Weekend Hot Topic: Gaming without Sony or Nintendo
Readers consider what they’d do if Microsoft and other large corporations were able to force out or acquire Nintendo and Sony.
The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Cranston and obviously inspired by the concerns surrounding Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which many fear will leave Sony and Nintendo unable to respond – simply because they’re smaller companies.
Opinions were divided as to how apocalyptic the situation is though, with half wanting to believe that gaming would continue largely as it is, but others worried that big business will slowly erode away its pleasures.
Soulful gaming Quite frankly, yes, I would give up gaming if Sony and Nintendo were no longer involved. I’m sure I’d play the odd indie game here and there, ideally on my phone, but without the two most important companies it’d be like ripping the heart out of the whole industry. I mean, without Nintendo who would Microsoft and whatever’s left (not much by the sound of it) copy?
The reason Microsoft is having to make all these massive purchases is because they have realised, far too late, that the core of a console manufacturer is not the hardware but the exclusives. The first party games they make set the tone, and the technical standards, for the whole format and without that you’re just left with soulless, personality-free tech, like the PC.
The Xbox has Halo and Gears Of War and that’s pretty much all in terms of headliners, and both those franchises are well past their sell by date, if you ask me. So from a business point of view, I can absolutely understand buying up companies like Activision Blizzard. But as has already been pointed out this only encourages a bidding war from other giant companies like
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