The Abridged Videogaming History of Big-Money Buyouts & Mergers

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00:00 70s
02:17 80s
05:18 90s
08:28 2000's
17:42.2010s
19:38 2020s
Table Tennis footage: • Magnavox Odyssey Table...
Tennis for Two footage: • Tennis For Two - The s...
Skate or Die: • Skate or Die! (C64 Lon...
SimCity 2000: • Video
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This video uses music from Epidemic Sound

[@justderp5713]

Can’t wait until George gets bought by Kojima Productions and exclusively streams himself singing Snake Eater drunk

[@3isr3g3n]

Hey, i'd watch that

[@agnafrei]

@@3isr3g3n i second that.

[@justderp5713]

@@agnafrei kzbin.info/www/bejne/ap-UpHyNlLmqpJY

[@XxSomeGamerxX]

Slap in a chopstick noodle dipper & we might be onto something!

[@salmaanzhang3001]

I'M STILLL IN A DREAMMMM OF THE SNAKE EATER

[@JacobGeller]

Fascinating contextualization, thank u King

[@just_kait]

oh, hey, Jacob.

[@williamrutherford553]

@@just_kait oh, hey, kait.

[@MiniMackeroni]

Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard-King.

[@TommyVercettisGamingNews]

Bullfrog!

[@TheWebMaster179]

You know what could have also been a good way to fill up parts of the video? scenes of the first stage of Spore, where organisms kept eating each other to become larger and abrorb even bigger organisms.

[@Mandarin9900]

Exactly!

[@thediabeetle4806]

I'd love to know how much mileage George has gotten out of the Noodles Dipping Into Bowl footage lol. Also, when new Dad & Sons??

[@asianbronyman]

IIRC he said the podcast was on hiatus for a while. No idea when or if it comes back.

[@sammadden5540]

@@asianbronyman Matt must of taken the NFT stuff really personally 😐

[@asianbronyman]

@@sammadden5540 There was definitely a lot of notable tension during that episode but I don't wanna speculate too much.

[@LightPink]

What's that?

[@asianbronyman]

@@LightPink Dad and Sons is a podcast George does/did for several years

[@SirJonSoda]

25 minutes of "this industry is doomed" and "aw, so cute!"

[@king_big_pp]

My takeaway was more like "Everything is doomed and this industry is a good example of it."

[@MechaTamago]

Its how he is numbing our pain

[@mezarisage6055]

I have a (slightly) more optimistic view, companies will spring up, get successful, get bought out, become stale and die and new companies will spring up to take their place, the first gen of videogame developers weren't all that different from a lot of the indie devs of today.

[@putinstea]

doomed? hardly.

[@Ironclad17]

Not the industry, just big dumb AAA. Indie's are doing better then ever.

[@spoonkies]

I work in investment banking M&A, and we’re incentivized to make acquisitions and mergers for seemingly no reason sometimes - that’s how we drive big fees and that’s how companies inorganically grow. Video games aren’t regulated in the same way that telecoms or utilities are (since it is a discretionary consumer good) so there’ll be more and more consolidation until the industry basically becomes a giant company that has a monopoly, like google over sesrch

[@saisameer8771]

Search engines and video games are not the same. Search engines only need to do one thing as efficiently as possible. Video games are way more diverse.

[@spacejunk2186]

except google is not a monoply either. Monopilies rarely grow organically.

[@moonknightish]

You can't really have a monopoly on art. Even if that one big company would make different genres and different games for everyone, there will always be a public dissatisfied with casualization of the games and wanting for different, more niche, experience. There will always be a place in the market for studios independent from that company

[@greenredblue]

I would argue that search engines (or more generally, websites and online platforms) and video games are fundamentally different products because websites are service monoliths that benefit heavily from the network effect to supercharge consolidation. Only MMOs are analogous to this, other video games tend to be perceived as individual, discrete products, so game companies don't really lock-in their customers in the same way. Which is not to say that your ultimate conclusion is off, it's just that it's not a great comparison.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

@@greenredblue Even then google has some competition even if it's pretty bad competition

[@danlei88]

As a rule of thumb, the B Roll shouldn't be this engaging. I have no idea what you were talking about while there was a PUPPY on the screen.

[@yourbellboy]

😂

[@chastermief839]

i noticed that as well. it felt like the most dense and jargon-heavy parts of the script were given no visual aid at all and instead given a distraction. kind of unfortunate but i guess the video as a whole is pretty dry so it's not a huge deal.

[@wiseguy8828]

That dog was enjoying the petting soooo much, it was adorable. Also, acquisitions happen or something.

[@ohmygoditisspider7953]

It was really bad for my ADD. And like I know I have this problem it happens at work all the time too. I want to pet that pup

[@jak-A127]

So true.

