Destruction AllStars Dev Gobbled Up by Tencent Subsidiary

Loving this consolidation of the gaming industry. Thank you Microsoft!

@StrawberryTurtle Well, according to Microsoft, removing a competitor encourages competition. I don't know the logic either, but a lot of people stand by it.

@Jamesblob

You nailed it, my friend.

I'd much rather Tencent buy developers over Microsoft buying publishers, atleast whoever Tencent buy will continue to release games on playstation.

@Jamesblob Wow a post that isn’t reactionary and fearmongering about China. A rare sight. Agree with you said, for now at least. Let’s just hope Japan stays strong throughout this

Bad bad bad. Consolidation is stifling the industry.

@StrawberryTurtle Thank you Microsoft? This was happening before Microsoft when embracer group came out of no were and bought up 100ish odd developers.

@Jamesblob I understand your general point, but nothing Microsoft is doing is FORCING you to purchase a subscription. At all.

Making games available via subscription is NOT the same as ONLY making them available via that subscription. You can buy any title available in Game Pass independently of the subscription.

If you want to make a point, don't lie about it.

What's funny is if Destruction All Stars ended up being successful, I'd suspect that Sony would already have purchased them last year.

So who will be the last one standing? Microsoft or Tencent? Who will buy who? Since Microsoft is free to buy every company out there i can see them buy EA next. Yeah only Madden on Xbox.

@AverageGamer And Embracer Is Being Slowly Crushed Under The Weight of It To. The Same Will Happen To Microsoft As Well if they continue buying up everything.

It would be pretty hilarious if the game industry just imploded one day from all the consolidation, lol.

I know it gets tons of hate but Destruction All-Stars was actually pretty fun and really well put together. Besides taking forever to find a match my real only complaint is the cringe character’s.

@StrawberryTurtle I’m not talking about Tencent. I’m talking about embracer group who have bought how many publishers now? Along with massive IP like Middle-earth Enterprises.

@Areus And I’m not surprised that they are being crushed under the weight of it. TBH I don’t know where they are getting the capital to buy everything they have… We can at see where Microsoft is getting the money. Windows and those Military contracts bring in a lot of money.

Sony really need to buy square enix before tencent does.

Well goodbye Lucid I guess. Funding sure, much else not sure.

Then again while they made some fine stuff (even if I only recognise Geometry Wars 3) Destruction Allstars was fine but they clearly learned nothing from Blur

(even if a real car colourful street racing with weapons kart/futuristic racer kind of game, the ads even being a poke at Mario Kart even if Blur has more depth, heck many kart racers have more depth then mario kart but can't beat that 'personality' and 'pick up and play party fun' of mario kart at the end of the day) When people compare NFS Unbound and Blur for street personality it says something. Besides that Blur is a blast still and really fun.

Same with Split Second and many others of that time that only cult followings care for any most never looked at at all for the state of arcade racers/the push for sim racers more and more and well eh game design since eight gen onwards with them and the few arcade racers I've bought of Gravel (Milestone dev underrated anyways), OnRush and not many like the Lego 2K Drive, Hotwheels Unleashed is because I question their progression and 'fun factor' at all. I picked up Hotwheels for the Wii and it does just enough for me.

if they are ex-Bizzare Creations devs in there besides the other staff and well those at Playground or other studios doing their thing. If the devs or even Sony or the marketing team actually thought then just oh colourful and well a get out, get in vehicles approach while a good idea I won't deny (not the colours no teenager or kid cares for a battle royale or vehicular combat arena game anyone could see it a mile away it was going to flop besides the state of arcade racers and arena vehicle combat games in general dying or not doing it for customers.

I've never played anything other than Twisted Metal via the PS Classic so not a lot to go on (or hearing about Vigilante 8 or the underwater one or something).

