Sony’s Only Response to Microsoft

You have to be living in a fucking cave if you haven’t heard about Microsoft agreeing to buy Activision / Blizzard for a meager 70 billion dollars. As Dom stated, this follows the entire dumpster filled with shit fire that has been scandal after scandal at Activision / Blizzard over the past X amount of months and may honestly be the best thing to happen to both parties involved. Microsoft acquires the rights to some of the biggest franchises in gaming history, Activision / Blizzard gets the opportunity to right some of their wrongs, ideally starting with dumping Bobby Kotick on a remote island in the south pacific. This is lining up to be one of the largest, most prolific mergers in gaming. So, where does this leave Sony? Sony has a few options ahead of them and I genuinely think we could see the next golden age of gaming if all goes well.

No Competition, No Progress

Sony could feel the coals under their asses once this acquisition does go through. Franchises like World of Warcraft, OverWatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty could potentially become Xbox exclusives. I think it’s unlikely seeing how massive games like OverWatch and Call of Duty are on ALL console platforms, but if console wars start up again we could start seeing the partitioning of development teams and franchises like we did way back in the 6th generation w/ the PS2 and original Xbox. In this universe some of the highest grossing titles will leave Playstation consoles solidifying Xbox as the titular FPS console. How does Sony respond? They bring back and revamp old titles like Resistance Fall of Man and niche out there FPS genres. They would likely also go on an acquiring spree buying up companies like Konami, who are already rumored to be working w/ Sony to develop new Silent Hill titles, Capcom and Square Enix. Sony corners the horror and JRPG market entirely while Microsoft dominates the FPS realm. Who wins out in the end? We do. This could push both companies to innovate further into the genres they typically don’t associate as much with. We see more Microsoft horror exclusives like Bloober Team’s, The Medium and finally see Resistance Fall of Man and Killzone come back w/ Sony.

Where There is Unity There is Always Victory

Sony may see this massive deal coming through and decide to put their arms down. Console wars are coming to an end. The only logical next step is the Gaming Renaissance to follow. In this universe, Sony drops Playstation Plus and strikes a landmark deal with Microsoft to start allowing for franchise cross pollination. Exclusives become more rare, typically only be kept for massive single party titles like Halo or God of War, but maybe after a certain grace period they release on each console, potentially even integrating GamePass on PlayStation and allowing for titles to expand beyond their console limitations. We are already seeing this type of integration with each company right now. Microsoft is ever expanding their PC GamePass options and Sony is bringing some of their biggest titles to PC. Look at it this way. Sony is releasing games like Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War on PC on Steam which in the majority of households is run and operated on Windows software. Windows is a Microsoft owned property. These seeds are already being planted.

Regardless if I am right or wrong with either of my predictions, this deal is going to cause earthquakes in the gaming landscape. How Sony prepares for those earthquakes has yet to be seen, but we surely can expect some crazy shit to come from all of this. Oh and Nintendo won’t do a fucking thing in response. If Sony and Microsoft unite under some glorious gaming agreement, we may see Nintendo follow suit. Just in a decade or so.

~Zoltan Bob Has Spoken~