[@0uttaS1TE]

It's still strange to me to think of a time when Square and Enix were separate entities at one point. Same with Bandai Namco. From an early age, I always saw the logos with their names together and thought that was how it always was. Occasionally I'd see Bandai as a separate name but I always thought that was some subsidiary

[@W1ndF4lc0n]

You're just very young.

[@0uttaS1TE]

@@W1ndF4lc0n Yeah, basically. I'm sure my little brother will have a similar moment with Activision Blizzard

[@yourbellboy]

i had a similar realization before, and it scares me 😓 countless people live without knowing an era of media before 🌱 corporate mergers

[@dedecoVGMDJ]

Namco was THE BEST

[@2ndbleak]

I only remember because my favorite (and arguably the best) SNES action RPG Terranigma only had the Enix logo at the start. Amazing company really

[@poiumty]

Ah, the first gaming console: the o-skill-o-scope.

[@GlowingOrangeOoze]

who knew Gamer branding reached all the way back to the '50s

[@asj3419]

The gaming tektronix portable o-skill-o-scope 4208 * Support for signals up to 2MHz for fast reactions. * High resolution XY-plot with Z (brightness) axis. * Configurable external trigger for time-domain gaming. * Sequenced multicolored bulbs for a rave experience * Sticker pack

[@ratlinggull2223]

no skill noscopes

[@massivepileup]

The "rest of the world's football" games market isn't exactly vibrant either, you got FIFA and whatever mess Konami is making now in terms of action games, then there's the football manager genre and maybe some super arcadey ones occasionally but it's pretty much a FIFA monopoly at this point.

[@revenger210]

it's similar in the motorsport world tbh, codemasters has the exclusive license for Formula 1, and from 2023 they'll own the WRC license (which up until now has been under a different company), whereas in the 90s and early 2000s it was possible to get licenses and create your own formula or rally game w some cars and drivers. It's very cutthroat a business

[@0uttaS1TE]

@@revenger210 Tbf, that is still somewhat the case. The Dirt series made it 5 entries and 3 spinoffs without much in the way of FIA branding (you could argue that Rally 1 and 2 had the FIA RX championship licence but noone cares about RX, lets be real). You can still make a rally game without that. Hell, you can be pretty successful at it. And you have games like GT Sport which allow for something close to F1 with their inclusion of Super Formula and non-brand Dallaras. But yeah, those don't really feel like the real thing, and it shows. It feels like as the world moves to consolidation, sports and racing titles will be exclusive to larger corps, cos those guys are the only ones who have the money to licence the teams, the names, the manufacturers, as well as fund sound recording sessions, or track day visits.

[@otto_jk]

All hail Football manager

[@Graknorke]

@@0uttaS1TE Yeah it's not like they have the rights to the games, just the representation of the real world teams & players. If your game can stand without that then it absolutely has a chance.

[@shawklan27]

Well that's fucking depressing at least it isn't as bad as the madden, nhl, nba2k and mlb situation

[@TheOverpow3red]

This is the quality, niche nerd-stuff that I sub to this channel for, love your stuff.

[@marciamakesmusic]

This is the opposite of niche

[@Lilliathi]

@@marciamakesmusic You're correct, but it shouldn't be. If all people understood basic economics, this crap wouldn't fly.

[@MA-qu3hi]

@@marciamakesmusic pedant

[@knasigboll]

"Square enix moved headquarters based on advice from a fortuneteller" Holy shit, how could the CEO honestly think this was a good idea, and even if it was, not consider how badly it would damage the trust in his leadership LMAO

[@marciamakesmusic]

Wait until you find out that Ronald Reagan took advice from a psychic while he was president

[@NathanCassidy721]

If you think that’s crazy then you should look up that time the CEO of FedEx once took all of his investment funds to Vegas and gambled it in hopes of raising enough money to keep the business running until they could find new investors. Long story short, it paid off.

[@Dyknown]

@@NathanCassidy721 FedEx was out of money, he figured the gamble was his last throw. Not sure Square’s excuse.

[@thepuzzlemaster64]

I mean Hiroshi Yamauchi (Nintendo's old CEO) was also kind of wack, but it somehow worked for him almost every time so...

[@bagandtag4391]

If it led to him getting fired maybe it was the right move for Square Enix itself 🤔

[@RFieth]

Praise be, the animatronic noodle bowl is back!

[@agnafrei]

I was waiting for that footage the whole time... Should have opened with it so I can stop expecting. Nice vid nonetheless

[@galacticspecter4364]

Activision really kept the same logo since 1979, that’s impressive

[@Ce0ammer]

Kept the attitude towards women as well! That's repulsive.

[@3DGECASE]

In the late '80s and early '90s, they had a different logo, before returning to the original when Bobby Kotick saved the company from the brink of death. EDIT: The other logo was from circa 1984-88, way earlier than I remembered. Bobby was not involved. I thought I was going crazy as most of the games from '88-91 that I thought had that logo did not.

