Why I blame Xbox for Sony buying FromSoftwareGameCentralPublished November 24, 2024 9:00am Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree will Froms next game be a PS5 exclusive? (Bandai Namco)A reader is angry at the thought of Sony buying the makers of Dark Souls and Elden Ring and blames Microsoft for starting the trend.When the news about Sony buying FromSoftwares parent company emerged it seemed like just another rumour and not even a particularly believable one, given the complications involved. And yet within a matter of days we got confirmation that they really were interested and while that doesnt guarantee the sale, it does make it very likely. I blame Microsoft for this.I have both an Xbox and PlayStation, so I dont consider myself bias one way or another, but this rush to buy up every publisher and developer possible was started by Microsoft and it was always obvious what it would lead to. Sony is simply trying to play by their game and now were in a position where theres drastically less big name publishers than there were a decade ago.Microsoft shut down a lot of its first party developers at the end of the Xbox 360 era and when Phil Spencer took over he rightly realised this had been a mistake and so started buying up developers. None of those made a difference to their bottom line though, so then they bought Bethesda. Then, when that didnt make any difference either, they bought Activision Blizzard. The rest is history.Xbox make lots of money now but only by doing exactly what Activision Blizzard did already: sell games on all formats. None of this has helped the Xbox console, which is quickly being sidelined, and its not hard to guess whats going to happen to these other developers now that Microsoft has a cash cow and they dont have to worry about all these smaller companies.Spending money is the only thing Microsoft knows how to do when things turned pear-shaped, but they mustve known what they were setting in motion when they started buying up other companies.Its not even just Sony that has responded but other big publishers that have realised that if they want developers for themselves, even if they were happy dealing with them as independents, they have no choice but to buy them before they become the next target for Microsoft.Theres good reason to think that Sony bought Bungie to keep them out of Microsofts grasp, as much as they wanted them for themselves. Im sure theres a lot of people at Sony that regret buying Bungie now and yet on the other hand at least they werent snapped up by Microsoft.Dont get me wrong, I think all of these acquisitions are awful and bad for the industry, but Sony and the others had to respond in kind or the percentage of the industry that Microsoft owns would be even bigger than it is now.It would have been so much better if FromSoftware had remained independent but now theyre likely going to be making PlayStation exclusives from now on. That wouldve been the case with everyone Microsoft bought too, if the Xbox console hadnt been too far gone by that point already.Its not even hard to guess wholl be next, with Ubisoft circling the drain. Then whos left? EA, Take-Two, and Warner Bros.? Thats it in terms of Western publishers. And to think how many there used to be only a few years ago, all trying to compete with each other and gamers benefiting from that competition with better games.Now everything is owned by just a handful of different companies and theres no real competition at all, just a conveyor of product where anything that isnt a massive hit instantly gets the entire studio shut down.More TrendingI dont know how bad its going to get before the end. Will someone buy EA? Will the Japanese publishers start getting bought up as well? Will it all end where the entire industry is literally just Microsoft vs. Sony? I dont know but I do know I dont like it.By reader Pinky Its a scorched earth policy for Microsoft and Sony (Bandai Namco)The readers features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you wont need to send an email.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy