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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

#651

Post by pier25 »

rodgerd wrote: post #635
epicide wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make a good point to bring up indie development (WoW excluded), but I think looking at the storefronts is also important. For these big conglomerates, the trendy thing is to have your own games store. Complete with exclusivity deals, privacy concerns, and plenty more. That's not to say that every game on a store has these issues. However, I think the lesson from mobile app stores is: don't discount the impact tha…

> Right now, Steam is still the leader and obvious home for a lot of these otherwise-independent developers. HN: TEAR DOWN THE APPLE STORE MONOPOLY! Also HN: Steam is cool and pulls 30% from developers.

Steam does not control Windows, does it?

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

#652

Post by chucky_z »

murph-almighty wrote: post #262
dx87 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CS:GO is actually their biggest game now, but it does look like Dota 2 is dying. From a business perspective, they don't have any reason to try and save it though. They've lost ~40% of their players over the past 4 years, but are making more money than ever. The in-game tutorials have been unfinished for years, their Dota+ subscription service is all but abandoned (but still bringing in millions of dollars a year), a…

CS:GO is also going to trend downward soon with the release of Valorant, which is basically the same game with a few superpowers attached. All my friends who played GO switched over, they're attracting a pro scene, I think it's only a matter of time tbh.

I'll be a single counter-point. I straight up reinstalled Windows to play Valorant and all it's done is made me play a lot more CSGO. I'm legitimately having more fun with CSGO now than I have in a very long time! The game feels like it's in a super good place. It's got a ton of cool skins, the competitive scene feels really competitive at the moment, playing it competitively feels great. The DM mode scratches a very good itch, gun game is still a lot of fun, etc...

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

#653

Post by Wowfunhappy »

RealStickman_ wrote: post #366
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…

The exclusivity deals were disruptive because they took games that were promised to come to steam and made them exclusive. The customer has no benefit from the lower cut epic charges. Epic doesn't treat everyone equally. Big games like Cyberpunk 2077 are allowed to also sell on other platforms, while smaller games either go exclusive or go with everyone else. Competition is good, but I'd rather have GOG be that compe…

> Epic doesn't treat everyone equally. Big games like Cyberpunk 2077 are allowed to also sell on other platforms, while smaller games either go exclusive or go with everyone else.

There isn't a conspiracy here. Epic pays developers to make certain games (like Control) temporarily exclusive to EGS. Other developers, like CD Project RED, have not made such a deal, and thus Cyberpunk 2077 is available on many different PC game clients.

There are plenty of games on EGS--large and small--which are not and have never been exclusive. Examples include The Unfinished Swan, SuperHot, and Axiom Verge just to pick three off the top of my head.

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

#654

Post by bstar77 »

Medox wrote: post #193
bstar77 wrote: post #159

This just further confirms that my energy and money is going to the indie space. The level of enjoyment I get out of Factorio, Cuphead, Cogmind, Crusader Kings III, Curious Expedition 2, EXA Punks, Elite Dangerous, Kenshi, etc is so much greater than any AAA title I've touched in the past 5 years, yet these games are cheaper and most can run on a potato. I want to play games, not interactive movies.

Speaking of punk and non-AAA, I'll throw in Frostpunk. Now, speaking of winter survivals (and non-AAA), The Long Dark is also a masterpiece.

Love Frostpunk too... so many great games I could list.

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

#655

Post by bstar77 »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #169
bstar77 wrote: post #159

This just further confirms that my energy and money is going to the indie space. The level of enjoyment I get out of Factorio, Cuphead, Cogmind, Crusader Kings III, Curious Expedition 2, EXA Punks, Elite Dangerous, Kenshi, etc is so much greater than any AAA title I've touched in the past 5 years, yet these games are cheaper and most can run on a potato. I want to play games, not interactive movies.

Paradox isn’t exactly an indie

I was initially saying I'm done with AAA... I know Paradox Studios isn't exactly indie, but these games are not $100m+ affairs and are relatively niche titles.