[@aarrondias9950]

@@Ce0ammer did I ask?

[@buvankirthik8]

@@aarrondias9950I asked

[@m.f.3347]

​@@aarrondias9950nigga it's a KZbin comment section who cares if you asked

[@Sentay0]

The combination of cute sweet pupperino, playing with a ball, and loving life; and George's proselytizing of the giga market that swallows all, where human beings are crushed between the gears of industry is like the video equivalent of a screwdriver (1 part sweet orange juice, 1 part heavy acrid vodka) and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[@yourbellboy]

lmao excellent comment 😄

[@evil_yami]

and the noodles. can't forget the noodles,

[@adams3627]

There are still people who swear by the last "ESPN 2k" football game because the quality of Madden fell off SO QUICKLY after the EA monopoly deal.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

Only on next gen consoles. Madden '06-'08 on PS2/GC/XBox were still great. Even passionate modern Madden haters like SoftdrinkTV swear by them.

[@HatsMcHats]

Wish we could have good things like George's videos again.

[@NathanCassidy721]

That point George made about Game Pass is exactly what happened with PlayStation Plus. A console “service” that was widely considered a good deal in the early 2010s that wound up raising their prices. With every corporation it’s not if they are going to screw you over, it’s when.

[@Graknorke]

a profit seeking firm will aim to sell their products at the highest price the market will bear, that's just the nature of markets

[@VashdaCrash]

@@Graknorke That's what they taught me on marketing politics class about setting prices, it's not like "asking as much as they are willing to offer" is a secret in business.

[@mjc0961]

Ended up raising their prices _and_ put more features of the console behind the paywall. I will never forget that online gaming on PS3 was free but when PS4 rolled around, they put online gaming behind PS+. And they got away with it because so many fanboys refused to complain because "I'm subscribed already because it's such a good value, I don't care" Yeah then Sony jacked up the price, offers game rentals for less platforms, and the number and quality of games offered keeps going down.

[@samzilla567]

With how much money Microsoft bled for the Activision purchase, and knowing they'll probably never see that money made back until the end of the decade, I won't be shocked if Game Pass gets bumped up to $30 per month in the coming years.

[@HalfpennyTerwilliger]

@@samzilla567 We'll see but I'm doubtful whatever price will seem outlandish at the time . First because Gamepass has competitors within the gaming space such as EAPlay, Ubisoft+, NSO, the next version of PS+, and whatever comes next from other publishers. Second, because as a leisure subscription, Gamepass is also in competition with Netflix HBO Max, Disney+, Paramount+, NBC Peacock, etc. And god knows what else since subscription model is becoming ubiquitous. Whatever price Gamepass will reach has to be within the same space as those or people will compare, cancel and go somewhere else. You don't need a $30 Gamepass if you can fill your time with two or three other subscriptions for the same money. It will only reach $30 when the others are there as well, and then they may well all price themselves out depending on the current size of our wallets/available time. I cancelled my Gamepass subscription a year ago because my backlog is big enough I couldn't justify it even for $1 a month.

[@Jose-se9pu]

10 years from now, Disney, Amazon, and AT&T are going to own EVERYTHING, anyway...

[@StefanLopuszanski]

I did some of my thesis work on the history of mods. The giant corporations just take successful mods and buy them out or steal the idea and improve and market it. That repeats over and over.

[@ElTequilla]

Which company besides Valve has actually had a pattern of that?

[@StefanLopuszanski]

@@ElTequilla : Blizzard, Riot, Valve, EA, Epic, etc. Upcoming companies too like Odyssey and Hidden Leaf.

[@ElTequilla]

Ok but some specifics maybe? Like I know that "secret weapons" for BF 1942 was originally a mod, but as I understand the makers themselves were on board with that .

[@StefanLopuszanski]

@@ElTequilla : Blizzard (HotS, Hearthstone: Battlegrounds, Hearthstone: Mercenaries), Riot (League of Legends, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics), Valve (Dota 2, Dota Underlords, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike), EA (Dawngate / subsidiary games), Epic (Fortnite, Paragon), Odyssey (Project P), Hidden Leaf (FANGS), and so on. Most of them come from either AoS / "MOBA" mods, auto-battler mods, tower defense mods, FPS mods, or lesser known mods for old StarCraft and/or WarCraft 3 maps. There's a ton of hidden gems out there from the mod community that are incredibly innovative and well designed that people haven't picked up on. Probably quite a few I'm missing, but there are a LOT out there. It is a really cyclical nature of mods coming out then big corps seeing their success and using that to jumpstart their own game. Very rarely is an entirely new genre or gameplay created by AAA companies because it is very costly R&D and very risky. You can look up my paper if you want to read some more on the topic.

