Playstation being whiny again

 Sad days... sad days...

It is excessively difficult to feel bad for a company. You know, on account of them being a faceless monolith representative of hundreds to thousands of similarly faceless people in joyless identical suits that sit at desks and do slightly similar vectors of one overall job that they don't quite understand, because no one left in employment really does remember how it all fits together, but we do know that as long as everyone hits 'send' at the end of the day the company appears to stay solvent? (>phew< that was a mouthful!) But I find it even harder to feel bad for a company when the company in question just happens to be Sony, the makers of PlayStation, because how can you feel bad for people who vacuum up as much money money out of the backs of people as they do? Just recently I summarised that they are the secret architects of their own dwindling respect, and now I want to touch on the really elaborate play through which Sony are attempting to try and place themselves as the underdogs in a race they are winning.

First I was to elaborate; PlayStation is the best selling console... of this generation. Of course the Nintendo Switch has been around for much longer, is much cheaper and can actually be found in stores, so that console currently runs dusty rings around PlayStation and Xbox combined; but if we limit ourselves to the current generation then Sony is ahead of Microsoft by actual millions of consoles, it really is no competition. And that is because Sony have dedicated themselves to building a reputation of quality and exclusivity that has benefitted them extensively for years. A successful reputation, mind you. Not like when Ubisoft tries to convince us that they're a 'triple A' company by re-releasing that one game they made ten years ago with another paint job the team spent the past year making all shiny; PlayStation are the lions of the pride when it comes to console gaming. So when they try to play the scrappy small player in the big boy pool, it comes off a tad sanctimonious.

Which is kind of funny because, in a way, they actually are the small boys in this equation. Sony are one of the biggest companies in the world, no doubt; but Microsoft are titans. If Microsoft main ever cared enough to actually devote themselves to it, they could probably systematically destroy Sony simply through financial means. But then they'd up against anti-competition lawsuits and they'd have to pay those fines and that just about makes that unprofitable for the moment. That is literally all that is keeping the Microsoft dogs at bay, a line on a theoretical strategy spreadsheet that currently adds up in the red instead of the black. I figure if I was living under a sharp paw like that, maybe I'd get a little loopy from all the anxiety too. Who can say for sure what they'd say or do until they get trussed up like and presented to their predators like that?

I can tell you what Sony would do. They would whine. Incessantly. We've seen that first hand when it comes to Xbox's purchase of Activision which, whilst it's another big consolidation move in this wide industry of ours, when considering how evil the company of Activision regularly is, I think most normal people  are receptive to the idea of those executives getting some executive oversight of their own. But whereas everyone from the small consumers of the world, to the fellow companies who might be affected by this seismic shift to the landscape of gaming seem content with this movement, Sony are the sole dissenters who stand by their disdain. They complained about it before through the official channels when it came to ratifying the purchase for the various trade commissions of the world, and now they're whining about it in interviews.

Do you know how embarrassing that is? Filing an official complaint is it's own level of demeaning that can at least be justified by the fact that it's an official and painfully dry legal rebuttal document that they could have just safely assumed no one would ever read and a calculated business move when we really break it down. If they can help break up this deal, that'll be a solid win for Sony who can't possibly afford a purchase nearly as big to match the Activision buy out. What you can't beat in the light, can be undermined in the dark. But an interview is made with the expectation that this information is going to be spread, and you have to put out an actual human to pout and stamp their feet over the most inane and eye-rolling topics imaginable as though all their life revolves around maintaining the relationship that PlayStation has had with COD.

For those that don't know, Sony have been freaking out since the Activision purchase that Microsoft would take away COD from other consoles because, you know; that's exactly the kind of scummy move that Sony would have done in an instant if they were in this position. But COD is already licenced to offer PlayStation ports for the next few years, and after that Microsoft have revealed no exclusivity plans whatsoever. Not making COD exclusive would be very much in line with how Microsoft had handled these big genre defining games before, such as with Minecraft. Everybody can still play Minecraft; Microsoft would be the ones taking a financial hit if that were to ever change. But Sony are fearmongering for the worst possible ending because that gives them fuel to argue that this is all 'unconstitutional' or whatever their bloody problem is.

Playstation CEO Jim Ryan revealed that the company had actually conducted talks with Microsoft regarding the expanding future of COD and had actually received an offer, which Microsoft absolutely would not be required to do being the sole owners of Activision. Without going into specifics, Jim then went on to lambast Xbox calling the proposition "Inadequate on so many levels" like a literal entitled valley girl. So let's read between the lines a little here. 'A deal' implies that Microsoft are not, as we suspected, looking to cut off Sony completely from Call of Duty games in the future. And either they're blackmailing them for it's appearance, which sounds very unlikely given the heavy illegal ramifications that would incur if it were to ever come out into the light, or Microsoft are offering some sort of future where Xbox gets first dibs on maps, modes and maybe an exclusive feature here and there, but Playstation still gets its port. I think this is pretty likely, given how this is the exact relationship that Sony maintained with COD for the years before this deal!

That's the bit which gets to me, and the others in the online peanut gallery; Sony would have been ruthless in Microsoft's place at every step of the way. They would have cut off every other console completely cold turkey were it their decision, and they would have squeezed every bit of life out of Microsoft in order to make any sort of crossplay deal, but then they want to turn around and act like the aggrieved party when it suits them? They held their console exclusives back from the PC for years! The aggressively pushed for a ten dollar mark up to current generation games, and they tried to grift a pretty remaster as a full-blown remake under that same scandalous price tag. Everything about the way Sony has gone about business in the past two years has been 'inadequate on so many levels' and they have gall the size of Galactus' testes to try and turn around and say that they're getting raw-dogged simply because Microsoft wants to exercise some mild benefits over a franchise developed by a company they currently own. Get over yourself, Sony. You're making yourself into a mockery.