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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

#701

Post by ekianjo »

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.

That's a highly subjective statement, and a blanket one at that.

You could also say that the worst games are made by independent developers and that would also be true at the same time, because "independent developers" is far from being a consistent group.

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

#702

Post by ekianjo »

whynaut wrote: post #569
squarefoot wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Platinum Games is not an indie studio.

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

#703

Post by fendy3002 »

randito wrote: post #264
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…

Don't forget Factorio -- aka if Software Development were a computer game with tech debt, copy/paste and literal bugs.

And stardew valley

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

#704

Post by LMYahooTFY »

hn_acc_2 wrote: post #389
LMYahooTFY wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually feel compelled to express an opinion regarding WoW classic: It's a garbage money grab. The idea that there is a huge nostalgia fueled demand for the original experience doesn't absolve a multi-billion dollar developer from a complete lack of support or quality of life improvements to the game. There is just too much overlap with the fact that they can literally re-release a game with practically zero devel…

That's not fair... 1) Costs were not zero for the re-release. The only version of the game data (stats, items, enemy spawns etc.) was in the form of an original database backup (from an old employee's personal stash!). Classic runs on the modern WOW engine, so work was required to shoehorn the old data in and reimplement systems and interfaces which don't exist in the current WOW engine. 2) Before Classic's release,…

Fair points, but do you have a source? I'm skeptical that previous versions of the game were discarded.

In terms of audience demographics, I've experienced nostalgia, but frankly I think the president had a point when he made his infamous comment. But I haven't seen any data to support any claims, beyond the existence of private servers.

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

#705

Post by JauntyHatAngle »

gowld wrote: post #658
komali2 wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

However gambling did ruin many areas of entertainment. E.g. Live music suffered immensely in my home country as pubs preferred to fill the stages with pokies as they made more money from gambling addicts then they did from having a live band around.

Same deal with games, many previously good IPs are now stuffed with gambling mechanics as the producers controlling it push for it.

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

#706

Post by m_mueller »

psyc wrote: post #614
kridsdale1 wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Squaresoft did the same thing. Their big creative "here goes the company" game was to be their final project. Final Fantasy.

Sixteen FF titles, a dozen spin offs, and two feature films later...

Sounds like one of these word documents. Fantasy_v3_4\ shared\ final\ alpha\ no-really-this-time\ beta5.docx

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

#707

Post by cuban-frisbee »

staticman2 wrote: post #20
abluecloud wrote: post #9

microsoft are seeing that the money is going to be made in a subscription model for games. by purchasing the studios it makes it much easier for them to bundle games (possibly with exclusivity) with their gamepass. i know i'm more likely to subscribe to gamepass (and keep it running for years) vs. the 1/2 games i buy a year.

I wonder if they are moving to a subscription model because players hate the Windows store and basically refuse to use it instead of Steam when purchasing games. Having failed at running a store I wonder if they've decided plan b is running a rental service.

The total market for AAA games right now is probably in the region of 250 to 300 million people if you look at the install base of xbox, playstation and pc.

With gamepass being on pc, xbox and cloud they could potentially capture a substantial part of that market and even expand it due to the low barrier of entry of xcloud or their rent to own scheme. They have 15 million subscribers now which is about 2 billion in revenue depending on the composition of their subscribers. They grew 50% in just 6 months. The potential for gamepass is therefore vast compared to traditional boxed products. If they capture 50% of the current market, thats 20 billion. That would be similar to netflix in size.

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

#708

Post by cpach »

pengstrom wrote: post #548
bobthebuild123 wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Burj Khalifa was notoriously built with more or less slave labour, so maybe not the best example.

Or maybe that was part of the point, that unfortunately some large structures are still built by people working under slave-like conditions.

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

#709

Post by basch »

WorldMaker wrote: post #632
basch wrote: post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't see it being the kind of competition that ruffles those feathers. Microsoft wants developers developers developers to fill Game Pass and run their Infrastructure on Azure, and Microsoft Hearts Open Source. Microsoft open sourcing id Tech 6, and then saying Azure/XboxStore is the best places to build your game and host it, regardless of which engine you want, is the cold war, mutually assured rising t…

Though Epic being a very loud squeaky wheel right now (versus Apple) is exactly why Microsoft may show concerns of rocking the game engine boat right now. Xbox Game Studios is using the Unreal engine in a lot of projects (Rare's projects like Sea of Thieves; though divorced from Epic for several years now, The Coalition still sometimes seems to get "second party tech demo" support from Epic on Gears) and probably cou…

I wouldn't see Microsoft pulling an EA and mandating ID tech like Frostbite. Maybe far down the road there would be a preference.

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

#710

Post by aceofspades19 »

dijit wrote: post #641
mcrider wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)!

Standard: I am not a lawyer disclaimer here. The way it was described to me was that there's two major types of fine that the canadian government will levy against large companies that dump lots of workers at once. 1) More than 50 people within a 4week period. Usually this means that the company must continue paying employment benefits on behalf of the company for a period of a year (iirc). 2) More than x% of your co…

What other Canadian state can you move the job to?
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