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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

#561

Post by fireattack »

modeless wrote: post #403
tosh wrote: post #301

Carmack on the acquisition: > Great! I think Microsoft has been a good parent company for gaming IPs, and they don’t have a grudge against me, so maybe I will be able to re engage with some of my old titles. https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1308069857913720832...

Carmack left Zenimax because they wanted him to work on sequels instead of VR. They only started caring about VR once the $2B Oculus acquisition was dangled in their faces, and then scrambled to find a way to get a slice that they didn't earn. I didn't buy DOOM because I didn't support Zenimax's cynical lawsuit/cash grab. Maybe now I'll get DOOM after the Microsoft acquisition closes.

I thought ZeniMax won in court?

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

#562

Post by munk-a »

WorldMaker wrote: post #465
pascah7 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GoG does have a bunch of new games though. And IIRC they are owned by CD Project Red who are doing some big games now :)

Yeah GOG hasn't "focused" on vintage games for at least half a decade now (and the switch from GoG and the original acronym to branding wise it's just GOG and its own "word" these days) and while back compat remains a core strength (though one as much exported at this point as most Publishers have paid attention to what GOG was doing and released many of the same games with the same tricks [ScummVM, DOSBOX, etc] on S…

I'm not certain if you enjoy remakes or not - but I think GOG is pretty much single handedly responsible for making them a thing. Things like AoE2 (Age of Empires) HD & DE probably wouldn't exist if AoE and AoM (Age of Mythology) didn't get a bunch of surprise sales on GoG. I'm hoping it'll also lead to some of the older IPs that died off with the likes of SSI getting resurrected into new titles - Imperialism 1 & 2 were pretty amazing games long before the likes of Victoria 2 came about.

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

#563

Post by WorldMaker »

athms wrote: post #555
WorldMaker wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people think that Fallout 76 did recover with the last expansion pack (and cross-play and Game Pass). Microsoft acquiring Bethesda even further insures at the very least it will stay a Game Pass mainstay for some time now. (Also, it is interesting to note that with the Bethesda purchase, Microsoft will now own "all" of Fallout and the "Fallout diaspora" caused by Interplay's death, as Microsoft already owned…

>Oblivion Obsidian, the company is called Obsidian Entertainment. That said, the folks at Obsidian (especially the creators of the original Fallout and New Vegas) have said they have no interest in doing a Fallout game. Tim Cain specifically mentioned during the Outer Worlds Q&A that the Fallout ship had sailed.

Hah, an easy typo/slipup to make when talking about Fallout/Bethesda (due to ES: Oblivion).

I think that Obsidian is better off doing non-Fallout things (and personally Outer Worlds is so much "Fallout Alternate Space Timeline" already that I'd much rather see them continue with Outer Worlds as the closest thing they ever again do to Fallout). It's just interesting to point out how many of the "Fallout birds" will come home to roost at Microsoft.

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

#564

Post by modeless »

fireattack wrote: post #561
modeless wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carmack left Zenimax because they wanted him to work on sequels instead of VR. They only started caring about VR once the $2B Oculus acquisition was dangled in their faces, and then scrambled to find a way to get a slice that they didn't earn. I didn't buy DOOM because I didn't support Zenimax's cynical lawsuit/cash grab. Maybe now I'll get DOOM after the Microsoft acquisition closes.

I thought ZeniMax won in court?

They lost on their claims against Carmack, had their award against Oculus reduced and injunction denied, and ultimately settled out of court. I strongly disagree with the magnitude of the damages sought.

Carmack also sued them separately for failing to pay him for part of their id software acquisition. They settled out of court again, with Carmack saying the settlement "fully satisfied their obligations" to him.

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

#565

Post by mrguyorama »

shagie wrote: post #424
Osiris wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trend is definitely moving away from many separate games and toward "living" games. Look at how many games these days end up just doing updates/DLCs over many years rather than releasing whole new versions of the game. Look at Destiny, there was originally planned for Destiny 3, but now the plan is just to make Destiny 2 the only game for the next 10 years with constant content updates. Even now, Destiny 2 of tod…

The "living game" approach has to do with the cost of the DLC and the difficulty at moving the price point of a game (while costs to build it go up). This allows the studio to make money on the game based on the continued DLC which needs less development investment. It isn't so much "milking" but rather "acknowledging a change in the way games are monetized because the price of the initial game isn't changing."

No, the "living game" approach is because it turns out taking a "hat" asset that took an artist like 2 days to make (or you literally got for free from your fanbase!) and selling it for $5 to the 10 million people playing your game makes A FUCKLOAD of money. It's absolutely milking. Games make more money now when they are "Oh woe is me so expensive to make oh poor me feel pitty" then they ever dreamed of even when a game could be made by one person.

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

#566

Post by sylens »

Andrex wrote: post #67
SSLy wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo is self-sustainable, Apple is exerting a lot of influence among smaller studios with Arcade. Like Annapurna Interactive (which is nota bene funded by Oracle).

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…

I wish Nintendo would just take some ideas from other companies in the areas of online play and incorporate them into their own products. My friends and I would love to play Mario Kart on Switch with each other, but we can't be bothered to setup an additional voice chat solution and use the dumb lobby system. We also would like to play Mario Party online, but Mario Party Switch doesn't even offer its main game modes online, just a handful of mini games.

It's frustrating because there's a lot of untapped potential.

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

#567

Post by munk-a »

tmccrary55 wrote: post #479
gabereiser wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo! CoD, Quake, Doom, Civ, Madden, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, All of Nintendo... you can’t fault them for milking an IP though when fans vote with their wallets. I would love new stories, new hero archetypes, new consequences, in games and I think indie have done a decent job at showing it can be done. But even indie suffers from the “Hey! This worked! Let’s just keep doing this!” IP milkage. Game dev, like so…

Look at when Blizzard tried starting new a new IP with Overwatch, I'm sure they did okay but Overwatch doesn't have the same legendary luster that Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo have (or had).

Overwatch is definitely a big success - it's not the biggest competitive FPS on the market (probably fortnite if you count that - otherwise maybe CS:GO?) but it's up there. They also own Hearthstone which baffled me on release since it's so far out of their wheelhouse - but I believe they're making bucket loads of money off of that still... it's a literal collectable card game ><.

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

#568

Post by ethbr0 »

georgeecollins wrote: post #491
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…

Many indie developers are barely making it. Some are killing it. New ideas come from indies, but sometimes from big companies too. Big companies depend on distribution and marketing, small companies depend on innovation. I have been in video games for twenty five years. It has always been like that.

Where it seems to have broken down is via vertical integration.

When publishers were publishers and developers were developers (80s and 90s), it seemed like there was healthier competition. Even if there were a lot of abusive deals struck.

Now that we have giant, integrated publisher + development conglomerates, there's zero incentive to step out of that structure to publish a popular indie game.

It feels like news sites prohibiting links to external sites, and the world's the poorer.

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

#569

Post by whynaut »

squarefoot wrote: post #524
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…

> 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 pro…

take a look at Nier: Automata or Dragon Age (1-2, and/or Inquisition). Both easily enjoyable if you like ME.

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

#570

Post by munk-a »

int_19h wrote: post #458
harimau777 wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

M&B is actually published by an arguably large company? I don't know where folks put Paradox in the ranking but they're certainly raking in the money with both internal dev & publisher only projects.

And they're making a new World of Darkness RPG for the first time in forever.

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