wouldn’t do the same to Activison but it shows they necessarily don’t know what to do with their acquired studios.

Dylan Michael

I'm back. I shut a lot of things down, just to disconnect from the world. Now to kick off my 2022 the first thing I'm doing is subbing to last stand media ❤️

DarthLemon616

Could be.

Colin Moriarty

COD is how Gamepass gets on PS consoles. That’s how Microsoft gets Sony to bend the knee. That’s my feeling.

Kid-Organic

The regular episode of Duke is about this, we felt like it would have been redundant (and it would have been).

Colin Moriarty

I personally would have loved to see one of the guys from Duke here to balance out the conversation a bit but you guys did pretty good from trying to separate your perspectives from the greater perspectives above and I understand this was likely an emergency podcast.

DoubleDave

I appreciate it, thank you!

Adam Romano

Perhaps.

Colin Moriarty

And Poor Dustin? Poor Colin, who has to answer 5,000 of these.

Colin Moriarty

This is fixed. You need to redownload it.

Colin Moriarty

Can't get any word for Blizzard.

Colin Moriarty

I think Playstation is becoming more of a Nintendo then an Xbox if that makes sense. I wonder is Sony could do nothing and still be massively successful.

Andrew Arana

Poor Dustin 😭

Wyvborn

Same here. Listening through Patreon

Don Wonton

Was anyone else listening to this episode on Apple Podcasts, and about half way through the episode you stopped hearing Dustin? Colin and Chris' audio is fine but Dustin was completely muted. It was like hearing 2/3rds of a 3-way phone call. Just seeing if anyone else had that experience. Cheers!

Adam Romano

It’s fascinating how different people are coming to different conclusions on this. I don’t agree with everything Colin (and the boys) said in this episode, but I do respect your opinions on the topic :) From the Blizzard side of things I’ve seen a lot of people somewhat hopeful that Microsoft will lead to a resurgence. Who knows though. At least things shall be interesting

Wyvborn

Maybe I am.

Colin Moriarty

I keep hearing Colin say, "Murders and acquisitions."

PackOSmokez

Oh I just got to the part where you mention this. My bad

Jewelbox

This acquisition is going to be an antitrust minefield. With the Biden office trying to showboat as an anti monopoly administration, this might actually be a good target for them.

Jewelbox

I just want to balance out the tone of the episode ;) My original post pointed out that you're right. I think all these companies are competing in this space in whatever way they can. You're more of an expert than me; don't you think Sony's first party speaks for itself? Sony knows how to manage their studios. Does Microsoft? Maybe the "brute force" approach that MS appears to be using will result in a creative and effective strategy from Sony that will effectively raise the tide and keep the engine of capitalism churning out excellence. Iron sharpens iron. Maybe I'm too much of an optimist.

Jorge Lujo

Didn't I give them a lot of praise for their tech in this very episode? And in many other episodes?

Colin Moriarty

They've largely failed at incubating their own games internally. I don't blame them for wanting to go out to buy what they need. That's smart business if you can't do it yourself. But the ramifications emanate, and it's those I'm concerned about.

Colin Moriarty

Butts are good.

Colin Moriarty

The IP thing is overplayed; they aren't sitting on anything valuable that they aren't already exercising. They bought Call of Duty's pipeline. It's doubtful these teams will now be redistributed to do something else. At least not in the short run.

Colin Moriarty

Yes.

Colin Moriarty

Sony is smaller than Microsoft; Square Enix is way smaller than Activision. If this doesn't attract antitrust attention, neither will that.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah, I saw that story this morning.

Colin Moriarty

Shareholders.

Colin Moriarty

Microsoft could fix that by speaking plainly this time.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you.

Colin Moriarty

Suitors will come, I think.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you.

Colin Moriarty

More, more, more!

Colin Moriarty

This was fixed yesterday. Download it again.

Colin Moriarty

The reality is no version of Game Pass is a win for me, because I just don't play a smattering of games, it's not how I roll. I think day-one availability would be the only thing that would get me truly interested in a Sony version, because you can't say no to that.

Colin Moriarty

I hope so.

Colin Moriarty

I really do think SOCOM is already in the oven.

Colin Moriarty

Maybe. I don't think Nintendo cares about this at all.