[@firstkiller12]

@@StefanLopuszanski How can i read your paper?

[@panterxbeats]

miss u

[@doooofus]

intellectual property is such a meme, its sad to see so many people get taken in by the myth that this redistributes any real power to creators and innovators rather than being a tool for those with the deepest pockets to sweep up even more wealth

[@VashdaCrash]

This. Even in this video is stated that creators only get early retirement and they take it instead of keep working, it's not like they have other choices.

[@ImCurrentlyNaked]

It did at one point, the problem is that companies are all too willing to bend laws to their benefit, and politicians are all too willing to be paid to allow them to do that. What was the original Copyright limit? 15 years? Totally reasonable. Hell, what it got extended to whilst still seeming reasonable makes it seem somewhat paltry. Now we have the artist's life +70 years which goes against one of the very principles of copyright laws (ensuring derivative work and inspired works can continue being made). That said, even corporations can only go so far, and we'll soon be getting the biggest offender of corporate greed's mascot; Mickey Mouse... So I guess that shows that the system may be borked, but it still works? We should be seeing intellectual property slowly trickling into the public domain before it absolutely starts flooding in at some point. Anyway, the main reason I wrote this was because I found out today someone patented the "3 point" comb over hairstyle in the 70's... And you said intellectual property is a meme

[@killerbee.13]

@@ImCurrentlyNaked Disney has indeed been the main company pushing that limit ever greater. Several times over, a few years before their oldest copyrights would expire, they lobbied Congress to extend the protection retroactively. I think the only reason why they've finally stopped is because the internet and how it helped turn public sentiment against them, especially with the reaction to SOPA and similar bills. Also, the demand even for classics eventually dies down so I don't think that these very old copyrights are as valuable as they used to be. Disney has worked very hard to stop that trend with their movies, but I can't imagine that even they are able to stop it entirely.

[@ImCurrentlyNaked]

@@killerbee.13 "the demand even for classics eventually dies down"- I don't argue with that, but it's the ability for creator's to take and remix/remake/remodel this previous work into something new, and not even something that specifically resembles the previous work, but is similar enough to warrant legal worries (think dragon ball and Journey to the west, or star wars and its inspirations). Sherlock Holmes' most famous stories were, in fact, not written by Sherlock's creator, but by the fan fiction writers of that era. It's these kinds of things the copyright laws have killed, but I think we'll see slowly come back as the floodgates of copyrighted material open within the next few decades. The works may be old, but that doesn't mean creators won't be inspired to do modern things with them.

[@killerbee.13]

@@ImCurrentlyNaked oh, that's not what I was saying at all. I definitely agree that it's valuable for authors to be able to use older stories. It's important to be able to reference and retell old stories, and many of them become cultural touchstones. Old works have a huge amount of cultural value and that's why the public domain is so important. I'm just saying that copyrights eventually lose *monetary* value *to their owners*, and that's part of why the copyright term has finally stopped expanding endlessly. It seems it'll stay at the current term of life+50yr to life+70yr. I actually think it should in fact be brought *way* back, to about 15 years, if it even needs to exist at all, and that, even on top of the cultural value, that would be better for most authors financially.

[@dieppat]

I find the lack of mention of Valve particularly interesting in this video. I was thinking about it while he was talking about how the founders won’t want to run the company forever, etc. What will happen when Gaben dies? I don’t look forward to that day.

[@Unrea6lMe]

I think Bungie will be a really interesting studio to look back on in several years. They built Microsofts brand-defining franchise with Halo, partnered with Activision for a decade to build Destiny (though afaik Bungie owns that IP), and now they're with Sony to ostensibly fund some next big project (or maybe Sony's offer was just too good to pass up?). As a sidenote: I think as long as publishers like Devolver and studios like Supergiant can continually deliver fantastic games, there will always be somewhere to go when factory-farmed mega-blockbusters seem to dominate.

[@JimJava007]

I assumed Sony bought them because they wanted to disseminate all that "live service"-making expertise into their company, especially ahead of getting their subscription service going.

[@adams3627]

Devolver and its ilk will grow and grow until they look juicy enough for the big companies to acquire, their IPs will be squeezed for all they're worth and then discarded unless one of them becomes a cultural touchstone like, say, Halo, and the engine will continue to grind on. Another indie publisher will rise to prominence to fill the new hole, and on and on it goes. It might take a decade, but it'll happen.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

Also ultra small indies with single games - starsector, kenshi, Synthetik, Sunless skies - can't even remember the studio names but the games are excellent. As long as supergiant keeps things up, I am not too worried about gaming's future

[@Lilliathi]

@@adams3627 Exactly. The public just needs to wise up a little, stop buying AAA and stop buying based on brand. Brand does not mean the same people are working on it, it's meaningless.

