maynarkh,

I love that “innovation” with big US companies always means acquiring another company. Not like EA is a big innovator either.

It always reminds me of this.

Bldck,

Or AOL-Time-Warner-Pepsico-Viacom-Halliburton-Skynet-Toyota-Trader-Joe’s from Bojack Horseman

Leafeytea,

😂 😂 💜

Sidewayshighways,

Verizon Chipotle exon, Proud to be one of America’s 4 companies.

bionicjoey,

“Wait so how many companies are there in the world now?”

“Nine.”

llii,

Yeah, but don’t worry. It’s not a monopoly until only one company bought every other.

perishthethought,

Ooohhhh, please don’t suggest anyone buy Trader Joe’s. That would F Up my world.

HarkMahlberg,
HarkMahlberg avatar

Trader Joe's is privately owned, but it is owned by Aldi.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trader_Joe%27s

luciferofastora,

More specifically, by the heirs of Theo Albrecht, one of the two brothers that founded the two Aldi companies.

perishthethought,

Hrrrrmm, TIL. As long as they keep it running the same, that’s OK.

luciferofastora,

Albrecht has owned it for most of its existence. The first TJ was opened '67, Albrecht owned the chain since '79, so out of itd 56 years, 48 have been in possession of himself or his family.

KingThrillgore,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

I actually like both Trader Joe’s and Aldi in the states because they both prioritize affordability

luciferofastora,

The name ALDI literally stood for “Albrecht’s Discount”. It was part of their concept from the start. We can bicker about quality, but if you don’t have the luxury of choice, their prices are generally good here in Germany too.

KingThrillgore,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

I’m actually quite impressed with the quality of their organic goods.

moody,

Trader Joe’s is already owned by Aldi.

shiveyarbles,

I dunno but I do love those last couple of Jedi games… love that shit, and I don’t really like star wars

dingus,
@dingus@lemmy.ml avatar

Souls-like, but not as difficult.

BlinkerFluid,

If they remake Jedi Knight II and III, I’m in.

So I’m not in, basically.

averyminya,

Dark Forces is getting a remaster, and Dark Forces 2 is the first Jedi Knight title.

So you might have a chance, maybe.

maynarkh,
atocci,
atocci avatar

I, for one, am curious as to what products I could purchase from Lockheed-Northrop-Boeing-Pepsico

AlwaysNowNeverNotMe,
AlwaysNowNeverNotMe avatar

Nuclear powered, Heat seeking High fructose syringes, now with flamin hot flavor you can feel in your bones!

rwhitisissle,

Depleted uranium enriched Funions. I mean, even more so than they currently are.

OfficialThunderbolt,

But why? Disney has made several attempts before to break into gaming, none of which have worked out well. The best Disney games have all been licensed games by Square Enix, BioWare, Capcom, etc.

Also, Disney doesn’t have the cash to buy EA, so buying EA would involve them going deeply into debt. With today’s interest rates, that would be too risky.

PenguinJuice,

If they did it right, they would be huge. They have two massive IPs and can even leverage Pixar to make some pretty great games. The key will be allowing themselves to get T and M ratings, which they likely won't do which will neuter their success to almost nil.

Jinxyface,

The best Disney games have all been licensed games by Square Enix, BioWare, Capcom, etc.

That's why they're going to want to buy those studios.

OfficialThunderbolt,

They can’t buy Square Enix or Capcom; Japan has laws protecting certain Japanese companies from being bought out by foreign companies.

MAQ22,

@OfficialThunderbolt @Jinxyface it's ashamed more countries & gov't are to fiscally driven to legally prevent monopolies when they've been known to be destructive

ampersandrew,
ampersandrew avatar

Video games aren't in danger of becoming a monopoly, but that kind of measure seems more aimed at preventing foreigners from having too much influence.

Jinxyface,

Video games aren't in danger of becoming a monopoly,

Microsoft, a trillion dollar tech conglomerate, has just purchased multiple of the entire video game's largest publishers. It is entirely in danger of becoming a monopoly

ampersandrew,
ampersandrew avatar

How many games came out in 2023? How many of those do Microsoft own? How much do you think that second number changes over the next 10 years? There are so, so, so many video game companies out there that Microsoft doesn't own.

