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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

#711

Post by tomlin »

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…

You're getting downvoted because you are talking from a place of objectivity. From my understanding (outside of the Wii U), aren't they the only company not losing money on consoles - even now? Why would you bring up "selling themselves" when talking about a company founded in 1889? None of the competitors existed that long - using your logic, Sony and Microsoft might as well count their last days.

"It eventually became one of the most prominent figures in today's video game industry, being the world's largest video game company by revenue"

i.e. on the verge of bankruptcy according to ^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nintendo

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

#712

Post by chrysoprace »

Noos wrote: post #629
acolumb wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that funny when Among Us (indie) and Fall Guys (also indie) are some of the highest-trending games at the moment.

Both of them are free, though. The former one only got this push due to streamers suddenly playing it together. These are kind of "meme of the moment" games more than anything, in the same way VR Chat was a bit ago, or Five Nights at Freddy's.

On what platforms are they free? They're paid games on all the platforms I know of.

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

#713

Post by hellotomyrars »

b0rsuk wrote: post #399
tubularhells wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Phoenix Point was a game I cared about a lot. Then one day, they announced they would not be making a Linux version. Not long after they announced it will be Epic exclusive for a year.

Is it fair to blame the developers or blame Epic?

Personally I think at the very least the developers deserve equal blame for accepting the bag of money from Epic.

Money is a strong motivator but the Phoenix Point devs chose to break promises from crowdfunding to accept it. I think that reflects worse on them than it does Epic personally.

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

#714

Post by MikusR »

aqme28 wrote: post #393
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.

Maybe not "indie," but you don't have to look to the big 4 publishers for the best FPS and open-world action games these days. Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 came out of CDProject Red. My favorite FPS of the last few years (Hunt: Showdown) came out of Crytek.

Cdproject costs some 4 billion more than Microsoft paid for Zenimax.

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

#715

Post by amatecha »

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…

That was my big problem with Fallout 3, it felt like an Oblivion total conversion... I had difficulty enjoying it because it still "felt" like Oblivion in so many ways, to me :(

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

#716

Post by zerocrates »

chrysoprace wrote: post #712
Noos wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of them are free, though. The former one only got this push due to streamers suddenly playing it together. These are kind of "meme of the moment" games more than anything, in the same way VR Chat was a bit ago, or Five Nights at Freddy's.

On what platforms are they free? They're paid games on all the platforms I know of.

Fall Guys was "free" on PS4 at launch in the sense that it was included in PS+.

Among Us is just really cheap (free to play on its original mobile platforms, I believe, but that's not really the source of its current moment of popularity).

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

#717

Post by chrysoprace »

zerocrates wrote: post #716
chrysoprace wrote: post #712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On what platforms are they free? They're paid games on all the platforms I know of.

Fall Guys was "free" on PS4 at launch in the sense that it was included in PS+. Among Us is just really cheap (free to play on its original mobile platforms, I believe, but that's not really the source of its current moment of popularity).

Being included as part of a paid service seems a like a liberal use of the word "free".

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

#718

Post by zerocrates »

freeone3000 wrote: post #536
sailingparrot wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Targeting all platforms means the Zenimax division within Microsoft will make more money. Targeting only Xbox means more Xbox will be sold, so Xbox division will make more money. It's not clear which one is a better deal for MS.

They promised with last-gen Xbox One, and have followed it up, that all first-party games that launch for Xbox will also launch for PC. (Originally this extended to all games, but some late releases were xbox-only.) There are no xbox-only games for Xbox Series announced, from any publisher, that are not available for PC.

Microsoft's Xbox+PC strategy is pretty much taken for granted now, "exclusivity" between Microsoft and Sony now means "just Xbox and PC" or "just Playstation (and sometimes PC)."

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

#719

Post by lmm »

dijit wrote: post #647
munk-a wrote: post #559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have one particular example of this I love since it happened right on the borderline. I own Anno 1800 on steam, but if you don't you can't (at least for the foreseeable and likely future) - Ubisoft pulled Anno from the steam storefront shortly after launch but ! Probably due to some contract shinnanegans with steam, they continue to offer expansions + DLC to users who own Anno already on steam while new users remai…

Be a bit mindful blaming ubisoft for stuff vanishing from Steam. A significantly large part of why Ubisoft started cozying up to Epic was not because of the 5% stake tencent has in it. It was because Steam pulls all kinds of nasty shenanigans but ubisoft will not state any of it publicly because it would hurt their relationship. Steam has outright pulled all ubisoft games before, and ubisoft took the blame. People as…

Having bought a Ubisoft game on Steam and having to sit there for minutes while uplay updates itself when I just wanted to play for 10 minutes or so, I have very little sympathy for you.

> We gave UK players of AC:Syndicate a country specific hat which wouldn't have made sense to the global market.

So Valve makes sure that players from different countries get the same content? As a UK expat that's something I'm glad of.

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

#720

Post by GreenWatermelon »

CivBase wrote: post #498
gregjw wrote: post #71

The year is 2040. Gigaconglomerates Tencent, Activision Blizzard Ubisoft (ABU), Microsoft and Apple gatekeep the entire gaming industry. Rebel guerilla groups of small publishers and indie developers rise up to take control of their encampments.

I think you severely underestimate the piles of money Nintendo is sitting on if you don't think they'll make it to 2040. Sony is also big enough, diverse enough, and well-established enough that I doubt they would have trouble weathering one or two bad console generations back-to-back. And let's not forget 2K, 505 Games, Chucklefish, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Deep Silver, Devolver Digital, EA, Epic Games, Focus Home, Gea…

And a shit ton of smaller studios and indie devs
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