[@Code7Unltd]

All Devolver Games seemed to hammer out during the 2010s appeared to be variations of Hotline Miami, though.

[@Theodore5of5]

Really puts what happened to Bioware in perspective for me, really textbook timeline of EA acquisition, founders leave, projects underway come out (ME3, DA2, DAI) with worrying signs, then collapse. God almighty on high please let Obsidian keep doing their thing unmolested. See a lot of framing of Microsoft as a "good guy" in games rn, things seem fine for the moment but all this consolidation now given what's happened in the past does not bode well.

[@aravindpallippara1577]

Not just Obsidian, Arkane Machine games and Id as well - Obsidian and arkane are my personal favorite studios because of their respective offerings on the genre - Last games from both studios have been rather disappointing though

[@brandonmorel2658]

Things have never been fine, Microsoft has always been the bad guy, for 2 decades they've had a monopoly on tech, they are just a big giant that will squash any creativity and eat any competition that even threads a toe on their ground. People that frame Microsoft as the good guy are def not seeing the big picture in all of this. Regarding Obsidian, all good things come to an end, the same with Arkane in that regard, and maybe Id Soft, I love what they all offer, but specifically Obsidian's and Arkane's model for games is not sustainable, they will topple, what matters is when and if they make a couple of last great games.

[@HalfpennyTerwilliger]

The issue with MS is that "good guy" doesn't exist. It's politics and politics and business are about people. Currently, Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer's leadership seem to go in a "good guy" direction. But it's only as long as it suits MS goals as a company and as long as they are there and they won't be there for ever. One only has to look ar how Sony slowly changes under Jim Ryan's stewardship after he took Kodera's place and Shawn Layden left.

[@budakbaongsiah]

People in Obsidian now are not the ones that made the great games Obsidian is known anyway.

[@xBINARYGODx]

@@brandonmorel2658 FUD and inaccuracies. Anyway, there are no "good guy" large corporations. If you think any actually qualify, you are an epic fool. Anyway, MS is not asome good guy, people have some basic "trust" in Phil S's vision and the things he has done for the past decade are in line with that, and the business stuff they do is in support of those compaines probabbly conintueing to at least have some freedom (including the freedom to fail, I might add). "they are just a big giant that will squash any creativity and eat any competition that even threads a toe on their ground" lol are you a child? you seem to have a childs view of the industry. Or are you just a PS fanboy or something?

[@TurbopropPuppy]

this whole video has real "it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism" energy

[@SoFarSoGoodSoWhat14]

Don't say the C word, you'll make the Gamers™️ mad if you criticise it

[@isaiahsimmons5776]

its fake

[@SoFarSoGoodSoWhat14]

@@isaiahsimmons5776 what's fake? 🤔

[@Doctor-Infinite]

@@isaiahsimmons5776 well of course “it’s” fake it is Stephen Kings intellectual property 😔

[@isaiahsimmons5776]

@@SoFarSoGoodSoWhat14 capitalism

[@Personal_Chizo]

After all my years on KZbin, I get so much joy out of hearing "ad infinitum" pronounced properly. Thank you, George lol :)

[@0uttaS1TE]

George is really into his ancient history so I'm not shocked

[@Personal_Chizo]

@@0uttaS1TE I just was... *lucky enough* to go to a high school where Latin was mandatory. 🙇

[@Lilliathi]

Where did he say it? I missed it.

[@jmiquelmb]

I never thought that Latin words were specifically difficult to pronounciate for English speakers. As a native Spanish speaker, Latin is fairly easy to pronounce correctly (at least church Latin, maybe not Roman latin so much due to the phonological changes).

[@toriestrella]

I'm glad 8am Latin classes in high school finally came into use :')

[@AgsmaJustAgsma]

Fun fact: The Square and Enix merge was set on April 1st 2003, which is a key day in the Japanese market's physical year. A cruel April Fools joke, in hindsight.

[@TheSupercrazyman11]

Damn, what a great video! I love the perspective you give, I so struggle to see it myself after years of gaming. Really cool to get this angle. Thanks for putting the work in!

[@pastelshoal]

Really like seeing this kind of video from you George! More journalistic examinations is always appreciated

[@Milkra]

but when the industry needed him the most, he vanished.

[@notesscrotes4360]

The worst case scenario for Gamepass is already true for the music industry.

[@MaxIronsThird]

streaming as well, is already starting to implode.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Glad you brought up Japanese mergers. I'm really wondering how the culture changed in those companies after merger.

[@crashbandicoot5470]

George, just come back to us. You don’t have to apologize, just come to us.

[@kleinfehn]

Hey George, this is a great video, thank you for making it! I've always been impressed with your quality and this one is a banger.

