Its some pretty fine hair splitting to say that MMO and Live service games are distinct. At best “live service” is a small evolution of the MMO. More realistically, it’s the same thing with a different name. Destiny (and it’s sequel) were not even free to play. Which is the most recognizable trait of live service…

Destiry is absolutely NOT the first game of its kind. Unless you were born in 2010.

Sony sells a game console. Bungie makes games.

The ROI is that they get a large, successful game studio and all the people/tech/IP that comes with it. That’s pretty obvious.

This is my experience every single time i play a game I loved in the past. It's just a disappointing mess. Very very few games hold up over time, it seems.

There are definitely people out there who would love it. But I doubt it's anywhere near a significant amount. 

I don’t think anyone is actively against BC (well, maybe some weirdos are) it’s more that most people dont care one way or the other about it because they won’t use it.

Oh yeah man, those bikers are straight up nuts. Doing 120mph and seeing a guy on a crotch rocket just dust you like you are standing still is unnerving. I don’t know how they do it. Even doing the speed limit on one of those feels like you are doing the speed of light haha.

Yeah, You just subscribe to their service.....that is only available on their hardware/software (cell phones excluded, but that’s an entirely different discussion).

One company putting a huge amount of popular games behind a paywall is not even remotely good for consumers. I don’t understand how you could possibly think it is.

It doesn’t have to be a technical monopoly for it to be really bad for the industry and society in general.

No, they are trying to build a service that you have no choice but to buy if you want to play video games.

Google is not in the game development/selling business and never really have been. Furthermore, they specifically cited rising cost as a reason why they shut down stadia studios. So turning around and dropping $70 BILLION on a game developer would make very little sense for them.

No, it’s becuse no one cares about Diablo, Overwatch, WoW etc on console. Has nothing to do with Sony or Xbox (or whatever you are implying with your 360 comment). They are just not games popular on console for a bunch of reasons.

None of those games you listed move the needle on console. They certainly are not a reason the feel bad about buying a PS5.

Im curious who you think those other 2 are. Because it's a pretty big stretch to say Google (who I assume is one) dropping $70 billion on Activision would be a realistic or smart idea.

Well, if you want to know why monopolies are bad for industry there are much better sources than a random guy commenting on Kotaku. But the very obvious impact is choice.

Other than CoD, does AB make anything hugely popular on console?

While I admit this is a very likely possibility, it also seems insane to put the biggest selling franchise in history (CoD) behind a $25 paywall as opposed to selling it for $70 to hundreds of millions.

“$60 billion companies don’t get sold unless they want to sell. If Microsoft wasn’t the buyer, someone else would be.”