Microsoft buys Activision-Blizzard

I see a lot of people online saying xbox game pass might come to ps5. But I don't see how.

It's an xbox service. Yes, it's also on Windows which Microsoft also owns however. The whole point of the near 70 billion activision deal is 'hey, you wanna still play cod on console in a few years? Well you got to buy an xbox buddy'

Why would MS put gamepass on ps5? Why would Sony want GamePass if they are trying to push their own revamped ps now going forward?

For Microsoft, they're interested in selling Gamepass subscriptions more than selling the consoles. The consoles don't have a huge profit margin, are expensive to develop, and Gamepass would allow for cloud gaming which ties you into the Xbox/Microsoft ecosystem. Microsoft's aim is to move away from consoles and have it as a cloud gaming service accessible from TVs or a plug-in such as Stadia.

For Playstation, with Microsoft buying up some of the biggest franchises in gaming that could make people switch over to Xbox/Gamepass, especially considering the value of it and day one releases. So if they were to allow Gamepass on Playstation and take a cut of the subscription fee for those who use it on Playstation, they could make money and people would still stick with their PS5 so they could have the best of both worlds; Xbox's Gamepass and Playstation's exclusives.

However, allowing full Gamepass on PS5 would potentially take a big chunk out of sales of a lot of the third party games. Take for example last year when Hades was released on console, it was about €25 on PS5 and free on Gamepass, so if Gamepass was on PS5 why would anyone buy the game on PS5? People might also be inclined to wait to see if third party games come to Gamepass, and the huge library Gamepass has would provide enough content that people might not buy a lot of games on PS5 other than their first party exclusives.

I think if Gamepass were to ever come to PS5 it'd be a pared down version with Xbox-only games, so as to eliminate crossover and not cut into Sony's % from sales of other games. That to me seems the only way the two could co-exist.

If you compare to say Netflix and Disney+, there's very little crossover between the two. Films/shows are either on one or the other, rarely both (unless there's pre-existing deals in place). But subscription models for gaming is different, because while each has exclusives, the majority of games are third party multiplatforms.

Not surprising in terms of contracts being in place - and realistically I couldn't see 2023 releases being impacted if the deal is completed until mid 2023 anway.

Though I do always wonder about how contracts like that work - we have seen games go exclusive to a platform close enough to release so I wonder how a contract ties to release on a console non-exclusively. Would it actually be tied to the contract Sony have on CoD exclusives (maps etc iirc) rather than a commitment on just the actual game (ie. can't provide exlcusive map content without actually releasing on the console).

EDIT: Also, if the issue is actually tied to exclusive content then we will have a situation where not only is an Microsoft title on Playstation, but it has exlcusive content over the xbox version. Feels an even funnier situation than a Microsoft title being exclusive on Playstation.

The best version of the game will then be on PS5, not Xbox, while the mantra (on cross-platform games) from MS is that the best experience will be on Xbox. Unless they only do high frame rate and 4k or things like that on Xbox, to give themselves the argument.

At first glance I was thinking ah sure in 3 years nobody will be playing COD, then I remembered its nearly on its 20 year anniversary and shows no sign of stopping. Crazy to consider how much of a mainstay it really is and that its grown insanely in the last two years

Cold Wars campaign was actually very enjoyable, but the treyarch games tend to be like M.Knight Shyamalan films, in that there's always some twist towards the end that you can usually see a mile away.

Jesus, we agree on something...

Apologies if mentioned already in thread - I did not checked this.

BLizzard in Ireland (Avtivision) is looking for developers:

https://careers.activision.com/

Or C) cut a deal to have it on their platform.

It's not necessarily GamePass on PlayStation or bust.

Nobody knows what Microsofts strategy is with games that are wanted on or previously on PlayStation so it's impossible to rule anything out.

I don't think you understand what's happening at all. Its not being investigated because there's something dodgy or illegal. It's an antitrust review to ensure its not anticompetitive. And yes there is a risk.