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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

#481

Post by macspoofing »

phone8675309 wrote: post #103
wpdev_63 wrote: post #7

Holy sh!t. Bethesda is huge! Well I was just thinking the other day that Microsoft really doesn't have any first party studio that are really as good as Sony's first party. IMO they didn't release a game 'this' gen that makes picking up a xbox one worth it. This could change that with fallout and doom. Also this allows them to bring the ID tech engine under their stewardship.... I just hope that they don't trash the…

There's no way they could trash any franchise worse than Bethesda has trashed Fallout.

I think that's overstating it. Fallout 4 was well received even if it was a little disappointing. So it really is just Fallout 76. They can recover from that, especially considering that Fallout 76 wasn't even a proper mainline sequel.

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

#482

Post by mywittyname »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #233
bzalasky wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, The Outer Worlds was right there with Witcher 3 as one of the best games this generation. It really does feel like Fallout, but perhaps somewhat less open world when you're actually on a planet b/c of map boundaries and enemies too dangerous for your level to keep you on track. The diverging story lines and open space travel (once you get the requisite navkey to be able to land) compensate for that somewhat.

While it IS a great game, it's REALLY short. I've been hoping for a surprise DLC to expand the content. (There are several other planets in the galaxy map you can't travel to. Hint, hint.) I hope the game did well enough to get a larger treatment in Outer Worlds 2.

It does feel more like a tech demo than a complete game.

I thoroughly enjoyed it none-the-less.

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

#483

Post by gabereiser »

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).

My daughter became an overwatch pro-am (she’s in college now). So I have a slightly different take. Overwatch was extremely successful new IP.

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

#485

Post by johnnyanmac »

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…

  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 find a publisher to pitch and give your IP rights to in exchange for stability. The latter is just harder to do nowadays

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

#486

Post by macspoofing »

basch wrote: post #331
wpdev_63 wrote: post #7

Holy sh!t. Bethesda is huge! Well I was just thinking the other day that Microsoft really doesn't have any first party studio that are really as good as Sony's first party. IMO they didn't release a game 'this' gen that makes picking up a xbox one worth it. This could change that with fallout and doom. Also this allows them to bring the ID tech engine under their stewardship.... I just hope that they don't trash the…

>Also this allows them to bring the ID tech engine under their stewardship.... I'm surprised that isnt more commented on here. Everyone is focused on creative IP. Owning id Tech 6 is or should be a play against Epic, Unity, Crytek etc. 1-4 were open source, and ZeniMax clamped down 5-6. I can see Microsoft marketing id Tech's long open source history, and transforming it into an Amazon Lumberyard competitor.

>Owning id Tech 6 is or should be a play against Epic, Unity, Crytek etc.

Does Microsoft even want to compete against their customers/partners in this space? After all, MS may not want to alienate them to the point they won't release their games for the Xbox.

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

#487

Post by DubiousPusher »

francis_t_catte wrote: post #22

Soon we'll just have Microsoft, Epic, and a conglomeration of EA, Activision, and Ubisoft after Bobby Kotick forces them all to merge. Facebook will bungle up any chance they have of capturing the gaming market after writing a cryptic paragraph about their legal right to request blood samples from all Oculous users in the TOS. Valve will quietly exit software development altogether, and pivot to building custom vanit…

I don't think it's fair to include Microsoft in that list. They buy game studios so they can close them and shelve their IP after several attempts to turn beloved franchises into GAAS products. They're less of a game studio conglomerator and more of a recycling bin.

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

#488

Post by bobthebuild123 »

teddyh wrote: post #461
cpach wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same about the movie business. Indie films can be awesome, but some kinds of movies are hard to do without a large budget.

Pyramids are hard to build without a super-feudal economy and society. But we got rid of that, losing the practical ability to make pyramids in the process, because we value other things like democracy higher.

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.

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

#489

Post by macspoofing »

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…

>Bethesda Games are not going not be exclusive to Xbox

The biggest problem that Microsoft has with the Xbox is lack of AAA exclusives. If the next Elder Scrolls game is going to be released for Xbox and PS5 - what's the point of this exercise?

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

#490

Post by paulpan »

likeclockwork wrote: post #448
paulpan wrote: post #433

Having just watched Netflix vs. the World documentary ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8407418/ ) last week, this acquisition seems to be inevitable as game streaming is taking off and will eventually become the defacto means of playing video games. Microsoft's endgame is to increase the subscribers to its GamePass subscription so akin to Netflix's insatiable appetite for video content, Microsoft's will be for video ga…

I don't see how both game streaming and high resolution/high refresh rate displays can both be the future. The bandwidth requirements will keep going up and high resolution particle effects can create terrible compression artifacts. Local processing power is also not standing still in time, the capability a given price purchases is increasing year upon year. Do you imagine a future where people have limitless bandwid…

Agreed that bandwidth and latency remains a challenge for most people today, especially for non-urban dwellers. For streaming to be the norm, there has to be a fundamental change in how ISPs treat internet connectivity and how the government regulates it. Maybe I'm overly optimistic in how things will play on in this front - in addition to newer technologies like SpaceX's Starlink platform.

The main point is that Microsoft is pivoting its gaming approach to the "gaming-as-a-service" and selling subscriptions, rather than the previous one of selling hardware and individual games. The digital-only editions of both the upcoming new Xbox and Playstation underscore this - plus you can even buy a subscription bundled with a console. Buying up studios help them achieve this vision.

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