I think OnRush is fine, on Xbox it feels like a MotorStorm third party game with a twist of a few things for event types and vehicle choices which for offline I'm happy with but I think any that say it's eh I mean I can say for other modes or the shops or whatever if that's a thing or not but I think many customers are harsh on arcade racers, sim racer fans have their heads above arcade racers

(besides that sim racers have their own problems of progression whether GT/Forza of iRacing, Assetto Corza, F1 and more either the progression sucks or you pay tons of money for individual assets it's ridiculous oh and online requirement to add more fun to the experience and all for ok execution, lot of effort in physics/tires and so on development then to the actual 'games' even Operation Flashpoint or the Army games probably have more effort put in and are more functional.

Licenses and buggy messes that mess with esports and uh that went over well when no other esports games outside the racing genre have issues with the games themselves) and futuristic racers have comeback with a cult following seeking them out while WipEout Rush exists on phones and no WipEout fan really cares there, a manager game is fine but on mobile there is plenty and I mean I'd play a better manager game for sports/racing or even Gran Turismo 4 to 6 if I cared for B Spec).

Racing/vehicle arena games are a mess right now. YTbers/Streamers make content on old games with mods/challenges because current gen ones have 1 and done structures to them, not just nostalgia. Fans love it. I watch many of those videos/attempt the challenges myself sometimes or games I've never heard of.

So either way is it customers? Is it the devs focusing on trends too much, it's a bunch of possible factors.

I mean a Twisted Metal may have survived enough on brand name and fans if done well besides a tv show with who knows quality I guess but who wanted a game about coloured arena battles compared to something gritty and down and dirty. A cage match kind of angle that makes a lot more sense then what they actually made. Even Rigs made more sense as a mech combat sport type PSVR game.

@Jamesblob I can guarantee that you're wrong.

I feel like destruction All-stars fate will come to every Sony's live service game

@StrawberryTurtle Pretty confident in saying Tencent would be doing this even if Microsoft never existed or if Microsoft disappeared tomorrow.

You should see everything Tencent has acquired in the last few years, sometimes by force! While Microsoft screams from the rooftops every time they acquire someone Tencent does it sneakily in the cover of night.

More trash for the fire. No idea why sony backed that game.

@UltimateOtaku91 that's an awful take. You don't want China having any kind of domain over the industry just so you can have one more thing to play. What ever gets released will have to go through China's tyrannical policies, censorship, and propaganda machine. Companies in China are not separate entities from the government. Kind of the standing rule with communism. So no. Its better Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Square, Embracer Group, Meta, and a thousand other companies buy out a studio so long as it isn't tencent.

I kid you not I'd buy an Xbox before I'd ever stand behind a backwards and unformed position like the one you just took.

@AverageGamer If you understood the relationship between communist governments and corporations, you'll find the line pretty thin. The people's republic of China is buying that studio to gain more control over what you're playing. Tencent really doesn't generate the money for big acquisitions.

FTC and CMA super worried about acquisitions unless it is Tencent's monitoring operations. Then it is A-GO!

@StrawberryTurtle Sony has bought 90 percent of their studios

Until all are one and owned by China!

@UltimateOtaku91 that's a really bad take buddy. You would prefer china to censor your games? You would prefer the Chinese government to control the gaming industry, just because they are not Microsoft?

I can understand people's worry with Microsoft owning ABK, but to then go full on bananas and start promoting Tencent, a subsidiary of the Chinese government, is a really bad look

@NotSoCryptic Don’t know what China has to do with my comment about Embracer Group.

@Sakai I understand why some people feel that way but for me personally so far I haven't seen that happen with any of Tencents purchases, and that goes for epic games who they practically own.

@Toot1st There's a difference between buying studios with 0 IPs and buying whole publishers with some of the biggest IPs in gaming. Dumb take.

@StrawberryTurtle Are you new in the industry? Tencent was gobbling studios way before Microsoft purchased Bethesda or ABK...

They bought Riot in 2015, bought 40% of Epic Games in 2015, bought Supercell in 2016, Funcom in 2019, Yager in 2020 and Leyou (which Sony wanted to buy) in 2020.

But yeah. Let's blame Microsoft....Jesus Christ, get a grip.

@UltimateOtaku91 *****. They own 40%. Sweeney still holds more then 50% of company. So Tencent is in Epic Games basically for profit...

@Godot25 Don't know half of those studios, aside from Epic which they don't own.

