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Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

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Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#451

Post by qchris »

tubularhells wrote: post #381
nonbirithm wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also the fact that the Epic Games Store exists is a step towards countering Steam's monopoly on mainstream titles. People complain about the loss of functionality like screenshots or the in-game browser when using Epic. And there are exclusivity deals. Complaints against those things are valid, and the actual implementation of the storefront needs a lot of improvement, but I'm wondering if a Steam monopoly would have…

Steam has been good to me with their native Linux client, Linux client support, proton compatibility tools and community tool support (glorious eggroll proton version). Epic has nothing to offer me. Furthermore, I know some gamedevs personally who release an early access level title with exclusivity deal on epic's playform just so that they gain access to further funding to finish the game and release on Steam for th…

I began gaming for the first time (unless you count playing on my roommates' XBox in college) this past week, mostly for The Witcher 2/3--both on Linux. The Witcher 3 was never supposed to run on my platform, but somehow Steam and Proton/Wine made that not only possible but actually enjoyable.

I know technically they're doing it to make money, but I can't help like feel it's also something of a labor of love as well. It would have been much easier to leave people in my (our?) position behind, so I appreciate the heck out of Valve for putting in the effort. I imagine they're going to have my goodwill for a long time as a result.

Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#452

Post by mywittyname »

013a wrote: post #158
akhilcacharya wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the joke is funny but realistically it's clear that Valve is getting back in the game, so to speak, and we're probably going to see some VR followup to Alyx in the next year or two.

People really need to watch (play?) (read?) The Final Hours of Half Life Alyx. Its a documentary-like experience available on Steam which dives in to the past decade or two at Valve. From the outside, all we see is very few games being produced. From the inside, its far more complex; something like a Dark Decade for Valve where even they weren't sure what they should be working on. Hundreds of failed prototypes and i…

When you hear stuff like this, the acquisition binge that so many companies go on starts to make sense.

Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#454

Post by dannyw »

tmccrary55 wrote: post #272
Andrex wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo is just two bad generations of hardware from being vulnerable enough to sell itself (IMO.) They had only $4.3 billion cash on hand as of 2018 (surely more by now thanks to the success and maturation of the Switch.) But Microsoft just dropped a little less than double that on ZeniMax. I wish Nintendo were in such a rock-solid place where I'd feel confident about them existing forever like Disney but I don't t…

You make good points but Nintendo is such an iconic Japanese brand, it seems like their government would get involved if they were in dire straights. As a Nintendo baby, it'd be a dark day if some conglomerate bought them. I was just thinking though, if they needed money they could easily raise crazy amounts of cash from their fanbase via crowdfunding.

Their central bank is already buying Nintendo stock and is the largest shareholder in Japan, I think.

Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#455

Post by mhh__ »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #80
wpdev_63 wrote: post #7

Holy sh!t. Bethesda is huge! Well I was just thinking the other day that Microsoft really doesn't have any first party studio that are really as good as Sony's first party. IMO they didn't release a game 'this' gen that makes picking up a xbox one worth it. This could change that with fallout and doom. Also this allows them to bring the ID tech engine under their stewardship.... I just hope that they don't trash the…

> Also this allows them to bring the ID tech engine under their stewardship. It doesn't have to be id tech, but can they make Todd Howard use some other engine than whatever Gamebryo monstrosity Bethesda Softworks been using for 20 years?

Combining Bethesda with Id could be a winning formula as long as Bethesda is bullied into getting out of their comfort zone

Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#456

Post by fuball63 »

013a wrote: post #97
tehbeard wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's stating a chain of ownership, not why it's ironic..

Its my understanding that, back in the day, Quake was "the" poster child game for OpenGL's capabilities over D3D. Similar to today, how Doom Eternal is "the" poster child for Vulkan. And now Microsoft owns id software.

This makes sense, thanks.

Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#457

Post by ssalazar »

SahAssar wrote: post #373
the_hoser wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not at all. They've been pretty hands-off with their most recent acquisition, but one studio does not a trend make.

Looking outside of the gaming space their recent acquisitions seem to have gone fine, no? For example Github seems to go well, Linkedin was always pretty shit and unethical, so I'm not sure it's any better or worse. Citus seems to still be going well and still offers on-prem or enterprise versions on other clouds than Azure. Xamarin is more open-sourced since Microsoft took over. IMO, (and if you told me I'd say this…

Skype is a very loud example of a poorly handled acquisition by Microsoft.

The client has been turned into a real fan-spinner and it seems like they sacrificed a great standalone service for something that pushes consumer and business users towards tight integration with Microsoft's platform.

2020 could have been a banner year for Skype; instead Zoom is now shorthand for any video meeting whatsoever.

Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#458

Post by int_19h »

harimau777 wrote: post #385
apatters wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, if you ate McDonald's every day you'd probably think that there are no good restaurants anymore. My top 4 games by playtime in the last few years were Rimworld, Oxygen Not Included, Dwarf Fortress and WoW Classic. Honorable mentions go to Spelunky and Stellaris. It's to everyone's great regret that a single one of these titles was purchased by one of the shitty publishers you mentioned, fortunately it's the one…

Indy is great if you like one of the genres where they excel (e.g. rogue like, deck builder, walking simulator, retro, traditional RPG, etc.). However, if you are into genres like modern FPS or open world action adventure then good indy games are difficult to come by.

Mount & Blade series is an interesting counterexample to that, although I'm at a loss as to how define the genre ("feudalism sandbox"?). The first games were very clearly indy, but they capitalized on that success, and Bannerlord is a much more ambitious and polished game.

Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#459

Post by recursive »

formerly_proven wrote: post #271
ekianjo wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Rockstar ever gets acquired, this will be one of the most expensive deals ever. They routinely sell games in the dozens of millions of units.

Contrary to popular opinion, Rockstar is actually not a competent game developer.

I'm curious how you measure competence.

Virtually every release Rockstar does sells millions. And from my point of view their games are fun too.

Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B

#460

Post by throwaway13337 »

apatters wrote: post #94
francis_t_catte wrote: post #22

Soon we'll just have Microsoft, Epic, and a conglomeration of EA, Activision, and Ubisoft after Bobby Kotick forces them all to merge. Facebook will bungle up any chance they have of capturing the gaming market after writing a cryptic paragraph about their legal right to request blood samples from all Oculous users in the TOS. Valve will quietly exit software development altogether, and pivot to building custom vanit…

Sure, if you ate McDonald's every day you'd probably think that there are no good restaurants anymore. My top 4 games by playtime in the last few years were Rimworld, Oxygen Not Included, Dwarf Fortress and WoW Classic. Honorable mentions go to Spelunky and Stellaris. It's to everyone's great regret that a single one of these titles was purchased by one of the shitty publishers you mentioned, fortunately it's the one…

This is absolutely right. The best games now are from independent developers who are themselves barely making it. The games you listed were some of the breakout successes of indie games but there are a ton of fun, interesting indie games out there that are dying from lack of revenue.

There seems to be an overall issue now where the quality of the good produced and the benefit to the consumer is divorced from the value extracted by the producer.

For instance, you can make a mobile game company that aggressively monetizes re-hashed bubble-poppers or match three games. With that, you focus not on innovation of pleasing the customer but on making the most money per customer so that you can feed it back into your marketing. The most exploitative game wins.

This is a more profitable strategy than simply trying to make a fun game that people want to play.

With most consumer markets, we find similar stories of customer exploitation being a better play than simply making a great product. This is not as much the case in B2B.

How do we reign back in the markets? It doesn't seem like consumer choice is working out very well.

Maybe marketing is at the core of all of this malignment.

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