We can assume there will be a next Halo, of course, but the brighter days of that franchise are behind us not ahead.

I'll take "things even Cows would have said about God of War 2 years ago" for 500 Alex.

Would you play a Halo spinoff game, that was developed by Quantic Dream/David Cage, that was based on the "Hunt the Truth" audio series, with Keegan Michael Key in the lead role, reprising his role in the former?

Its weird seeing Cows on the eve of a God of War refresh thats 95 on metacritic, a series thats been embattled with the same criticism for several years, floating the idea that there is no more room for Halo, a series who's last installment is rated higher on Metacritic than this new God of War's predecessor. Using the same retoric that even some cows would have used to describe the God of War series just 2 years ago.

There is plenty they can do with the series, and with the series rich lore, thats not even limited to just FPS games.

Platinumed Dark Souls 3, beat every game but Demon's Souls.

I dont believe for a second that these are "Playstation 5" devkits, nor that we will see a proper 9th gen console before 2021-2022. And if we do, either company would be incredibly stupid.

This is most likely a PS4 "Pro 2"

I just got into (or rather, I am almost finished beating) Persona 5.

I almost want to pick up the cheapest used Vita 1000 model I can find just to play Persona 4 golden now, if that game doesnt get ported.

Im not going to do that, mind you, but goddamn that game lit a fire under my ass to do so.

My rationale for the terms "Hard Power" and "Soft Power" are as follows:

Hard Power = The ability to wield Influence through the use of Raw capital (cash, and the means of generating it)

Soft Power = The ability to wield influence through the use of Cultural capital (high value intellectual property, cultivating goodwill/mindshare)

Microsoft has long been criticized (in different words) for its focus on hard power over soft power. We've seen this since last gen, their practice of "moneyhatting" everyone, prioritizing timed exclusive deals, DLC, Microtransactions, Xbox Live revenue, and Halo/Gears/Forza over 2nd party partnerships, acquiring 1st party studios, and/or incubating their own.

This Hard/Soft power allocation problem, is one that Microsoft shares with EA, but to a lesser extent. Thus, it stands to reason that if Microsoft were going to gamble this big on bolstering their first party, they would choose soft power canidates, like Valve and PUBG Corp.

Valve and Nintendo are examples of companies with massive amounts of soft power in this industry. Sony too to a lesser extent. As another user posted, they might be more of a liability than an asset.

While Valve and PUBG make sense, the EA rumor is absolutely preposterous. Its so asinine, it should not even be entertained. There is nothing Microsoft could possibly have to gain by purchasing EA.

EA's brand value in this industry is based mostly in "hard power". They dont have very much "soft power" (ie. high value intellectual property, gamer mindshare/goodwill) that could be married to and associated with the Xbox brand. Microsoft is already awash in hard power. Microsoft needs soft power. To that end, like a poster on the first page mentioned, if we're going this far fetched, both SEGA and CAPCOM make more sense than EA.

Companies that would make sense for Microsoft to purchase (based on having a history of working closely with MS) would be:

Crytek-Microsoft was actually going to purchase them during the original Xbox days, but they were working on Crysis 1, and MS didnt want another space marine FPS to compete with Halo. They could buy Crytek and attempt Ryse's concept again, but not as a salvaged Kinect game by a Kinect shovelware team at Crytek, that was scrapped and retooled last minute by Crytek Frankfurt (their A team), then rushed out the door to be an Xbox One launch game.

Epic Games - Fortnite and Paragon are the only thing they've made since Gears. I would love to see those Samaritan/infiltrator demos turned into a full game.

Bungie

Remedy

Respawn

This is nothing. There has never been a more jarring shift in paradigm as going from PS2>PS3 during the 6th generation.

Going from Sony being the hegemonic default controlling 75% of the market, to fighting tooth and nail for 12.5%, to getting the worst version of multiplats and PS3 games lacking full support, to 360 becoming the default 3rd party platform.

Nothing comes close. Not even Xbox One's awful reveal and the following years. At least with Xbox One's reveal, we had the benefit of having seen the precedent set by Sony's failure the previous gen, so we went into it with more confidence that they could turn it around. The brand's future was never up in the air, and no major 3rd party publishers were threatening to outright end support for the platform, like we saw with PS3.

When Sony failed with the PS3, it was far more jarring because it lacked precedent. It was the equivalent to North Korea and the United States literally reversing places, and North Korea becoming the #1 global superpower next month completely out of nowhere.

I remember the beginning of the gen when Sony and Cows were blaming Microsoft for their policy of being closed and refusing cross-play. They blamed MS for Rocket League not having it, and Final Fantasy 14 A Realm Reborn was console exclusive because MS wouldnt let cross play happen.

Then, they changed their mind, and Sony is nowhere to be found.