@StrawberryTurtle "I don't know them" doesn't mean they are not big.
Riot is maker of League of Legends and Valorant. First is one of the biggest games on the planet. Supercell is one of the biggest companies in mobile gaming (it was biggest purchase in gaming industry before ABK and Zynga). And Epic has Fortnite. Funcom is huge in MMO and currently developing Dune: Awakening and Leyou ownes multiple gaming studios.

Also, number of companies Tencent ownes is way higher. I just posted few of them.

But please continue to blame Microsoft for fact that Tencent is gobbling game industry from 2015

@StrawberryTurtle there is also a difference in a competitor at the bottom of the market buying acquiring ips to the market leader. i am assuming you are too young to remember Sony using their money to buy all the rights to games putting Sega out of business. Take you fanboy glasses off.

@Godot25 So, a company that makes games for PC and a mobile gaming company. Why should I care? I care about the console market.

@Toot1st Oh yes, poor trillion dollar company at the bottom of the market. So sad. Sega killed itself, Sony just helped the process. We can talk about how Xbox only exists today because they stole their biggest IP from Apple.

@UltimateOtaku91 they don't practically own epic, they are not even the majority shareholder. Again you really are taking a very wierd stand with this. The Chinese government are your preferred custodians of the gaming industry, and everything that entails, just because they are not Microsoft. Very short sighted. Bananas.

@StrawberryTurtle And that is not consolidation?
So let me get this straight. Consolidation is okay, unless it is about companies that are making console games?

Not to mention the fact that you implied in first post that it's Microsoft's fault that Tencent is buying companies left and right and when I corrected you, you just moved the goalposts.

How surprising.

But on the other hand not surprising. Nobody made big deal out of consolidation when Take-Two bought Zynga, when Embracer was buying studios left and right or when Tencent is buying companies left and right. It's just Microsoft when it is a problem...

@Godot25 If you can't understand the difference between buying studios here and there, with mostly 0 or 1 IPs and publishers with some of the biggest IPs in the market then I don't know what to tell you. Nobody cared when Xbox bought indie studios. They bought Bethesda and tbh people moved on pretty quickly. So no, no one is going "Microsoft can't but Tencent and Embracer can". You have to look at what they buy. The fact is Microsoft open the gates for publishers to be bought, and now even Sony is probably looking at some of them. So yes, I can blame Microsoft.

@Sakai My comment was based purely from a playstation gamers perspective without the politics surrounding it. You either have studios go to one company who will still release all future games on your console, or they go to another company who won't release future games on your console. Without the political BS which one are you picking?

Tencent own Riot who do some huge games and they are doing well and millions play those games especially Valorant and League of Legends. Since buying them I've seen no negative press about it or any problems about identity theft etc

From a gaming stance I have yet to see no reason not to trust Tencent. Obviously that would change if I ever found out they were leaking our data from these games.

@StrawberryTurtle So what?
If Sony can afford publisher, let them buy one. It's business.
If you are worried about "industry consolidation" then you should care even about Tencent, Embracer, Take-Two etc.

Because right now if you care about games, Embracer's expansion is way more harmful then Microsoft's because they are already in need of restructuring and layoffs thanks to their f***edup strategy of "buy everything."

But if you care about your own self-interest (ie. I would not be able to play XYZ game because Microsoft bought Bethesda), at least stop pretending you care about gaming at large.

@Godot25 Let's see what happens to people on Activision and Blizzard when Microsoft completes the acquisition. Do you really believe they won't layoff people? I much rather see Sony buy studios that have talent but not that much money then seeing them buy Capcom, Square, etc.

"Embracer ***** up strategy of buy everything" isn't that what Microsoft is doing?

@StrawberryTurtle Stupid comment. Microsoft didn't start the rush for acquisitions. If you want to talk facts, Sony started this many years ago.

In reality though,Tencent, Amazon, Google and Meta are the ones to worry about.

@StrawberryTurtle You are saying this like ABK did not layoff people in the past

But there is a huge difference between strategic layoffs, like Microsoft, Sony, Take-Two and EA did recently and huge need for restructuring thanks to uncontrolled expansion like Embracer.