[@trixuzz]

God I love your journalism work. The context your videos give is awesome. Also, cute dog :)

[@johnconnorpliskin7184]

Great video as always George. Also, glad to see the noodles. When it first cut to your dog I thought “Ah man, is he gonna cut to the noodles too?” Amazing stuff.

[@baphoof1529]

Came for the game history, stayed for the playing-with-dog footage.

[@shotostudios2392]

It's Good to have ya back Man, missed these Bunnyhop Deep-Dives

[@kaleidoscopickait]

Love your videos George, great as always! And your dog is absolutely precious!

[@zulubunsen9067]

One can't end a video without my buddy, Superfly.

[@0uttaS1TE]

We all need a Superfly in our lives

[@gennaroiorio1769]

Dude we miss you, i know you're fine and all but you are surely missed here

[@vazazell5967]

where the hell is he? what happened?

[@kiweeltyler3586]

Been watching SuperBunnyhop since the early 2010s. I think I was watching him back in 2009 if I remember correctly. Glad to see you’re still around and producing just as you were then.

[@Magnusiumum]

Im so glad to see George is back making videos again! Guess the whole podcast hiatus was a blessing in disguise. Keep up the good work dude!

[@xtalksx]

Never been more excited to watch something I know will make me depressed.

[@brandonmorel2658]

​@GiRayne Really optimistic and true in some ways. I'm sure the indie market will continue to bloom and grow, the double and triple A market will only stagnate though. Console people are fucked, this is totally the beginning of the end for them. Regarding gaming culture, I don't really share your opinion, I mean, a lot of people still buy madden and NBA and FIFA and COD and pay for skins in Fortnite and shit. People like George here are just outliers more intelligent consumers rally around, this group make more sensible decisions with their wallets but since most video game players continue to support the oligopoly, they barely matter.

[@DogginsFroggins]

@@brandonmorel2658 LOL console people are fucked... how exactly?

[@DeronHargrove]

Ay, didn't expect to see you here

[@jhostmusic]

Here's a secret from me as an old man : This isn't only how video game companies work. This is how the entire world works. Entire nations will go to war (illegally if they have to) to defend their capital and keep themselves afloat. Everyone is just trying to retire rich and not have to worry about anything anymore. I do have some good news though. For the first time in all of human civilization, people in other countries are actually worth more to us alive than dead. This is due to the advent of the information age and how fast we can now communicate. People in other countries can now be outsourced to and that brings some massive changes to the world as we know it. But in a lot of ways it will just reflect the way that the world of drug distribution and creation does. Someone in a third world country will do work for pennies on the dollar, and someone in a first world country will capitalize on it until the rest of the world catches up in infrastructure and finance.

[@mdd4296]

Actually, even from purely an american perspective, foreigners have always worth more alive than death. Otherwise they would raze Japan instead of forcing opened its ports, massacre the Philipines instead of colonising it, torch texas instead of intergrating it etc. Only now, military action would cost so much in both wealth and prestige. The way exploitation work has changed.

[@VashdaCrash]

@@mdd4296 Yeah, nowadays it's more about getting average people in huge debts, it seems. I recently watched a short video about cotton GMO's in India and it was crude.

[@IP2CxHistorian2]

its funny that u humans think everything is about money...these demons print money...its about taking whats good & perversing it...if you buy the competition then what competition is there...

[@VashdaCrash]

@@IP2CxHistorian2 Just now I was thinking about why people become crazy after long periods in the hospital. It's probably because of being alone, old, and with no agency in their lives. I guess it could be solved by a companion service for these people.

[@IP2CxHistorian2]

that has no relevance to what i said..also my comment was for OP

[@Arimayne]

Been a while since I've watched one of you video's, glad to see you're still at it

[@mishamazureka3486]

this was one of the best SBH videos yet great job

[@Selestrielle]

What's always weirded me out is that for the amount these companies buy other companies, they could pay for the development of several AAA titles. They're basically paying for the convenience a pre-existing, (supposedly) functional development team with a handful of well-known IPs. Why not build their on teams instead? Do they have so little confidence in their abilities to manage a business that they would spend twice the amount to buy an existing one?

[@Balmung60]

Because buying a competitor A.) buys their IP, which has a built-in fanbase, B.) buys their developers, who are a more or less known quantity, and C.) reduces competition Developing new IP in house does none of the above

[@yourbellboy]

interesting thoughts 😯

[@aravindpallippara1577]

@@Balmung60 because it's the guaranteed way to make money, or you could do what amazon did fail a couple of time in grandiose measure and hopefully hit it 3rd time or so. If there is easy money to be made, the business folks will be all over it - they hate risk.

[@CamembertDave]

Simple answer: They don't care about developing games, they only care about the money.

[@Lilliathi]

People who are actually good at making games are a finite resource.

[@megyskermike]

At this point does anyone else need to tell us that the industry is moving toward disaster? I hope not. If someone hasn't told you yet, consumers will always lose out with mega corps.

