General Game Chat

[Dragon Lord]

I think it's safe to say that Nintendo would have been absolutely ruined my Microsoft. We should be very, very happy that's something that never had any chance of happening.

If Squaresoft sold to Microsoft, Final Fantasy likely would have become another Call of Duty and we would never have gotten series like Kingdom Hearts or NieR.

Thankfully these companies had the smarts about them to laugh Microsoft out of the room instead of entertaining their interest to acquire them. Final Fantasy has already gotten bad enough as it is, influence from a scrub company like Microsoft would have made something even worse. Then as I mentioned, series like Kingdom Hearts or NieR, among other games like Octopath Traveler, the Bravely games, Project DIVA and many other Japanese games like those would have never happened.

[Mr EliteL]

I'm just imagining a few suits from Microsoft going into a Nintendo office, either a full board team or a similar number of guys from Nintendo waiting for them. Then they hear the offer from Microsoft, all stunned for a second as they slowly creep into a smile then burst out laughing.

Yeah quite glad Microsoft didn't acquire those at the time, they were mad to even consider Nintendo themselves.

[Moonface]

I wonder if anyone at Nintendo ever brings it up like "Hey remember that one time Microsoft tried to buy us?" and then demonstrates the meeting with this image:

[Maniakkid25]

Honestly? I don't think it was that ridiculous a thing to do. Keep in mind the timing of this. This was during the reign of the first Playstation. Nintendo and Sega were getting their asses KICKED by Sony in the console wars. PC gaming was still coming to its own, and Microsoft had the largest selling OS for those systems by a WIDE margin. A potential joint venture with Microsoft sounds like a brilliant plan, and Microsoft probably had the money to outright buy companies like Squaresoft and EA (EA was already a decent sized conglomerate), considering that value of video gaming was PALTRY compared to what it is today: a mere $40 billion in 2000, compared to Microsoft's $550 billion asset value in the same time period. Microsoft probably (rightly) thought they could flash some cash, and just buy out these companies as an easy backdoor into another market (as Epic Games would prove later). The problem is that the other companies they were buying out held all the bargaining chips, and they knew it. Microsoft could offer all the money they wanted, but these companies all had the leverage behind them to tell Microsoft to screw off. When in the context of the gaming market of the time, Microsoft actually had a brilliant idea; they just didn't have enough leverage to worm their way into a market they hadn't been a part of before that point.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah quite glad Microsoft didn't acquire those at the time, they were mad to even consider Nintendo themselves.

Because Microsoft thinks money can solve all of their problems. Just look at their recent acquisitions. Instead of actually making some decent first-party exclusives themselves (the biggest reason why Sony has absolutely kicked the shit out of Microsoft), they instead go around and buy other companies in hopes that it will prove enough to make their failed consoles interesting to people. 

They were pretty stupid for thinking they could get Nintendo though. They were a company that had NO experience in the gaming market at the time and they were an American company to boot. Of course Nintendo was going to laugh them out the door. They probably still laugh about it thinking back on it, as Moon wondered. 

Microsoft needs to go down the road of SEGA. Stop making consoles, because they suck at it, and just be a third-party game developer instead.

[Maniakkid25]

See, it's rhetoric like that that's why I hate the console wars: tribal fanboys who think that just because they aren't catered to at every turn, the other side sucks. It's crap like that that killed the Saturn and Dreamcast before it got off the ground, and the Wii U failed. It shouldn't matter what console has what games. If the 360 had a better library of JRPGs than shooters, you'd be saying Sony was the one who sucked. I don't give a shit if you think a console sucks; I'm here to play games. And considering my list of favorite games, its not like I discriminate! Midnight Club 2, Modern Warfare 2, and Final Fantasy X-2 are all on that list! Why does it matter who's behind things over just enjoying it?

