Post

There are NO “Good” Game Companies

Contributed by DJMMT

Recently, Phil Spencer did an interview with Bloomberg about the ongoing purchase of Activision by Microsoft. In this interview, he was asked about his pledge to keep Call of Duty games available on PlayStation consoles if the purchase goes through successfully. The short version is that he ‘said the idea of games made exclusively for one device “is something we’re just going to see less and less of.”’ He went on to talk about the merits of this idea by giving examples such as kids being able to play games with their friends even though their parents bought them different consoles. It was all very sunshine and rainbows, capitalism is your friend, feel good stuff. As a person who has worked in marketing and PR for years, I have to say that he gave exactly the kind of answer that I would have recommended he give had I been in the room consulting for this interview and on how to talk about this issue in general.

I don’t want to discuss whether or not I believe that XBOX will keep releasing Call of Duty, among other Activision titles, to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles if the purchase goes through. What I want to discuss is the fact that people are eating up Spencer’s stated thoughts on exclusives as if this is an act of benevolence rather than a very obvious, albeit elaborate, profit scheme.

First, let’s start with why exclusives exist. A topic I’ve also written about before. The fact of the matter is that if you could play any game on any platform, everyone would just buy one platform. They wouldn’t all buy the same platform, but everyone would buy one platform. Maybe two if you want to differentiate mobile versus stationary play. Like if 100% of games were available on all platforms, I would absolutely have a gaming PC and still buy either a Switch or a Steam Deck. Probably a Switch if I’m being honest. The mobility factor is just too important for me to give up having now been a Switch owner for several years. There are literally games I’ve paid more for on Switch that I could have gotten cheaper on PC specifically because I wanted to play them mobile. In my opinion, it’s very wrong that Nintendo often charges more for the same games that are available on other platforms, but that’s a discussion for a different blog post. But generally speaking, if you could play 100% of games on 100% of platforms, most people would only buy one platform. Especially if we also have universal cross-play in this scenario. The question is “Which platform would that be?”

Exclusives exist because no hardware producer actually believes in the comparative quality of their hardware with 100% confidence. You might think the PS5 is better than the XSX. And your friend might believe that the XSX is better than the PS5. But you know who doesn’t believe the PS5 is better than the XSX? Sony. Because if they did they wouldn’t have to goad you into buying a PS5 by making their games exclusive. On the opposite side, Microsoft absolutely does not believe the XSX is the superior console. That’s why they have no exclusives anymore. They aren’t even confident enough to believe people who don’t like PlayStation will buy their console. So they let people play their games on PC. Which makes sense when you consider that Microsoft has always been a software company, first and foremost. And that’s the real con here.

It’s very irritating to me that gamers never seem to learn anything. Nor do they catch the very obvious scams. And in this context I don’t mean potentially illegal activities that trick people into throwing away their money. No, here I mean totally legally scams that trick people into thinking the company fleecing them for subscription fees is somehow the more benevolent of two companies that literally would sell you and your whole family into slavery if they could get away with it. I want to be clear in saying that I am not defending PlayStation. They’re no better.

How quickly we forget the sins of the past. What you’re seeing XBOX do now is no different than what PlayStation did a decade ago. You play nice when you’re in a losing position. You play greedy when you’re in a winning position. PlayStation has been winning for a long time. As such, they’ve gotten greedy. XBOX is playing it smart and pretending to be for the gamers. But let’s really look at what for the gamers actually means in the context of Microsoft.

It's really easy to say that exclusives don’t matter and shouldn’t exist when you have your fingers in every platform. Remember that Microsoft owns XBOX, they’re the operating system that 95%+ of PC gamers use to run games, and they now own some of the largest game publishers and development teams/groups in the world. Even the games being made for PlayStation and Nintendo consoles are made on Microsoft’s operating system. The OS PlayStations run on are just locked versions of Windows. Every single game played on any platform in the world, with the exception of a few iOS mobile games built on Apple computers, for whatever reason, gives money to Microsoft at some point in its lifespan. Often multiple times.

You build a game in Windows, Microsoft got a piece of that game. You play a game on PC using Windows OS, Microsoft got a piece of that game. You buy a game on the XBOX/Microsoft PC Store, Microsoft got a piece of that game. You play a game on XBOX, Microsoft got a piece of that game. You buy a physical game for PS5 at Walmart, Microsoft got a piece of that game. How? The people who made that game used Windows. The company that printed the cover for that game’s case almost certainly used Windows. The shipping company that transported that game used Windows. Walmart handled the inventory management with computers using Windows. The banking company that processed your credit card transaction used Windows. The OS you ran that game on was a version of Windows. Then you shared screenshots or videos of that game to a social media platform built on Windows. How do you think Microsoft came up with 70 BILLION DOLLARS to buy Activision?

Microsoft literally owns gaming. There is no gaming without Microsoft. Of course they don’t care about exclusives. They don’t need to. They lose no money when you buy a PlayStation game. They just make more money when you buy an XBOX game. No matter what, they make money. I’ve said it many times. Eventually Microsoft will just stop making consoles. Because they won’t need to. XBOX isn’t the plastic box. It’s the brand. You’ll subscribe to GamePass and buy games published by XBOX Studios to play on your PC, PlayStation, or Nintendo console, Microsoft will get a hefty percentage of every transaction, and you’ll pretend Sony won the console wars. Everybody thinks they’re watching a checkers match, meanwhile Microsoft playing chess. Microsoft’s not a good company that cares about the needs of gamers. They’re a massively diversified company that you can no longer avoid giving money to. Why would they care which platform you choose to give them money on? All this feel-good power to the players on every platform nonsense is just good PR. There’s no benevolence here. XBOX isn’t a “good” company. Whatever that means in 2022. They’re just unavoidably profitable. They’ve now built up enough brand recognition that they can torch the console and keep the profits. Which they eventually will.

Again, I am not arguing that PlayStation is a better or more consumer friendly brand than XBOX. I’m arguing that both brands are greedy, anti-consumer predators that honestly don’t care about things like consumer rights or fair practices. I’m angry that so many people, even after so many clear examples of companies playing us for fools going back more than two decades, are still falling for this stuff. I have no brand loyalty. I hate all these companies. I hate some of them less than others, but basically all of them are trash. None of them are doing what’s best for the consumers. Most of the time they’re not even doing what’s best for their own labor. Stop defending them. Stop celebrating them. Stop trusting them to do right by us.

These are multi-billion-dollar companies. They don’t need you to defend them online. Just play your games, stop shilling, and complain about everything. Never defend the companies. Just complain, complain, and then complain some more. Even if you see people complaining about stuff you disagree with, either support them or keep your mouth shut. Because at the very least, prices might come down a bit. Some DLC might be free. You gain nothing from openly supporting these companies and their greed. You can possibly gain a few crumbs from complaining. There are no good AAA game companies. Even many, if not most, of the indie companies are trash. There are some good games though. And really that’s all that should actually matter to you as an end user.

XPG Terrence

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