[@davidguerrero941]

Quality work as always, George.

[@MantasticHams]

Thanks for this, a lot of this informationis highly relevant to a project I'm working on! I knew a lot of this stuff but having it all laid out like this is very cool.

[@MoodersInit]

Hey George, hope you are well

[@DrySushi]

Activision lived long enough to become the bad guy.

[@KillahMate]

So did EA - even more so, really.

[@Grogeous_Maximus]

I don't think Activision was ever heroic, though

[@Arkanthrall]

I'll never get tired of this ramen footage.

[@c7zr179]

Mega kudos for giving us this look into a dimension of our pastime that we care so much about and engage so much with. My understanding of what goes into making games has significantly increased.

[@binaryghosts5131]

As long as there can still be a vibrant small dev scene that can produce such masterpieces such as "Sex with Hitler" I think we'll be just fine.

[@allgomesareevil6121]

Who's a good boy for b-roll! ❤ And good job by George as well, we need more bunnyhop.

[@c.jarmstrong3111]

Thank you for continuing to make great video essays

[@kiloalphahotel5354]

Thanks for the vid. Always great.

[@shandows15]

im sorry, i lost my train of thought because of doggo.

[@xdr22]

2:28 , "activision was created by fed up Atari employees that weren't okay with how the company treaded them and didn't gave them a fair share of the cut." How the turn tables....

[@hidenfn]

Your placeholder footage is wild.

[@jacquelinelove8481]

the transition into the ad was so jarring it couldn't help but laugh, bravo

[@antoniococotilo7019]

Keeping us waiting, huh?

[@HQ_Default]

"All this corporate acquisition shit makes my brain hurt" -Civvie 11

[@larkohiya]

Why did KZbin stop recommending your vids years ago? Just noticed I guess. You truly have a great form of content.

[@AdamMcDermott]

Geroge just keeps getting better. This is fantastic.

[@arbiter-]

To any people who hate Madden or even those who don't care about American football, try NFL Blitz. I strongly dislike sports games and especially EA sports games, but NFL Blitz 2003 is one of the best games I've ever played. It's like the Forza Horizon of football games if that makes any sense. Very arcade-like and a ton of fun playing against a friend. You can play as an eagle or a dolphin FFS, try it. Look up the cheat codes and tell me that doesn't sound like an incredible game.

[@cookieface80]

The 2000's was EA's best era by far, 2011 was when they became dogshit and then stayed that way ever since (or got worse actually).

[@axelprino]

Of all of those the one that got me sad was hearing that Tencent bought Sumo, they make amazing little games and some of the best arcade racers. I hope Sumo isn't turned into a mobile crap factory or some other depressing shadow of its former self.

[@saisameer8771]

Tencent is the best example of the worst aspects of capitalism and communism.

[@axelprino]

@@saisameer8771 yeah, I know. That's why it worries me that they now own Sumo, a dev that reliably makes games that I enjoy.

[@vogonp4287]

Unfortunately, they probably will be. Tencent is basically Chinese EA.

[@screamingcactus1753]

@@saisameer8771 How is Tencent communist?

[@saisameer8771]

@@screamingcactus1753 Tencent is owned by the commie party of China.

[@TrueBlur]

I feel like I always get new insight from your videos

[@davelzdr]

Excellent video as always

[@Sergito800]

The addition of adorable pupper footage made this video so much better

[@boogiemeister9581]

Fantastic video, everyone who cares about gaming should watch this, this is really good.

[@Zinc_Nitrogen]

Great video 👍 glad you still exist

[@SuperHoldenC]

Love your videos man

[@yuv7676]

I think we can all agree with the message of this video which is that THAT is an adorable lil puppy

[@MilesWilliams88]

Excellent video. I'm not really a fan of most AAA games, but I do find the recent acquisitions concerning. As long as your Hideo Kojima, Hidetaka Miyazaki, and random indie studio's of the world have creative freedom I think I'll be fine.

[@Ghost_Text]

Makes me glad theres finally investment in linux gaming ala proton. I can only hope itll grow over time so that there will be some place for classic gaming to be played and platform on as the rest of the industry changes

[@Ghost_Text]

Makes me glad theres finally investment in linux gaming ala proton. I can only hope itll grow over time so that there will be some place for classic gaming to be played and platform on as the rest of the industry changes

[@brandonmorel2658]

@@Ghost_Text Lots of classic games can only be played in windows OS anyway. Unless you mean modern games that become classic games over time.

[@brandonmorel2658]

Companies consolidating reduce the number of auteurs though, these people rose trough the ranks because x company wanted something unique to fight the competition, without competition theres no need for something unique, theres no need, molineuxs, Kojimas, Spectors, etc.