Colin Moriarty

I don't think any of us even remember our awards at this point.

Colin Moriarty

There was a moment in the episode where Colin went on to say that Microsoft hasn't really created any games. This is a fair point. However, Microsoft is really a software and tech company and we should give credit to how solid thier network back end is as well as how seemless their ecosystem is. Smart delivery just works. From a strategic standpoint, shouldn't Microsoft leverage and play to their strengths here? Namely, deep coffers. What about xbox cloud gaming? You can have access to all these games via the cloud for 15 a month. I don't necessarily see this play as a direct move against Sony, even though it mostly is. I see this as another move that's making gamepass a compelling avenue to enjoying your games and having your business. Microsoft wants gamepass on the ps5.

Jorge Lujo

I’m glad you brought up Microsoft’s history of never really creating unique IP’s Colin. I feel like that isn’t being talk about enough in regards to them buying everyone. They haven’t made (imo) a new game that was good in a decade and the last game I was looking forward to was scalebound that they outright cancelled. Halo their most important franchise has been handled extremely poorly and was so bad it had to be delayed a year. This is all to say that Microsoft putting their hands in all these different pies worries me. How much influence are they gonna have on these studios and the games they make? They can’t even do their own most beloved IP’s well and now they have like 30 studios to manage? I just have this feeling that the quality of games are gonna drop under their umbrella and that would really suck. I don’t like mergers or acquisitions and I think this whole thing is a mess but I’m a gamer at heart and I play all games on all consoles and PC and I just want the games I play to be treated right and be of high quality whether that’s indie or AAA and my faith in Microsoft doing that is really not that high and that worries me.

Adam

On a more serious note I feel like you guys are trying to make "buttress" a thing ala the games media and "biome". But it just makes me think of a mattress made of butts.

Greg McDonald

“Tell me why this would be a good thing” Well this is just my opinion but I got 2 good things 1. All of the ignored IP that Activision is sitting on can now see the light of day, all activision really does is call of duty and all the studios under its wing are forced to do call of duty 2. Toys for bob and raven are two studios who were stripped of their original visions and forced to make call of duty maps and skins, toys for bob specifically would be perfect for to make crash, Spyro And banjo games

Captain Bon Clay

Sony got a lot to worry about for 2023 This year though, there still gonna rule

Elad Shefer

That would honestly be a good thing. Annual releases for a multiplayer shooter sucks. Modern Warfare 2019 could have been sustained for a few years.

Awesome show as always. I do wonder if Sony did counter with a move like buying Square Enix, for example, would this increase the chances of the government stepping in? Like would this raise too many red flags for them to ignore that monopolization is starting to take shape? Maybe a question for Rich.

SnipaMasta

I agree. Eventually, one would think, people would wake up and realize they’re sinking more money into it than they would just buying a la carte.

SnipaMasta

Microsoft buying Activision give them like 10% of the market share. Also I read that Kotick went around to other companies to see if they can beat Microsoft offer, Sony must of known about it months ago I believe

Hose A Contra Razz

Just waiting for the honeymoon phase is over with gamepass and Microsoft starts raising the price and stands behind it every 6 months or once a year. I wonder how long it will take for people to get fed up like they are with Netflix.

D'Ante Almo

Who gets the 68 billion? Just the board?

Troy Leonard

Apart from the obvious reasons I think this is a negative, I’m really gonna hate the million “is this game going to come to PlayStation” articles that are really just vague opinion pieces that site cryptic messaging from Xbox and their new studios. News outlets were already out of control with them after the Bethesda buy, and when they finally started to go away this happens and kickstarts the conversation all over again.

Samuel Ashley

What an incredible conversation! I really appreciate you all recording it so quickly. Thank you!

Ben Scott

Relistining this morning. Disney bought Fox, for a lot of reasons… but Marvel is HUGE… and I’m sure that uniting their brand was part of the calculus. I wouldn’t be shocked if they made a plan for Sony outright…. A lot of reasons… but Spider-Man is not the least of them. NWH just hit the fourth biggest movie ever, during a pandemic. They already tried renegotiating the movie deal & got rebuffed. So I think Colin might not be far off.

Kenneth Koepnick

Colin Moriarty: Video Game Preacher I gotta tell you, Colin, spirits are low. This is scary for the industry. Great episode, as always. I look forward to the future conversations on this topic from all angles.