Jinxyface,

It's not about how many Microsoft owns. It's how large the ones they own are. Microsoft has essentially made long time huge third party developers/publishers part of their company now, that's corporate consolidation and should never be defended or justified in any way.

Microsoft has trillions of dollars. They have the capital, workforce, and time to build up their own studios. If the only way a trillion dollar company can "compete" in a space is to consolidate that space by applying anti consumer tactics like buying out longstanding publishers, that's stupid and a lie.

ampersandrew,
ampersandrew avatar

Hard disagree. Sony's in a dominant position specifically because of anti consumer tactics like exclusives. These games can take 5+ years to make, so the only way Microsoft catches up at all during this console generation is via acquisitions (of companies looking to sell, mind you). The only way their trillions of dollars (of market cap, not cash on hand) helps them anytime soon is acquisitions. And also remember that these acquisitions came up in response to Sony seeking further exclusivity of things like Starfield and Call of Duty.

And once again, there's just so much to the video game market that neither of those companies own. Video games are an international industry made up of many, many, many participants, and even Microsoft is nowhere close to having a majority of it.

Jinxyface,

Sony being in a "dominant" position doesn't mean the answer is to just let Microsoft buy out a nice chunk of the larger industry as a whole.

Microsoft has money, they can use that to create and invest and build up studios themselves. Corporate consolidation never helps anyone but the company buying out the other company.

Microsoft buying out Betheda and ActiBlizz will not benefit consumers in any way

ampersandrew,
ampersandrew avatar

Sony being in that dominant position puts them in something much closer to a monopoly of their segment of the market than Microsoft is post-acquisition. Building up studios takes a lot of time, which would translate to Sony further running away with their market position. I'm not exactly pro-acquisition; I'm just not anti-this-acquisition, especially when there are a lot of games and IPs from the past that Activision has no incentive to revive but Microsoft does. That is something about this acquisition that benefits customers and not just Microsoft.

Jinxyface,

That is something about this acquisition that benefits customers and not just Microsoft.

Yeah, but only the customers that Microsoft allows to play that product. What about Bethesda games being longstanding multi platform IPs that are now locked to Xbox consoles and Playstation users who might have been playing them on their consoles since Oblivion now get fucked.

Acquisitions like this are fine UNLESS it's a multi trillion dollar conglomerate gobbling up the industry's largest players. That is not beneficial to anyone. And there is no way to justify it is

Admetus,

I can only think of Kingdom Hearts and I assume that is square enix.

kboy101222,

Man, I miss Disney Infinity. The toy requirement was stupid, but the building was a ton of fun

ampersandrew,
ampersandrew avatar

The big publishers' moneymaking franchises have plateaued or declined without anything to replace them, and they're looking to sell their companies before those franchises stop making money. EA and Disney have a partnership via Star Wars that could work out toward making an acquisition or merger more affordable. Disney would probably have a hard time growing by acquiring more television or movie studios, but video games are in a different industry. Disney might see acquiring a giant like EA to be acquiring "experts" at how to actually run a video game business compared to Disney's failed past efforts.

Those are the reasons I can think of. EA was rumored to have hit up every enormous company like this to buy them out, including Apple and Amazon, so it doesn't surprise me that Disney was on that list.

Stillhart,

Well they can’t make EA any worse, right? Right??

master_of_unlocking,
@master_of_unlocking@beehaw.org avatar
Granixo, (edited )
@Granixo@feddit.cl avatar

Sure, because it did wonders for Fox and Marvel.

(And casually ruined Marvel vs Capcom Infinite).

Jaysyn,
Jaysyn avatar

If they buy EA I'll only have to boycott one company, instead of two.

30p87,

Bonus if Alphabet also Buys M$, Bytedance and Disney.

rgb3x3,

Alphabet has half the market cap of Microsoft. Microsoft is so unbelievably big, it’s not even funny.

Microsoft would be the one buying all three of Alphabet, Bytedance, and Disney and barely scoff at it.

cupcakezealot,
@cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I kinda support this since it means Disney will probably kill it off in a year.

really though you can thank microsoft buying activision for this trend

MJBrune,

You don’t think embracer deserves some of the credit here? They’ve been buying up studios for a decade now and just got to the point where they are closing them. It’s popular IP consolidation.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Don’t they technically already own LucasArts when they bought LucasFilms back in 2012?

