Ask HN: Is Microsoft trying to destroy Playstation? How is that good for gamers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is Microsoft trying to destroy Playstation? How is that good for gamers?

1 pointandrewstuart2 comments

Microsoft is buying up major game publishing studios.

These studios were formerly developers of cross platform super successful game titles.

Microsoft is killing the Playstation titles at these publishers.

Is Microsoft aiming to destroy Playstation? Is yes, how is this good for gaming?

Is the old hyper competitive, destroy the competition at any cost Microsoft back, in the form of Xbox?

I thought we were being led to believe it was a new Microsoft, kinder, more platform agnostic.

Why wouldn't Microsoft want to release all its games for Playstation, just a few months later, same way as it develops applications for Macos?

What happens if Microsoft "wins", by using its money to own all the most popular game publishers - then there's only one gaming console left? How is that good for gamers? Where's the competition? Why would Microsoft bother releasing another Xbox console after that?

Lots of acquisitions of companies in the same industry of the acquirer (ie. horizontal integration) all done by a single giant company, especially with the goal of consolidating games with the most popular and largest amount of users, is most definitely anti-competitive behaviour.

So:

> Is the old hyper competitive, destroy the competition at any cost Microsoft back, in the form of Xbox?

Yes. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish never left Microsoft. They have just gotten cleverer and smarter at hiding it.

> I thought we were being led to believe it was a new Microsoft, kinder, more platform agnostic.

Microsoft has learned their mistakes with Windows Phone, Almost shutting down Xbox and now targeting, buying out the ecosystem of developers and gamers.

> What happens if Microsoft "wins", by using its money to own all the most popular game publishers - then there's only one gaming console left? How is that good for gamers? Where's the competition? Why would Microsoft bother releasing another Xbox console after that?

This is why regulators are investigating the acquisition [0] [1] in both the US and the UK.

[0] https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/microsoft-slash-activision-bliz...

[1] https://nypost.com/2022/01/18/microsofts-69b-activision-bliz...

The market is so distorted that the consoles are sold at a loss and money is recouped on game profits. Nintendo is so far behind it isn't even considered by regulators to be competing in the same space. This isn't free competition, it's two plants in the same plant pot having choked out the soil with their roots.

Accordingly, I would welcome Sony going away because maybe then the government would be forced to do something and perhaps break up this consolidation.

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