PuppiesOnParade

Great episode, I can't help but share the same sentiments. I feel like Xbox is going to turn everything into a blob of mediocrity. It feels like this weird transitional time in the videogame industry right now: Sony and transmedia, Xbox and capitalism, Nintendo and theme parks (who knows what Nintendo is up to). Every company is losing sight of why people loved them to begin with...great, quality videogames. Lets hope we don't have to make videogames great again. Sorry for coming in hot, I just don't want my videogames to jam me up.

Mitchell Lundsberg

So what's up with Dustin's audio? I'm listening on the rss link on Google podcast and Dustin just cuts out completely half way through.

Thorman

Talk about a bombshell. I literally dropped my phone when I saw the headline yesterday. Personally, it’s a win for me. Xbox gets those games onto Game Pass, Phil gets those devs into better conditions, and hopefully PS finally gets their Jim Ryan professional vibe out of their asses. Somebody get my man Jackie T on the phone!

NeO JD

On the brighter side, maybe this will push Sony to invest in their older fps IPs such as Resistance, Killzone, and Syphon Filter. I am still waiting eagerly. Maybe they would invest in western rpgs as well now that majority of those are on the xbox ecosystem. Loved the conversation and appreciate the immediate response to the news.

Tefo

After all this time Bobby Kotick will not be first to delay Call of Duty. It will be Xbox.

SeanG123

Sony needs to get Socom in the oven. Call of duty is on the downswing and I think Sony has the chance to release a sweet first party shooter. I also think really the only game that affects Sony in a big way is call of duty. And they have a way to respond to that. Also I predict Microsoft is going to buy ubisoft next, they're also struggling and their recent partnership with gamepass I think shows they might be going next.

MayorGarbageMan

Is there a chance this pushes Sony and Nintendo to play nice? Not a merger or acquisition or anything so extreme, but some sort of Partnership. The might of these two first parties would certainly outmatch Microsoft’s spending spree thus far.

Dan McAdorey

Is Dustin rethinking his well played award now?

There’s a Balrog in my pants

LOL, now that I could support.

Colin Moriarty

It's a bummer. Like we outlined, and like you said, it sets off a chain reaction.

Colin Moriarty

I agree. Would be awesome to see more.

Colin Moriarty

"We can fix them."

Colin Moriarty

Microsoft next acquisition will be Tencent *mic drop* In all seriousness I’m so glad you guys delivered this episode the same day as this news broke. It’s a massive purchase that some of us can’t really begin to comprehend to the fullest. So I’m truly thankful for this insightful conversation to this purchase and what it could mean for the gaming industry in general.

Josh Correa

This is really starting to remind me of the English Premier League in the 00s (soccer). When nation states started buying teams and kicking off an arms race for signing the best players. I don't think you've really had to deal with that in US sports with the models they run under, but it's pretty garbage now. Still. I don't remember if Sony has ever made a purchase like this, right? They normally develop second party relationships and make their own IP. Would be a pretty big departure from SOP.

hugplx

Sony can start to respond by talking. We have heard they have about 25 games in development. Time to start naming off some more of that to showcase Playstation is where you want to be. In short quiet measured Sony needs to open up more. That's at least a realistic thing they can do as opposed to the pipedream of buying a Square Enix.

Piston Pants

"You can't tell me one reason this is a good thing" Errr... I could name a few. One, we brushed off "BuT GAmE PaSS". But... why not? So Sony can lock down dozens of 3rd party titles via millions of dollars and take them from millions of players but xbox can't aquire a publisher to make games available to MORE people in a consumer friendly service? TWO. Activision is a FUCKING HELL HOLE. All of their teams have been siphoned by greed to work on call of duty. Creativity has been shattered and greed is at the core of it all. Microsoft acquiring them, supporting them, and supporting new games with their library of IP is bad? THREE. We've all talked about how activisions culture is shit. People have been hurt. This isn't a good takeover? This isn't going to be a positive impact internally? To say there's nothing good about this from someone so deeply educated feels fanboyish.

Shawn Yorn

It definitely screams that. How can anyone say otherwise?

Colin Moriarty

Yes.

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

We'll see. I think any more action right now on Microsoft's part will attract antitrust attention.