[Moonface]

Microsoft doesn't make bad hardware. The 360 didn't sell badly and XBO was hurt by their awful pitch for it that gave a massive number of sales to Sony. Their whole thing now is getting as many people as they can into Game Pass, and using any access points they can to get people in. Their whole thing is like Apple where it's about the ecosystem; the hardware is there to help push it. I don't think going just for software would make them enough money given that Game Pass let's you get so many games for so little.

I also wouldn't say it's a console war to think one company would be better doing software rather than hardware. Especially when Microsoft have put a lot of effort into pushing software with Game Pass over the last few years. Console wars are dumb but I don't think that was the real intention of DL's statement. Either way though please be sure to keep things civil.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, I'm definitely aiming for a console war, with my PS4, Nintendo Switch and Steam library. kek

And it 100% does matter which console offers which games. With the absence of great exclusives, there's no reason to pick the Xbox One/Series X over the PS4/PS5 or Nintendo Switch. PC renders the Xbox pointless for multi-platform gaming, and that's why both the PS4 and the Switch kicked the over loving shit out of the Xbox One. Tons of people with gaming PCs still got a PS4 and Switch for the exclusives. Very few of them got an Xbox One. The same thing is happening with the PS5 and Series X early in the new gen.

It has nothing to do with console wars. A combination of PC/PS4/PS5/Switch is going to give you more worth for your money than a combination of PC/Xbone/Series X, because PC has everything the latter has, and runs it ten times better.

There's a big reason why the Nintendo Switch surpassed the lifetime sales of the Xbone as fast as it did, with what, two or three years less time on the market?

[Moonface]

Looks like Bethesda are continuing their trend of announcing shit way too early:

A new Indiana Jones game with an original story is in development from our studio, @MachineGames, and will be executive produced by Todd Howard, in collaboration with
@LucasfilmGames. It'll be some time before we have more to reveal, but we’re very excited to share today’s news!

I'm intrigued by the game, but I doubt much work has actually been done on it yet and tossing out the announcement this early gives me the impression they're trying to rely too much on the IP to push the game rather than letting the game speak for itself by actually waiting until there's something to show for a reveal. I really hope the game is good, but I can't say the approach to this announcement fills me with confidence.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah they really need to wait until they have something other than this short announcement. If they happen to bring something else out that gives us a true look within a week and have this purely as hype anticipation then cool. As you said though, they haven't been good at that.

[Moonface]

If they happen to bring something else out that gives us a true look within a week and have this purely as hype anticipation then cool. As you said though, they haven't been good at that.

Considering Bethesda outright said "It'll be some time before we have more to reveal, but we’re very excited to share today’s news!" I don't expect to see any news until whatever E3 style thing happens this year. It would suck if that's when they do show more because I think it would've been better to just make it a surprise reveal at E3 with a proper trailer and gameplay.

[Dragon Lord]

So if anyone hasn't seen the news yet, Microsoft is increasing the price of Xbox Live. It's not going to cost $59.99 for a 6-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION, which was previously the price of the 12-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION.

It'll now cost $120 for a full year of Xbox Live.

Sony and Nintendo don't even had to try at this point. Microsoft are doing a fine job of digging their own grave. Funny to see all of those "XbOX iS BeTtEr" people now crying and jumping ship, saying they are switching to PlayStation.

[Moonface]

I just hope that Sony doesn't follow suit. There was a time they didn't charge for online and eventually they did, so I can't have full faith that they won't increase their prices at some point down the line.

[Karo]

Gotta make more of that $ $ $! I am honestly not really surprised the price of gaming must continue to rise who else will give the CEOs more money if they don't do it themselves? :O

Silliness aside I don't really get their justifications for most of the price hikes going for the generation like honestly....are the graphical jump between the next generation of console really that demanding that the DLCs, Gacha mechanics, and cash shop not enough for them to build these "revolutionary new games"?

[Dragon Lord]

Sony shouldn't, since they have enough PS+ subscribers right now that they're making a fortune off of the current price tag. Plus keeping the price the same greatly increases the chance of luring some of those pissed of Xbox players over to PlayStation instead.