Is that not big enough?

acastcandream,

Don’t they technically already own LucasArts when they bought LucasFilms back in 2012?

They shut it down within months :\ killed Star Wars 1313 in the process.

SamXavia,
SamXavia avatar

Like, If they are planning on getting into the Console Market not really, If they are planning on taking EA improving on it and keeping Insomniac doing the spider-man / marvel based games I'm all in, it would be nice to see some really good Disney based games (I don't play star wars jedi but I can see it's a really good game).

Razzazzika,

Disney makes games off of all their properties, and .ore often Tham not they’re pretty good.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

They are about as hardcore of protecting their properties, up to and including the quality of the product, as Nintendo was in the 80’s after they brought the industry back from the dead after Atari fucked it up. Or… They used to be. All of the recent live action remakes have given me some doubts.

SamXavia,
SamXavia avatar

@Razzazzika Maybe it would make them take it a little more seriously, as at the moment they seem to just sell the rights to EA and other companies. Simpsons Tapped Out (That has been with EA for a few years now) is filled with Micro Translations as it's a mobile game created by EA but if Disney buys EA maybe they will create Simpsons: Hit and Run Remastered as that's one game that people have been crying out for, for years now.

acastcandream,

it would be nice to see some really good Disney based games (I don’t play star wars jedi but I can see it’s a really good game).

Nah man. I was open minded with their star wars/marvel shows but they are all the same at this point. The look and feel has become so homogenized. Mando/Andor/Loki are basically the only things with any style of their own at this point and even they still 80% overlap (Andor less so) with Disney’s style executed in all their other shows.

I really lost faith after Obi Wan. Man that show looked and felt so cheap. The story was so boring. What a waste.

Vodulas,

I’d add Wandavision to the list of shows with their own style. Mando kind of turned generic after the first season too. Obi Wan was very generic, but had some cool scenes. It could have been so much more, but honestly I didn’t really see the need for the show at all. Same with Book of Boba Fett.

As far as games go, Fallen Order was great. Need to play Jedi Survivor, but I’ve heard they improved a lot of stuff in it. With how they’ve removed creative focus on most of their properties, I don’t think a Disney run studio would have put out Fallen Order or Survivor though.

acastcandream,

Wandavision

I loved what it attempted and the first 2 eps worked great, but the bit went too long. It needed to be 2 episodes shorter.

Vodulas,

Totally agree. It also seemed like the last couple episodes were them reacting to fan theories instead of having a planned ending.

TigrisMorte,

Mouse couldn't run EA worse than EA is run now. Meet the new boss same as the old boss.

Sonotsugipaa,
@Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Rule 2 of the videogame industry: if you think something can’t get worse, it absolutely fucking will within a month or two

TigrisMorte,

Which shall happen regardless of which megalithic corpo whore is calling the shots.

KingThrillgore,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

See also: Unity

Sonotsugipaa,
@Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

My epiphany was when I was almost successfully gaslit that Halo Infinite was actually a nice game and that I just grew out of the franchise

Omegamanthethird,

Infinite made me not care about the franchise. Which is impressive because I loved the franchise.

ampersandrew,
ampersandrew avatar

FPS games are in dire straits if you like the kind of stuff we got 10-20 years ago, but so many other genres are thriving right now. Give it 5 years, and the indie scene will likely up the FPS market that AAA forgot; right now, they're chasing late 90s arena shooters rather than the slightly-slower, somewhat-grounded-in-some-sort-of-reality action blockbusters we got in the early 2000s through the 2010s.

And Halo Infinite's multiplayer was almost what I wanted out of a Halo game. Better than what Halo had between 3 and 5.

KidDogDad,

What’s rule 1?

Sonotsugipaa,
@Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

If you see a wall with a weird texture, just light a bomb next to it.

bilboswaggings,

Rule 1: Do not believe the hype and pre-order games

I_Has_A_Hat,

There’s always a secret behind the waterfall, and if there’s not, the game designers are wrong.

theodewere,
theodewere avatar

hmmm, sounds like the work of a giant gamer

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