We have Activision and Bethesda, not that long ago GOG managed to bring over the Blizzard.

Tim Schafer published the game here throught his Double Fine Productions, Inc. publishing label. How exactly Microsoft, the current publisher, got here is a mystery - could it be possible that Microsoft was *forced* to sign an ongoing client agreement with GOG or it's just a supplement addendum on 1 page. I remember the same case with SEGA which left GOG almost immediately after the publishing rights expired, yet SEGA came back later with their games.

I trust that GOG has some secret powers given the ocassional surprise releases we get here. I'd like to be wrong here because it's too cool to be true.

Exactly. Disney not being stopped set up a precedent. Literally anybody can now go "But you let Disney through". The door for pretty much anything has been opened wide by this. The various regulator bodies would become the laughing stock of everyone if they suddenly went "well ACTUALLY....".

That is why the opposition of this merger tried stall tactics. Because they knew they'd lose at court. MS even named many guarantees and concessions. I bet Disney did the same.... Not.

Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox really is the "sign of the end times" when it comes to the path to Cyberpunk meha-corps. There were only like 5 major movie studios and they let two of them merge, it was just absurd.

That consoles have become cheap, locked-down PCs? Yeah, kind of did :P.

Its a losing battle but probably the best they can do.

And its sad to see some of the internet (Xbox fanboys) laughing and gloating that future Bethesda and Blizzard games are going to be Xbox exclusive (not that I mind. Not a fan of Bethesda and any Blizzard game worth its salt should be played on PC anyway).

Bigger issue is just the cannibalization and monopolization of entertainment by a few behemoths rather than actually different games. We can already see this in the current era vs the older era. Control schemes were different (attack can be a shoulder trigger, x, or square) with more diverse forms of gameplay from a "rhythm combat" game like Oz to combos in Street Fighter. Now everything is a FPS or third person open-world with child companion and RPG mechanics stroll to eat time.

Another big issue is we are going to see a change in game releases if this continues. Hiking up game prices and microtransactions are industry standards and its weirder to see a game without any form of MTX nowadays. Released games are unoptimized BS to take up all of your free space for one game (oh you have 150 GB of free space. Lets take it all). These anti-consumer practices will be set by the big 5 and we just have to take it.

Sony and Microsoft have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on Playstation. This comes shortly after FTC's appeal against Microsoft was rejected.

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/07/microsoft-and-sony-interactive-entertainment-sign-binding-agreement-to-keep-call-of-duty-series-on-playstation-following-activision-blizzard-acquisition

Well, the deal is as good as done now.

In terms of impact, not a huge deal. Sony misses out on Fallout and Elder Scrolls which is a shame but I personally feel Bethesda games and Blizzard games should be experienced on PC anyway (Bethesda needs mods and I cant imagine playing Diablo or Warcraft with a controller).

In terms of business environment, this is terrible though. The entertainment industry is steadily becoming consolidated by a handful of corporate entities which at best means a monopoly on entertainment they put out (like how EA is the only one allowed to release official sport games which is why they can get away with copy-pasting code all the way to the bank. EA is an IP company, not a game developer). At worst, these businesses now get to set the cultural tone of entertainment.

Before we had any "gaming industry", our hopes were in the "garage programmers". Now that the gaming industry is consolidating into several "zaibatsu", our hope yet again turns to the indie devs and (relatively) small studios that want to stay independent.

I don't think Sony ever had high hopes of stopping it, rather wanted to put their foot in the door and get something out of it. Which they now have.

Given how successful F2P games like PubG mobile have been, I wouldnt be surprised if the next CoD entry under Microsoft is F2P. You have the recognizable brand name, F2P to draw in kids who are your main target, and already built in monetization models in the game. Just transform the skins/gunbs/level ups into a gatcha type system and you got your next CoD raking in billions.

True. Gaming is better if major publishers just let smaller studios do their own thing and give them the resources to do their thing and help market. Especially if they are at the A+ or AA level. These developers seem to focus on the gameplay and delivering a good experience and have the talent to do so to make a great game. At AAA, they start focusing on the wrong things (pretty graphics, famous VAs, cinematics, long game length, etc.) which detracts from the experience.