They said retire, he is only mid-50s so young to retire however with his wage an early retirement isn't crazy. Maybe ill health would explain the need for an interim CEO, but don't think he was fired for Acblizz stuff, as really nothing he could do to stop it outside what Sony already did do and despite all our bitching about the state of Playstation they are still doing well in terms of profit.
Profit is actually down, and the profit margins themselves are actually quite terrible when you compare them to nintendo, which makes the most sense as they're both hardware manufacturers as well as software publishers. They're still not in the red as long as they're not being funny with the numbers (which in all fairness, they have been sued for doing before), but they're being propped up from going into the red solely because they take a 30% cut of all microtransactions in 3rd party software purchased through psn. Every other aspect of the playstation division might as well be a pit where they burn money as part of a ritual sacrifice to keep playstation the de-facto home of the biggest and most aggressively monetized games like cod, fifa, fortnite, genshin, etc.
#RIPBOZO #PACKWATCH
If Microsoft wants to buy Nintendo, should Playstation sell itself to Apple?
They're saints compared to Sony & Microsoft, but yeah, not perfect.
Funny thing is there's more Apple exclusives than Sony ones that interest me lol. They'd be getting a dying brand. Maybe they could revitalize it but probably not.I was asking about a theoretical Sony-Apple partnership. Nintendo-Microsoft discussion is off topic sorry
What the fuck did you read to believe that Hall effect sticks are a worse tech than what we have currently? Hall effect sticks have less issues of their own that the current potentiometer sticks while alleviating a shitton of the issues of those.
I find it fascinating how a lot of modern technology is a step backwards from older tech while at the same time being more complex. CRTs have better motion and colours than modern displays, graphite potentiometers are a downgrade in pretty much every way to hall effect sticks, phones don't have headphone jacks, movies shot on film are higher quality than those shot on digital, 2d animation done on film has better colours and looks sharper than animation done on a computer. In the graphics department, TAA is a downgrade from MSAA, we now need to upscale everything using complex AI algorithms to get playable framerates, effects that used to just be done properly need to be faked with half sampling or dithering with frame smearing, like transparency.
I don't think a word can capture what your saying exactly, but the phrase "necessity is the mother of invention" kinda does. The constraints older technology and skillsets imposed on the engineer allowed for more creative solutions that often were more robust than the solutions we have with more able technology. It's like how older games from the PS1/PS2 era technically have worse graphics, less advanced controls and aren't as realistic while having more defined art styles and generally being better games than most modern ones.
"optimization"?
Thats a very rose tinted view of past games. Yeah, there was cream on the top but it was a thin layer with very dark, grossly moldy layers beneath it. Very few truly bad games are made these days and the ones that are are either cheap indy trash or multiplayer games with broken netcode. Back in the day you might buy a 50 dollar game based solely on box art only to find it unplayable or with only an hour's worth of content. It was also the pre-patch era so although there were fewer bugs in release builds, the ones that were there would not ever be fixed.
A hostile takeover is theoretically possible. This is something that Phil himself mused about in the leaked emails. Nintendo only owns about 10% of its own stock, far from a majority. Microsoft would only have to convince a majority of shareholders to sell out, seeing as Nintendo is a public company. Phil merely believed that attempting a hostile takeover wouldn't be a "good move" for Microsoft, probably more for antitrust issues and how high profile it would be than anything else. I don't know if Nintendo has any takeover defenses in place, like a poison pill, but, on the surface, an attempt at a hostile takeover is quite possible.
I agree with older games being not as good as I made them out to be, but modern games are most definitely shit. Your average 5th and 6th gen game was alright, not particularly great, but not bad. They did their job in being fun games you picked up and played for a few hours and then dropped. However, most modern games are not good. Indies are a mixed bag of quality. There are some great ones but most are just alright and there are some downright shit ones. AAA gaming is just as bad if not worse than the indie situation. Also, when it comes to bugs, most pre-patched vidya lack any truly game-breaking ones for the most part. There are still some that have them, but the fact that you couldn't just patch your game forced you to release a quality product on time, whereas we have games like No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2077, WWE 2020, Gollum, THPS 2015 and a whole host of other games in recent memory which have the "release now, patch later" mentality and it shows.
Wouldn't all those shareholders be Japanese? Why would they have faith that Microsoft would be able to sell Nintendo products when it's well known the Japanese public aren't big fans of gaijin consoles and haven't been ever since the MSX era? Hell, you would think Microsoft would learn this lesson during the time the Xbox and the Xbox 360 failed to make a mark in the Japanese market when they were relevant.
Its literally not possible due to the anti-trust issues. Or, perhaps, it would be allowed if MS were to divest Xbox and the Xbox marketplace to a third party. Problem: Xbox on its own is literally a net negative and nobody will be willing to buy it. And you can't just shut it down or spin it off into a nonviable company and keep the Switch 2 instead because that would still be seen as decreasing competition.
Actually, no, most of their shareholders aren't Japanese. In fact, this was mentioned in the leaked Microsoft email; one of Nintendo's more aggressive shareholders is ValueAct, who used to have representation on the Microsoft board of directors. The sixth largest shareholder in Nintendo is The Vanguard Group, who are American. The second largest is the Saudi prince owned Public Investment Fund. Foreign owners make up the majority of Nintendo's investors.
Theoretically, Microsoft would continue to sell products under Nintendo's name in Japan specifically to bypass this issue. Nintendo is seen as a Japanese brand, so the Japanese would still show loyalty to Nintendo even after a buyout. Not an uncommon tactic in acquisitions.
I noted in my comment that anti-trust issues would come up, and I noted that that, more than anything else is why Phil wouldn't push for Nintendo immediately.
More than likely, that would be a requirement for a tie up, yes.
I'm sure someone might be willing to buy it. If any company, like Steam, was looking to get involved in the sale of video game consoles, buying out Microsoft's Xbox business would make it easier to get their feet in the door.
Sure they could. There's nothing stopping them from spinning off the business if its draining money, or shutting it down wholesale. Microsoft can do whatever they want with their own business. If they were trying to buy Nintendo, they might even divest the business prior to any deal even being discussed or made public.
I read that more as Phil believing that Nintendo will flounder eventually simply because they can't compete with them and Sony. Of course, these emails are from 2020, before the Switch just utterly dominated the competition. The bigger issue Phil cited was that Nintendo has large cash reserves and a board that isn't interested in market growth or stock appreciation, so would be unlikely to even consider a merger in the first place. That's why he saw ValueAct increasing its holdings in Nintendo as a major opportunity, because they would put pressure on Nintendo's board regarding these things, creating opportunities for outside interests.