Microsoft is clearly not employing strategy of "buy everything" like Embracer. Their purchases are calculated and have sense. Bethesda was bought to bolster up first-party portfolio and to make Xbox and Game Pass as attractive as possible by providing content that you can't find anywhere else.
ABK is being bought for live service money from Call of Duty, Diablo, WOW and Overwatch (ABK is making 2+ billion in profits per year) and also to break into mobile gaming thanks to COD Mobile, Diablo Immortal and Candy Crush.

It's same as Sony identified weakness in live service, so they bought Bungie. That's called "strategic investment" that has huge purpose.

Embracer just bough everything they could (studios, IPs etc) without direction and "will it make money" answers.

@Godot25 Microsoft was literally buying every indie studio that had 1 hit game.

@__jamiie Already responded to this argument two times, you can scroll and read it.

@StrawberryTurtle I'm really not that interested in what you have to say to read all the incorrect comments you've made.

@__jamiie So mean 😔

@Godot25 If their purchases are calculated and make sense, why are Bethesda games not on PlayStation but ABK games will apparently be? And why was Redfall such trash? Microsoft cannot develop anything close to PlayStation quality. Their moves are more of desperation than anything.

@StrawberryTurtle For example? You mean Playground? Ninja Theory? Double Fine?

@Suda51ueda Because Bethesda was bought to bolster Xbox ecosystem. And why would you release your games on PlayStation if you want people to buy Xbox consoles/subscribe onto Game Pass? ABK is just pure moneymaker. COD will be on PlayStation because there would not be enough users to migrate from PlayStation to Xbox to offset the loss since it's yearly release. Which is not true for any Bethesda game.

Redfall was unfortunate situation all around. Game "forced onto" Arkane Austin by Bethesda and it clearly shows. I agree that Microsoft should have cancelled it. But it is what it is.

Devolver Digital was right.

@Godot25 Fallout 4 moved almost twice as many copies during its first week on PS4 than Xbox one and Fallout 76 was saved when it was given away free on PSPlus so like I said, their moves don’t make any sense. Bethesda games sell better on PlayStation. Sony had a year exclusivity deal in place for Starfield and that is why Microsoft swooped in. It’s out of desperation. It won’t be long before we se Bethesda games back on PlayStation because gamepass bleeds money, or else we’ll eventually see ABK games leave PlayStation to bolster gamepass. It’s either you put everything on Gamepass exclusively or everything multi platform.

@Suda51ueda Game sold better on platform that moved more consoles? Color me shocked.
Of course it makes sense. You are forgoing sales of Bethesda games on PlayStation platforms in hope that you will sell more Xbox consoles/Game Pass subs that will compensate for those lost sales.
For example...if Starfield will earn Microsoft 1 million long term Game Pass subs and thanks to game's exclusivity they will sell 2 million Xbox consoles that they would otherwise not sold if game was multiplatform, it is well worth it for Microsoft.

Or do you think that Sony would not sell more copies of Spider-Man, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon and TLOU2 if they released those games on Xbox? They are also forgoing sales to boost their own platform. It's how exclusives works forever.

But with Call of Duty that does not makes sense since it is yearly release. So money that you would have to sacrifice because of exclusivity would be way higher that money new Xbox customers would bring. Not to mention you are risking fact that you will "kill" mainstream popularity of COD by making it not available on all possible platforms.

It's just math. Bethesda games will be exclusive because it makes economic sense for Microsoft. Call of Duty will stay multiplatform because of same economic sense. Minecraft stayed multiplatform because it made economic sense.

Also. You have probably missed it, but even CFO of Xbox and Microsoft confirmed that Game Pass is profitable currently...So much for your "bleeding money" Game Pass is currently earning almost 1 billion per quarter (ie. 4 billion per year) according to Microsoft's CEO.

Ok, Phil Spencer’s personal assistant. I don’t think they said it was profitable,4 billion a year doesn’t offset the cost of all of the game development. Now they’re going to have to pay to develop COD as well, so the cost will go up. Sony can eventually stop advertising COD on PSN in order to kill the sales and develop a competitor that they can get 100% revenue out of instead of the 30% from COD.