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

Post by vonmoltke » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:07 PM UTC

duncanawoods wrote: post #521

criddell wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by the_duke » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 1:19 PM UTC

IanSanders wrote: post #747

the_duke wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft has hinted that it's a financial success already. It's probably the gym membership model. Developers get money for actual time played. The market of users that just play from time to time and don't really care about the 10$s is probably substantial. I fall into this category. I only really get an urge to play every few months. And unless there is some specific game I'm interested in, I just pick something f…

> re-subscribing takes just 2 button presses It always does. What about cancelling?

Post by dspillett » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 2:08 PM UTC

outworlder wrote: post #427

dspillett wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure about that. I read Alyx as a very successful tech demo intended to push the market sector out a bit and make money off the platform and hardware, rather than a renewed more games-centric direction for Valve. Much like iD's output often being tech demos for the game engines that they then license to other studios.

Tech demo? Have you played it? It's a heck of a "demo". It's about the size of Half Life 2.

Post by recursive » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 2:44 PM UTC

formerly_proven wrote: post #740

recursive wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you measure competence. Virtually every release Rockstar does sells millions. And from my point of view their games are fun too.

Rockstar makes multiplayer titles, but doesn't have an engine that's capable of dealing with that (leading to an absurd number of bugs and performance problems), and they have no security at all, so their games are only playable on not-yet-cracked consoles. Rockstar even went so far as to include a "finger of god" feature in GTA, which allowed their admins to kick players from and mess with the single player mode, ex…

Post by nottorp » Tue, Sep 22, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

account42 wrote: post #776

nottorp wrote: post #131

Hmm, MS buying Obsidian was sad news, mainly because their titles became inaccessible on Mac/Linux. This, not so much. Fallout 3 was the last great Bethesda title. Well and New Vegas but that was Obsidian. Completely lost interest in them with Fallout 76. Edit: Oh wait, there's also Dishonored since Arkane is owned by ZeniMax. But that was never available on non-windows OSes so it's not much of a loss.

> Hmm, MS buying Obsidian was sad news, mainly because their titles became inaccessible on Mac/Linux. Don't forget inXile. Still waiting on that Linux version of Wasteland 3.