I wish these appeal announcements would include whatever argument they have for how the lower court erred. It just makes “appeal” synonymous with “do over” the way it’s done now.
It would be nice. From your specific wish I take it you probably already know, but for general discussion it looks like they’ve just filed the Notice of Appeal with the trial Court, which is entirely procedural and required before an appeal can be brought to the Circuit Court. We’ll likely have to wait for the briefing before we get the substantive arguments. Reporting on appeals really does give the impression that it’s like a second trial though.
I wish they’d just let it through already. The way it looks, nothing changes for PlayStation gamers, Nintendo gamers get access to CoD for the first time since in years, Activision’s back catalogue goes to a company that’s way more likely to use it for something other than cool easter eggs in Black Ops games, CoD gets more accessible overall by being a part of the subscription, and Sony’s complete market dominance gets another blow that once again forces them to compete and improve their platform.
If anything, I wish the FTC had been this aggressive when it came to the Zenimax purchase. All that really did was give Microsoft the ability to make those games Xbox-exclusive (establishing a pretty scary amount of western RPG dominance) and plop them on Gamepass.
We should be pushing for competition in capitalism whenever we can. Microsoft is openly pushing for a monopoly, they’ve even admitted in leaked documents that they want to squeeze Sony out of the market.
Your view of what is happening is very short sighted, only Microsoft wins when they control the majority of the market.
Buying Activision Blizzard means they are still third in the console space. Just not so far behind the others.
You are also misqjoting out of context. One executive suggested it was a path to spend now in order to gain footbold later. They would still need to spend a lot more to get there.
After having watched Sony rest on their laurels for the last entire generation while doing effectively nothing for their platform except releasing new games, I am pushing for competition. The only company who’s seriously improved their platform in the last decade has been Microsoft, working on backwards compatibility, accessibility features like copilot and the adaptive controller, a full Chromium-based browser so you can do anything from your taxes to playing Mario 64 in-browser on an Xbox, and easy $20 dev access so that users can install Retroarch and have better backwards compatibility than people who actually own PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.
I want that for other platforms. I own a Switch and PS5 because I feel obligated to in order to play games. I own a Series S because I want one and I consider it a good value.
Saying that Sony is sitting on their laurels and doing nothing for their platform but releasing new games is just patently false.
If I had the choice of streaming Starfield on my phone with a games pass subscription or playing it with adaptive triggers, touchpad and/or motion gestures, with instant loading, and possibly even full on VR support with eye tracked foveated rendering on PS5, I think it would be a stupid easy decision. Good thing for Microsoft I don’t get that choice and they don’t have to add new features to their hardware.
FYI, Sony also has retro games on their store and available via streaming, and a specialized controller for disabled persons as well. And no, a web browser on your games console is not “innovation”.
I don’t really find any of these features that appealing apart from maybe Retroarch but why is Microsoft charging you extra to use the hardware that you already purchased? Can’t say I’ve ever needed a browser on my console considering I have a smartphone and PC steps away from it. I’m sure accessibility features are great for those that need them but these three things encompass your entire list of features added over a decade.
I have no idea how the PS5 is doing so well. I have had both the PS5 and the XSX since launch (yes, I got VERY lucky) and I almost never use the PS5. The Xbox is a significantly better box for doing everything besides gaming (like watching Netflix, etc), the controller is about 100x better, they’re actually available to buy whenever you want, Gamepass is way better than PS+ equivalent, and Xbox has more exclusives.
Spiderman 2 in a couple months is going to be the first real reason to turn on my PS5 in ages.
Sorry, just ranting a little here. I have been a PS fanboy for ages and the PS5 being so meh is pretty disappointing. I totally agree that Sony sat on their laurels while MS improved. I firmly believe that if more games had cross-platform support, Sony market share would tank. Being able to play with friends on the PS4/PS5 is the main reason I even have a PS5.
The worst part about this is that Sony aren’t even putting out as many games as they used to. I loved their output in the later PS3/early PS4 era. It was full of smaller and more experimental projects. However since Jim Ryan took over they’ve only focused on their big AAA blockbusters. MS have gone the other way and have expanded from the “shooter box” to put out creative projects like Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, Tell Me Why, etc.
Speaking of competition, Sony owns Bungie. Maybe they should do something with that.
What do you mean by Sony’s complete dominance? AFAIK they only dominated with the PS4 because Microsoft bungled the release of the XBOne by tacking a bunch of junk on it that turned people off. Furthermore, online play used to be free with Sony until Microsoft started raking in the dough by charging for Xbox Live so we can thank them for Sony and Nintendo following suit with their own subscription fees. Current gen has PS5 leading in sales despite their production issues contrasting with Microsoft having consoles on the shelf that apparently nobody wanted to buy, but how is that Sony’s fault? They don’t drive demand.
I don’t see how Sony is the dominant one in this scenario.
I don’t see how/why Sony should be taken down a notch just because Microsoft can’t get their shit together, nor how that translates into making Microsoft’s attempt at vertical integration a good thing. This isn’t David vs Goliath it’s Goliath vs Goliath and Microsoft has many past examples of extremely anti-competitive behavior (as does Sony).
We cannot allow bobby kotick to enrich himself off the corpses of all the gaming companies he ruined anymore.
There’s a reason why my grandpa used to always refer to the FTC as “Fuck The Cranch”