Colin Moriarty

I think we're talking about how they're "getting" games.

Colin Moriarty

I wonder if Microsoft would try to buy EA or Sony would do something with EA since sports games are usually at the top of charts every year.

Derek Alcott

Mad ponies in the comments. Y’all act like Playstation wasn’t absolutely destroying Xbox last gen for no games and when Xbox gets games it’s a “Monopoly” 😂

Carlos Hernandez

Me: *Pauses podcast for about an hour.* *Returns to hit play* Colin: "You know who Microsoft is trying to kill more than anyone? YOU!". Me: "Whoa, what's going on here!?"

Dave Ramos

As someone who loved the original Xbox and the 360 this is so disappointing to me. Microsoft’s own IP’s are awesome. This screams we can’t make our own games great anymore so we’re gonna just buy our way to the top. I play most of my multiplayer games on computer so this doesn’t effect me but like I said it’s just disappointing.

Johnny Lamotte

Damn, I dont even know what to say. This is fucked up.

Romeo

Thank you. <3

Colin Moriarty

It's unclear the US government would even allow Tencent to acquire ABK.

Colin Moriarty

Possibly.

Colin Moriarty

Mad? No. Disappointed.

Colin Moriarty

According to their financials, it's the sixth most-important vertical.

Colin Moriarty

Who knows. The math is so vague and requires so many integers we don't know.

Colin Moriarty

I saw that last night. Who knew it was a prelude.

Colin Moriarty

Xbox fans may! Long term effects are deleterious, though.

Colin Moriarty

Who gives a shit if Phil is a "gamer"? He's also a ruthless businessman, and what he and Microsoft are doing will affect everyone!

Colin Moriarty

Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

You assume Activision would have recovered. This is a golden parachute for the entire board, and Kotick.

Colin Moriarty

We do our best!

Colin Moriarty

Thank you for your kind words and support.

Colin Moriarty

=\

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

Thank you.

Colin Moriarty

I've been saying GamePass will be on PlayStation for a long time, now.

Colin Moriarty

It's fixed.

Colin Moriarty

Yes.

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

<3

Colin Moriarty

LOL.

Colin Moriarty

Yes, it's fixed.

Colin Moriarty

=D

Colin Moriarty

Fair enough.

Colin Moriarty

I feel the same. But for people who want to play a lot of games or sample different experiences, you cannot deny the value of GamePass.

Colin Moriarty

!!!

Colin Moriarty

We shall see.

Colin Moriarty

You're welcome! Thanks for your support.

Colin Moriarty

<3

Colin Moriarty

Thank you for your support.

Colin Moriarty

<3

Colin Moriarty

!!!

Colin Moriarty

You're welcome.

Colin Moriarty

This to me is the issue...even if Sony wanted to open up their checkbook for some M&A, the other players currently in the gaming/technology space (Facebook, Apple, Google) are several orders larger and can make similar and likley more 70B purchases/acquisitions than Sony could. Sure, Sony can purchase maybe more eastern focused devs/pubs: Squenix, Capcom, etc. but what does that really bring into the future of a games as a service platform? Regardless, Sony almost has to make some sort of move, or else if it's not Microsoft, there's some other big players who could very quickly start gobbling things up. To Colin's point, what Sony has on their side is their experience in building/nurturing teams and crafting award-winning games. Money can buy a lot, but there's pedigree and experience which Sony has shown they can deliver on, while the competition (all those big tech companies) haven't really in the gaming space. The idea though of what this opens Sony up to is VERY interesting if they are looking for a partner to take on Microsoft. If the future of gaming is in services (like pretty much all media at this point) it feels like the only way to compete is to cozy up to someone. Disney was a great example; I recall Netflix being thrown around a while back when rumors were going on about a potential partnership with their gaming division. I'd think you'd see a partnership between Google and Sony before Apple and Sony. Regardless, the Rubicon has indeed been crossed and interesting times are ahead.

Joe Galati

Halfway thru, always the best analysis out there IMO. Thanks Colin & crew.

TL

I hate posting anything negative. I disagree with the perspective of the show. The purchase was a net positive in my eyes, kept ABK away from Tencent, moved more exclusives towards Xbox (evening out the exclusives ecosystem), and Xbox can Iron out the systemic problems internal happening at ABK. Love the show, even if I disagree today.

