Weekend hot topic: Gaming without Sony or Nintendo – Metro.co.uk

Opinions were split on the apocalypse of the situation, with half wanting to believe the game would continue largely as it is, but others feared that big business was slowly eroding their enjoyments.

soul game
Frankly, yes, I would give up the game if Sony and Nintendo were no longer involved. I’m sure I’d play indie games here and there, ideally on my phone, but without the two biggest companies it would be like ripping out the hearts of the entire industry. I mean, without Nintendo, who would copy Microsoft and everything else (not much it seems)?

The reason Microsoft has to make all these massive purchases is that they realized, far too late, that the heart of a console maker is not hardware but exclusives. The first board games they create set the tone and the technical standards, for the whole format and without that you’re just left with soulless, personalityless technology like the PC.

Xbox has Halo and Gears Of War and that’s about it in terms of headliners, and both of those franchises are well past their sell-by date, if you ask me. So from a business perspective, I can totally relate to buying companies like Activision Blizzard. But as has already been pointed out, this only encourages a bidding war from other giant corporations like Facebook and Netflix, those with even less interest in games than Microsoft, let alone ‘soul.
Focus

Big deal
The idea of ​​an Xbox-dominated games industry bothers me a lot because it would almost certainly mean the marginalization of the Japanese games industry, as has already been predicted. The worst would be if companies like Facebook, Google and Netflix got involved. Companies that have no interest in making games but using them as a platform to log people’s personal information, sell them NFTs and cover them with advertising.

Xbox is pretty bad, with its creepy corporate attitude, but those others… yeah, I think I’d probably give up gaming, at least in the sense that I’d probably lose interest and not want to buy new consoles. Although with the upcoming cloud gaming, pushed by Xbox, it might not be so easy to escape in the future.
Moiler

Keep balance
Would I be interested if it was just Microsoft? The simple answer is no. The advantage of competition is that it lowers prices. Can you imagine how much the prices would rise? Gaming is not cheap now, could you imagine how much the prices would be if there was only one company making gaming? Even if it was just Sony, I’d stop playing, they could charge whatever they want.

Competition rules are there for a reason and that is to protect the customer. Sony has put its games at £70, what would be the price if Microsoft pulled out of the game? It would be the same if it was just Microsoft, Game Pass would double or triple its price. A player needs two companies to keep prices in check and if one of them pulls out, the game is history.
David

The quo
Considering I was playing an Amstrad and then an Amiga long before Sony came on the scene, and Nintendo’s relatively low release rate never meant they were a second console for me, it seems very obvious that I would go on to happily play games even in their absence. I own a PlayStation 5 (and a PC and a Switch), but I guess the millions of players on PC, Quest, and Xbox would also be fine.

I’m not hungry for just one format, but I also see gaming as something that’s nearly impossible to monopolize. Even if Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo dominated, there would be enough room in the market for new entrants at various levels (developers, publishers, console makers), and even the threat of that would keep any format on its toes. .

Probably the closest thing to that is Steam on PC, which isn’t a problem. Microsoft isn’t close to getting the console monopoly, and even if they somehow did, I don’t see it as sustainable, even in the medium term. You can buy the intellectual property, but you can’t buy the people who work for that company indefinitely.

The worst outcome is probably that some of the companies will fragment under new ownership (or IP addresses will be bought up by new entrants like Facebook, which will then create white elephant consoles).

This means that old IPs could be of increasingly lower quality (and on a specific console), but the upside is that there will likely be new studios spawned by hemorrhagic staff creating brand new IPs. Most of the time, this will not mean any fundamental change. Do not panic !
Matt (he_who_runs_away – PSN ID)

come and go
I’ve been playing for a long time, certainly longer than Sony makes consoles and longer than Nintendo, which is even considered “a thing” in Europe. In the 80s, when NES was huge in the US and Japan, it was much more niche in the UK, with a lot more people playing Spectrum or C64. So I’ve seen a lot of formats come and go.

Binatone Game System with Pong Variations? Yes Spectrum? Yes Amiga? Yeah. Do you remember Atari? They were the daddy… then Sega…

I have never prescribed just one format. I’ve owned Nintendo and Sony devices (ironically as a PC gamer, so kind of hard-wired into Microsoft’s ecosystem, never an Xbox).

I guess what I mean is that companies come and go. If you had told someone in the 80s that Atari would be relegated to history and that Sony would rule the game, they would have thought you were crazy! In the early 90s, who would have thought that Sega would be a publisher that had to partner with Nintendo, their biggest competitor, just to survive!

So if Sony or Nintendo left, would I give up gaming? Of course not! It would have been like I had given up on the game when Sinclair was taken over by Amstrad, or the Amiga was left behind and Commodore no longer became a force.

The game is constantly changing and evolving, it really is still a young medium (I’m pretty sure film has seen a lot of change, innovation and shifts in dominance over its first 50 years as well).

We currently have AAA games that recreate entire cities, racing games that accurately reflect physics, where you can drive real laser-scanned tracks. We have a flight simulation where you can fly around the world!

We have a thriving and innovative independent scene.

I think things are going well, and honestly? I think no matter what, the games will only get better.

Don’t fret, don’t worry about single company allegiances, just enjoy the ride.

Oh, and whatever you’re playing, everyone have fun!
The guy stays

Interchangeable content
As a PC gamer, I didn’t care in the least about Sony and Nintendo leaving the company. As far as I remember, Nintendo never released a PC game and Sony had only recently started so neither of them would be missed.

If they disappeared, all that would happen is that another company would replace them the same way Atari and Sega were replaced. Not serious.
Brand

CG: What a strange attitude.

Independent safety net
The games industry, in my eyes, has always been dominated by the big game companies and thanks to this, the indie games industry has grown by leaps and bounds. And that’s where I’ll be if games sour me on these huge takeovers and nothing magical or exciting comes from them.

We are used to redemptions and we had a good time. But would I mind if the consoles I play on are from different companies or if the games are from big, profit-driven game developers? The easy answer is will I always enjoy what they produce? If I do then great and if I don’t then I can just keep it simple and like I said above stick around and only support smaller indie developers.

Real games are what keep me going, and if that’s lost, it’s the end of one of my favorite pastimes! But I can’t believe it will turn out like this. If I was a gamer who didn’t know much about gaming news and the corporate world, and who innocently bought games based on their quality, then whatever the background drama wouldn’t have no matter and life would go on.

I’m obviously worried but it’s really out of my hands. You would think that big companies would understand that if quality stops and sales go down, then this is something that will hopefully be followed through! But right now it’s just too early to know for sure and time, as always, will be the big telltale.
Alucard

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