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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

#521

Post by duncanawoods »

criddell wrote: post #250
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…

If Epic is successful in their lawsuit against Apple, then I think it's only a matter of time before the consoles will have to allow alternate stores as well. The hardware-is-sold-at-a-loss argument that people like to use to defend closed console stores isn't as convincing when the console makers also own the biggest money making game studios as well. Go Epic, go!

> The hardware-is-sold-at-a-loss argument

Kind of ironic how bad an argument that is when discussing anti-trust. It's a form of dumping to distort the market. It prevents new competitors becoming viable purely by selling hardware.

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

#522

Post by johnnyanmac »

TheKnack wrote: post #241
lifty wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While statements like these are common when mergers/buyouts happen, the final decision down the line will not be his to make. Not saying that things will not happen as he states, but it shouldn't be seen as a certainty.

When Facebook bought Oculus, Palmer Luckey said that a Facebook login would never be required to use Oculus products. The Oculus Quest 2 that comes out in October will require a Facebook login. https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-guarantee-promise-facebook-l...

to be fair, Microsoft has been loosening up on exclusives as of late. Minecraft is supported on all platforms, with the dungeon side game coming to all consoles. Psychonauts 2 is still slated to come to PS4 and Switch. Ori's 2 games are multiplat (the sequel just now releasing on Switch).

I don't doubt there will be timed exclusives, but at the current moment it seems like they aren't opposed to publishing on non-MS platforms.

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

#523

Post by komali2 »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #485
throwaway13337 wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 valu…

How do we reign back in the markets? It doesn't seem like consumer choice is working out very well. consumer choice is working as intended. They are fine playing "free" games supported by the 1%, and many nowadays won't pay >5-10 dollars for a game unless it's from a very established IP. Even without the mobile market, The story isn't much different. You either throw yourself out there in a sea of indie games, or you…

If we're willing to regulate gambling (which we are, because we do regulate it), then I don't think we can simply wave our hands at mobile games and say "bah, consumer choice. They play the games, don't they?"

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

#524

Post by squarefoot »

throwaway13337 wrote: post #460
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…

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 valu…

> The best games now are from independent developers who are themselves barely making it.

I wish it was true, at least for my favorite genre. Technically speaking, a small team of developers can create excellent games when it comes to creativity, design, playability etc. but for some titles there is need for a good story, then turning it into acceptable animations, large worlds, complex graphics etc. that's where probably only a major game house can deliver because of the number of writers, developers, designers, actors needed. My favorite games of all time were the Mass Effect trilogy; they were technically great, but the writing, character development, voicing and direction was their point of excellence. I would take ME1-3 story arc over most recent titles. Unfortunately many game studios think only in terms of FPS and technical trivialities that cannot turn a dull story plastered with FPS scenes into something that one still remembers after 10 years. Not been a gamer for a while, so I may have missed a lot lately and would love to be proven wrong (details welcome!).

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

#525

Post by sangnoir »

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…

> 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)

Reminder: Valve was forced to double-down on SteamOS/Linux by Microsoft's then-intention to shutdown 3rd-party storefronts on Windows. I have a complicated relationship with both Steam (as a Proton user) and Epic (for pulling Linux support on a multiplayer game I already own!), but I still appreciate more competition in the arena: GOG alone won't cut it.

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

#526

Post by komali2 »

bobthebuild123 wrote: post #488
teddyh wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pyramids are hard to build without a super-feudal economy and society. But we got rid of that, losing the practical ability to make pyramids in the process, because we value other things like democracy higher.

Uhh we still build things like pyramids all the time - Three Gorges Dam, Burj Khalifa, One World Trade Center - it's just we don't build pyramids themselves anymore.

Hm. The pyramids were an architectural and supply chain genius stroke considering when they were made. It also took fantastic human sacrifice to achieve that. One world trade center was built with the assistance of trains and semi trucks brining ore to smelters and steel to the construction site, electricity, cranes etc.

Minus the slavery, have we really expended that much human effort and equivalent wealth and time on something in the modern era? The only thing I can think of is Free software products, shit like Linux.

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

#527

Post by sangnoir »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #476
qchris wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

If you want to be cynical, Proton was made from the scraps of a contingency plan that was the Steam Machine. When they realized that Microsoft wasn't going to force their platform onto users, they gave up on Steam Machines and I guess they leveraged the tech to something else.

That's not being cynical - that's just facts on how and why SteamOS was conceived and developed

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

#528

Post by ketzo »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #191
greenduck wrote: post #42

All of these consolidations of power are nuts. Feels like we need another round of trust busting in the next 10/20 years to help introduce real competition back into the markets.

For now I think we'll wait and see; while the big companies slowly poison the well with microtransactions and live services, ruining games to push for sales, the indie market is massive, turning single developers pottering around in their proverbial basements into millionaires and spawning franchises left and right. I mean Minecraft started off like that. Terraria is following behind it. Among Us, a $4 game on Steam…

I think the real worry would be Steam (Valve) being acquired. Without such a ubiquitous and relatively open platform for distribution, indie devs would have a much harder time making any money.

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

#529

Post by mcrider »

dijit wrote: post #79
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…

FWIW Ubisoft is very hostile to being acquired. I worked there for 6-7 years and the CEO fought off vivendis acquisition. Which was not the first. He has even gone so far as to decentralise the Canadian studios so that if the company was somehow acquired the aquirer could not close down studios without heavy fines from the Canadian government.

Could you elaborate on that last point or share a source? I don't doubt you but I don't understand the legal basis behind that move (but sounds interesting)!

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

#530

Post by WorldMaker »

mywittyname wrote: post #452
013a wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When you hear stuff like this, you start to wonder if Valve's management style is half as sustainable as they would like to think. Without Steam and hats/knives they'd be broke several times over with that sort of lack of focus and inability to release games outside of what seems a decadal cycle. (ETA: Which possibly makes a "locusts of gaming" analogy relevant for Valve, hah.)
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