Nick

Colin does this move make you think this is the first step that would force gamepass on to Playstation as you predicted it would someday?

Michael Buffill

Wow Colin you mad bro haha I agree with some of what you're saying though I don't think that all Activision/Blizzard properties will go 100% exclusive for Xbox, I see Candy Crush and Warcraft/Starrett staying as multi platform as ever. I think there was more catastrophizing in this episode than is warranted but hey we'll see!

Jack Sibert

I think everyone underestimated just how important Xbox is to Microsoft. Forget size, the only thing that matters to them is what is important to the shareholders, growth. For a division of a blue chip stock to grow 87% annually is unheard of. I’d be eyeing it too, because that’s something you won’t see many other places. Also it’s the only cool thing they have.

Tick Dickler

Actually Bungie shifted development to PC on 1999 as an FPS. I have a PC gaming mag from 1999 saying "Halo will change the gaming world" Microsoft said themselves (in that new xbox documentary) that they didn't have a killer launch title so they bought Bungie specifically due to that reason. Bungie was hurting after they needed to recall copies of Myth 2, MS just swooped on at the right time.

Devon

Thanks for this, guys. Reminds me of that emergency beyond episode when PSN went down lol Anyway, this is bad for everyone except Microsoft and the c-suite at Activision. Antitrust should investigate, Microsoft can basically buy the whole industry if they want. PlayStation has to move before all of the third parties that make their business model successful are bought. Xbox can't actually make good games or franchises themselves, so they just buy all the existing ones. BioWare has shown us that the team is not the entity, though. We'll see if they have better luck running 36 studios than like 3. By the way, fun math: 25 Million subscribers * $10 per month * 12 months = $3 Billion per year. 68.7 Billion / 3 = 22.9 years for game pass revenue to cover the cost of this transaction alone with current subscriber numbers, let alone be even remotely profitable to begin with. I need to look at more financial data going back further, but note that this transaction was more than Xbox has generated in profit.. since its inception.

Chris

I really wish xbox used that money to make sure every Japanese game comes to xbox for the rest of my life. But I’ll just settle for Danganronpa

Kevin Myers

Bad for the industry and no one benefits from this. Period.

Brandon Soto

The only thing I disagree with here is Colin’s statement about Microsoft not being able to create games and just buys them outright, using halo as an example of just buying things rather than creating them. Halo was a Mac RTS prior to microsoft buying Bungie (which then prompted the shift to FPS) and nurtured that team into creating the finest FPS’ ever made. It’s no different than Sony working with teams and then buying them once they see success from them (naughty dog and sucker punch come to mind) and proceeding to create even more successful titles. Microsoft bought Bungie early because they saw the potential, and even Jack Tretton in the Xbox documentary talked about how he was envious of Xbox for halo because he felt during his time at Sony they never had a flagship title like that for PlayStation.

Stephen Forgione

This has been fixed. Redownload the episode and you should be good to go. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Dustin Furman

Dustin's audio cut out for me. Did that happen to anyone else?

Luis Irarragorri

There is a lot of this out there today: "but Phil is a good guy and a gamer, he would never abuse this power!" Even if that is true, "good king Phil" won't be there forever. Will the next guy be as benevolent? Lol.

Kostas Moros

My favorite episode in the past few months. Colin really flexed his knowledge of the industry and economics in this one. Dustin and Chris were great as always, too!

Colby Hollon

Regardless of the absurd some of money., its actually a relatively cheap per share price for the actual worth of the IP. Its the price the shares were before the dirt starting coming out. So they are basically not paying any premium particularly on what the company "should" be valued at.

Phil Walker

I was hoping to see the boys drop some fire on this topic today. You boys never disappoint! 🔥🔥

Javie Saucedo

Thank you for putting out content that thinks critically about the gaming industry. I listened to/read so many takes today that had nothing to say about the potentially deleterious effects this could have on the industry and on the quality of games in general. LSM continues to be the best sources of critical and measured games news coverage.

Chelsea

This has been fixed! Redownload the episode and you should be good to go. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Dustin Furman

Dustin's audio broke for the second half of the podcast

beeperbeeper5

This is what happens when you buy gamepass Colin!

S S

SO FAST!