[@ShimyIa1]

thank you for this you're the only journalist worth a damn in this business at the moment

[@feargasyoutube6300]

Bro's gotta come back soon with some fire

[@marciamakesmusic]

Based, was hoping you would make a video about this

[@readonlymuseum]

New rule: all video game editorials/essays must contain cute dog footage

[@leftovernoise]

Tim Rogers also occasionally has his tiny floofy dog, bibbi babbus I'm his videos

[@0uttaS1TE]

Also noodles

[@OGR-4394]

fuck no

[@sweatywife]

Been going back through your video's recently with the release of your Iliad reading, which is fantastic by the way, and I actually even just listened to your episode on The Kojima Frequency, and yeah, gotta say, damn cute dog.

[@LogosSteve]

Nice see your stuff still!

[@JuanJohn-Raytheon]

Some proof of life from you would be appreciated George.

[@amilyndreams]

miss u george

[@TheChampNY]

Awesome vid, posted for the alg

[@abhishekmajumder742]

When the world needed him the most, he came back!

[@blippitybloo]

Where are you, George?

[@calebjohnson7592]

"No one cares about Madden" You haven't seen a GameStop on the South Side of Chicago on release day before.

[@xBINARYGODx]

no one cares just like they dont care about Cod anymore lul

[@cyncynshop]

It's more like even people who play Madden yearly doesn't care about it as a game anymore. Yearly scandals about Madden's game quality comes up, nobody cares despite worse card packs and lootvox practices suck up their wallets. Yearly attempt from EA comes up to break into countries with gambling regulations like age restricts games with lootboxes comes and goes. And people are just tired to argue about or for it anymore.

[@Cards297]

Thanks for all the M&A info in the video game industry 👍👍👍

[@colterwehmeier7258]

I was thinking about that mechanical ramen sign the whole video, so happy to see it!

[@joko49perez]

Wtf man! That's my childhood dog. Same size, same spots, same cuteness. Please give it back, I miss him :( RIP

[@kevinr417]

I'm not a fan of this trend of game subscription services. I mean, it's probably fine if you're the type of person to play through a game and quickly forget about it as you move onto the next. But I like to collect games, to "own" them, in whatever capacity such a thing is possible anymore. And I like to be able to buy a game and work through it slowly over time, which could end up costing me just as much if not more than I would have spent if I'd just paid for a permanent license. Having said all that, as long as a subscription service doesn't become the exclusive means of playing a particular game, I suppose I can't fault it too much. But I'm not very optimistic for the future. After all, it's now impossible to own a permanent license for many modern Adobe products and Nintendo has locked their classic titles behind a subscription service too. And then there's the fact that subscription exclusive titles have a very real potential to disappear entirely. It's like all those download-only titles that lost their licenses and had to be pulled from the store. But at least those could still be played after they left the store, as long as you bought them early enough. You can't own a subscription-only game though, so once it's gone, you'll never get to play it again.

[@TheFreakDownStreet]

Great video

[@Brilchan]

Amazing well research informative video with a side of cute doggo visuals thank you

[@bxllxdxnnx]

i've worked at this medtech startup the past 6 years, and this company like the two other small tech companies (one ed tech, one energy tech) i worked at before this, the goal of the founders was to sell to a bigger company. one of them did a couple years after i left, i'm sure the 5 guys in charge are now set for life. i was one of the first hires at this company and while i'm gonna make bank when we finally sell this year, it's not gonna be enough to retire, but it'll be enough to gtfo of tech once and for all. all the tech industries will be cursed until regulations catch up (if ever) and even then i don't know if there's saving them

[@Nostradankus]

I think a lot of people who don't have any experience with modern start-ups or "entrepreneurs" have this image of a business owner with a grand vision and the will to make their brand huge, like the industrialists of the early 20th century. In truth, the height of aspiration for most of them is getting bought by Google 5 years down the line for 100 million Dollars.

[@yudhiadhyatmikosiswono9082]

See all this company history makes me feel old, damn i miss the old day of gaming and not some NFT bullshit.

[@marciamakesmusic]

Yeah the old days of the exact same shit

[@Dyknown]

@@marciamakesmusic I wouldn’t say the “same;” some of the craziness of NFTs kind of pale before Atari’s attempt to destroy third parties and Nintendo’s anticompetitive business practices in the 80s There’s scams and then there is stuff that makes the latest MSFT purchase seem tame in comparison, even if they’re big now

[@aturchomicz821]

Gaming has never been better, you are insane. Anyway Not Tonight 2 just released gotta play that now sooo-

[@Dr.Strangelewd]

Yeah, the good ol' days of selling trash bin games for $100.

[@spacejunk2186]

Remember online passes? Good old times indeed.

[@foodfam7651]

great video!

[@ericwatkevich9845]

Great breakdown, thanks!