givesomefucks,

Capture and kill…

The only thing better than owning the competition, is putting them out of business.

So they buy studios that compete, fire all the workers, keep the IPs, and call it a day.

If we enforced anti-monoply laws this wouldn’t be a thing. But monopolies dontate a lot of money to politicians so they say monopolies aren’t a big deal.

corsicanguppy,

IPs

“IP”, here.

bane_killgrind,

Intellectual properties?

steal_your_face,
@steal_your_face@lemmy.ml avatar

IP UP we all P for IP

applepie,

Parasites do be like that... I don't get how peasant class got so complacent though.

givesomefucks,

Have you met our political system?

Primaries literally don’t have to be fair, because the results are nonbinding, the party can just pick someone else.

And the people in charge keep loosening regulations so they can get bigger donations.

They’re openly running a PAC that coordinates with Biden and the DNC that individuals can legally donate a million a year.

apnews.com/…/biden-2024-democrats-dnc-state-parti…

www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00744946/

Average Americans are being priced out of democracy by both parties. The candidate for both will be who the wealthy pick, and everyone will have to vote if they want to keep who they hate most out of office.

If you’re wealthy there’s no way to lose, if you’re the other 99.9% you can’t win.

Regular people can’t out lobby Microsoft and Disney, and unless a progressive third party emerges the system will keep getting worse.

applepie,

While political system is captured... I am talking about gen pop discourse. Vast majority got nothing to hide, it is convienient, poor people suck, shoulda worked harder, quit being poor, there is nothing can be, we just really don't know.

This rhetoric is pathetic for any self respecting adult yet here we are.

Sure if everybody got educated about their lot in life they could theoretically vote in a third party but let's be real here, we got some app to circle jerk for engagement slop that induces you to buy plastic shit to make feelz

icydefiance,

unless a progressive third party emerges the system will keep getting worse

If a progressive third party emerges, they’ll split the vote with Democrats, making both of them weaker. That’ll just give every election to Republicans and make the country get worse even faster.

The only way to get progressive candidates is by moving the Overton window to the left, and the only way to do that is by voting for Democrats.

Ilflish,

People tried to block the Activision acquisition. Some were mocked for their attempt and some were mocked for their stance. It wasn’t enforced because for all the attempts, it couldn’t be proved which is more an indicator better definitions needed to be in place

scottmeme,

THEN QUIT FUCKING BUYING THEM

dot0,

but then how else will they embrace, extend, and extinguish 🥺

Zehzin,
@Zehzin@lemmy.world avatar

They skipped the extend this time lmao

dot0,

omg that’s so true 😭

applepie,

This need more upvotes

Noite_Etion,
@Noite_Etion@lemmy.world avatar

Watch as they still milk them to death.

They cannot improve these games, give them meaningful updates or expansions. But they have killed many of their competitors and further monopolised the industry.

The second Microsoft gains a market majority in the gaming industry they will employ as many scummy tactics as possible to wring every cent out of people.

zib,

Basically the old EA approach. They don't seem to realize that EA never restored their reputation from those days. But, I guess they don't care as long as they can show a line going ever upward for the shareholders.

applepie, (edited )

Restore... They are actively working to ensure I never buy another game again from there.

Last bf was the last straw for me. I am out.

Then they go and add anti cheat for bfv? I am a Linux gamer, fuck u.

gravitas_deficiency, (edited )

I feel quite certain that this was the plan all along.

Shit like this should cause the purchased entity to revert to prior ownership without refund to the purchaser.

dezmd,
@dezmd@lemmy.world avatar

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

Welcome to Microsoft.

A_Random_Idiot, (edited )

Yep, was here to say roughly the same thing.

Buy up studios, Claim their IPs, shut them down to reduce the existing number of studios, and more importantly…properties, and thus competition.

dog_,
nutsack,

buy competitors and kill them. sounds good nice job

unreasonabro,

*pretends

bitwolf,

Let them be free

p5yk0t1km1r4ge,
@p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world avatar

Didn’t Spencer say they weren’t gonna lay anyone off or did I smoke way too much crack?

Plopp,

I don’t know but if he did say that and believed it, he might have smoked too much crack. This is capitalism.

Hadriscus,

ah, yes, the highest market cap in history ($3T) doesn’t have the resources

ryper,

Well, you see, they don’t have cash on hand because they spent it on stock buybacks to boost that market cap

MSids,

The subscription model is, in my opinion, dumb. If they need it to work, maybe they should buy games instead of studios. I can’t work out exactly how long term patching would work though, unless they kicked back a maintenance fee from sales and gamepass usage to the studio.

SecretPancake,

I don’t know how the contracts look but games on Apple Arcade get support years after release. It does work somehow.

MSids,

It must work like the music streaming model where Apple kicks back a fee to the devs based on monthly installs or usage to the dev. It probably works better than Microsoft’s model of buying a developer, not committing resources to run them, then closing the studio.

pacoboyd,

Back in the day, devs used to not release games until they were done. Patches were bascially unheard of.

sibannac,

It would be a bad look and there were anologue standards at play then. Digital releases and the capacity of storage mediums really pushed releasing unfinished games over the edge.

SpaceNoodle,

What are you gonna do, mail out another set of floppies to everyone? Outrageous.

eupraxia,
@eupraxia@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I will say, these days it’s more or less impossible to release a game that’ll run perfectly on every system and it’s a good thing we’re able to fix crashes and patch issues as they come up. This has naturally had its downsides as publishers squeeze devs for tighter releases, but outside of that it’s a very good thing for devs and players.

CosmoNova,

This exact method is how Microsoft became a giant in the first place. They’ve been doing it for longer than I live and they’ll likely outlive me doing it.

WhiskyTangoFoxtrot,
p5yk0t1km1r4ge,
@p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world avatar

Lmao accurate

Shyfer,

Lol this scene looks so old, and yet it still holds true

zaphod,

Embrace, extend, extinguish.

danc4498,

I’m guessing they bought the IPs, not the studios. They already have studios.

PhAzE,

Microsoft is buying up companies to stockpile IP. Simple as that.

Then they have a lot of redundant workers so they let them go, leaving the IP in their hands to be filed away for potential lawsuits against infringers.

woelkchen,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

Microsoft is buying up companies to stockpile IP. Simple as that.

And then they do nothing with that.

WhiskyTangoFoxtrot, (edited )

No one else can, either.

chuckleslord,

IP has value, we amass value. Are we missing a step? -stockholders

mynameisigglepiggle,

Stockholders also get value extracting your happiness

trolololol,

Oh they can do worse than nothing. Their history is full of hold my beer and EEE.

woelkchen,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

Their history is full of hold my beer and EEE.

Is it still EEE when they’re shooting themselves in the foot all the time? Xbox 360 had a good run but then during the cycle they dropped the ball and even got overtaken by PS3 late. One and Series S/X don’t matter that much.

trolololol,

I think for the people suffering from the extinguish it is.

TheHooligan95,

Are they shootimg themselves in the foot if they’re making record profits?

woelkchen,
@woelkchen@lemmy.world avatar

The gaming division isn’t. Last good ride was Xbox 360.

tiefling,

It also reduces competition

Leate_Wonceslace,
@Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Unless and until new game studios start snapping up these suddenly out-of-work talent.

sibannac,

I don’t think they are very keen on wanting to keep talent, especially at their scale.

Leate_Wonceslace,
@Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

What do you mean?

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