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

#656

Post by noncoml »

zamalek wrote: post #648
noncoml wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it was huge step down from Fallout 3 or Skyrim In what way? And how is your opinion better metric than my opinion? You have data to back it up?

Skyrim was a significant technical advancement of Gamebryo, not just in terms of visual quality or so forth, but also in terms of what was possible with the engine. Fallout 4 was a minor upgrade and could have easily been a total conversion mod for Skyrim - there was no innovation and it did nothing new. Irrespective of whether people enjoyed that re-skinned Skyrim, it was a blatant cash-grab. The argument has nothin…

You do understand that the quality of game engine is completely orthogonal to how good a game is, right?

For some reason you believe that your opinion about the game is universally true, while the opinion on the other is personal preference.

You are just trying to prove that vanilla flavor is universally better than chocolate.

Edit: Retracting "Borderline bigotry."

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

#657

Post by aksjfnkajsnd »

dawnerd wrote: post #167
Firebrand wrote: post #84

Bethesda Games are not going not be exclusive to Xbox -- Confirmed by Todd Howard: >Like our original partnership, this one is about more than one system or one screen. We share a deep belief in the fundamental power of games, in their ability to connect, empower, and bring joy. And a belief we should bring that to everyone - regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you play on. Regardless of the screen siz…

I don’t know why anyone would think Microsoft would be against publishing on competing platforms. Minecraft is available on Switch and PlayStation. It’s all about that $$$

Why do you think platform exclusives exist then?

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

#658

Post by gowld »

komali2 wrote: post #523
johnnyanmac wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?"

The issues with gambling are nothing to do with the arcana of business structures and everything to do with gambling itself.

Gambling ruined games like porn ruined movies -- it didn't. It's just a different partially similar thing.

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

#659

Post by gowld »

ethbr0 wrote: post #578
shrimp_emoji wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be apocryphal, but legend has it Bethesda escaped bankruptcy by taking massive chances with Morrowind. They wanted to go out with a bang, and, creatively, the result was amazing. That success and the fortune they now had to protect seemed to hemorrhage their creativity or vision or concern. After that, we got Oblivion and Skyrim. Nice but very safe and uninspired games. And the best Fallout was the one from Obs…

With limited resources, bad ideas are ruthlessly trashed. With limitless resources, all ideas are valid.

That's not it. When you have a profitable IP, the expected value is so high that variance offers you nothing, and hurts. When you have nothing, expected value is so low that high variance ideas are the best -- bankruptcy takes away the sting of negative income.

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

#660

Post by codezero »

noncoml wrote: post #656
zamalek wrote: post #648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skyrim was a significant technical advancement of Gamebryo, not just in terms of visual quality or so forth, but also in terms of what was possible with the engine. Fallout 4 was a minor upgrade and could have easily been a total conversion mod for Skyrim - there was no innovation and it did nothing new. Irrespective of whether people enjoyed that re-skinned Skyrim, it was a blatant cash-grab. The argument has nothin…

You do understand that the quality of game engine is completely orthogonal to how good a game is, right? For some reason you believe that your opinion about the game is universally true, while the opinion on the other is personal preference. You are just trying to prove that vanilla flavor is universally better than chocolate. Edit: Retracting "Borderline bigotry."

They left a comment on the internet - I don’t think it’s civil to conflate it to being universal - why not explore their opinion, or just accept that de gustibus non est disputandum?

Also, what if vanilla could be proven to be universally better? That’d be cool, how could one go about doing that? Probably either: eliminate the supply of chocolate world wide, or spend billions marketing vanilla... Probably lots of ways to get a universal sentiment with the right levers!

One ding in chocolate: there’s no chocolate coca-cola... or is there? I should google that :) There do seeeeeem to be more vanilla flavored mass market colas than chocolate, but that’s very much cherry picking.

A ding for vanilla, I’m not sure if it’s ever eaten alone in any meaningful way, but I dunno, I’d have to think about it more.

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