Stove

Colin KILLED in this episode. 🔥🔥👏

Robbie Agnew

Is this a buy to leverage getting GAMEPASS on PlayStation? Do they go… you want Activision & Bethesda on ps5? Put gamepass on your console.

Kenneth Koepnick

It got muted folks

Lucas Gremista

If I had to guess what publisher Sony would ever buy, I would say Square Enix.

The audio is fixed! To get the fixed audio, you may need to delete the show and redownload. RSS feeds may take a few minutes to update. So sorry for the inconvenience!

Dustin Furman

#2 is definitely nice. I would love to play the campaigns for older CoDs, but they never dropped to a low enough price. Now, I can just get to play them through GP. Good thing the Series S is pretty easy to get now. I got one a few months back from Best Buy without any hassle.

You guys are champs. All morning long I’ve been curious about each of your thoughts. Thanks for getting this out so fast and doing what you can to fix the audio. You’re always knocking it out of the park. It’s much appreciated. 🙏🤙

Jordan Dalgarn

Anyone else having audio issues? We can't hear Dustin.

Sutter Kaine

I knew when there was no noon drop that the heat was coming

Kenneth Koepnick

LSM, the heroes we need right now

Brian

Whelp, nevermind. You talk about it

Angel DeJesus

Great listen - thanks for getting to this news today! A few quick takeaways: 1) I don’t think this is good for the industry as a whole 2) selfishly, I’m glad I managed to get an Xbox last year. I didn’t buy the last couple CODs, and I’d be much more willing to try them on Gamepass without a large financial commitment on my part 3) I guess it’s better for Microsoft to own them than Tencent??

Mr. MacDeadly

I was getting Lockmort vibes off that audio drop around the half hour mark. 😂

I actually think Microsoft is future proofing. They probably dont even think about Sony as a real competitor and are grabbing these companies before others like Facebook and Amazon acquire them. They might actually be a few steps ahead of the curve here. All roads seem to be leading to 5 or 6 companies owning everything though.

Reuben Barrett

Yeah, sadly Dustin’s audio seems muted.

shane christian

Hey guys. We're aware of the audio issue. Getting a fix up ASAP.

Dustin Furman

Did Dustin’s audio cut out in parts of this episode? Or are my ears just unable to register those sweet sweet Dustin frequencies?

Jordan Dalgarn

No audio around 32 minutes for anyone else?

Jay Jones

The question needs to be asked at this point: Does Sony need to buy the likes of Square Enix, Sega, etc. simply to protect their ecosystem from the industry tumor that is Microsoft?

Paul R.

I appreciate hearing how you all heard the news. It felt like “Where were you on 9/11” stories.

Retlaw

I don’t see why keeping activision the same was healthy. If it was take 2, ubi, or EA I would raise the alarm flags. Activision was just going down a path of only call of duty.

Jaymin Ligsay

Quest for glory is what got me into video games. Would love if they brought it back. Still think this is horrendous news overall

Rage.Quit_Richard

Personally Im Indifferent to this. It amazes me that Microsoft has spent BILLIONS and I still feel no need to buy an xbox. Big deal for xbox but kinda screams " we are just gonna buy our way into being truly competitive ". Like I been said Microsofts ideas are not good for games

Big titty drinker

Let's goooo!

Asique Alam

Microsoft has become Unicron.   To be honest, this acquisition actually makes me hopeful. Maybe this will scare Sony into finally giving me a reason to stick my PS3 discs into my PS5.

David Graham

I believe we all knew this episode was coming the moment the news dropped. Thanks for the timely episode. Cheers!

Joshua Hutchens

I had my fingers crossed I’d get to hear your guys’ take on this today, thanks for your hard work 👍

Joe Perez

I have been praying all day you guys put out something about this. Could not be a happier patron. You guys rock. 🙏

Vagicarp, I choose you

I'm curious to hear if you, Colin, still think Sony shouldn't take a swing at squeenix or Capcom now? And I mean not from what you want, but are they kind of being pushed into it now.

Angel DeJesus

Yessssssss 🙌 appreciate the hard work on getting this out

Kendrick Luckenbach

I just don't see how this is healthy for the industry

Wayde

This sucks. Thanks for doing this.

MarkGrouch

Lets gooooo

Shawn Kelvey Jr