More games to gamepass, I see it as an absolute win...
Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
551–560 of 798 posts
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#552Earlier quoted context omitted.
I loved Fallout 4
Every game has somebody who loves it. Even that terrible Superman game. Fallout 4 wasn't total garbage, but it was huge step down from Fallout 3 or Skyrim.
> 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?
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#553Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
Microsoft is a developer company and their oldest division is developer tools. They've made several attempts into the game engine / game engine adjacent space over the years, though rarely saw wins outside of low level DirectX. (XNA will be most remembered as an indie dev play, but a key piece of XNA was its content pipeline and Microsoft tried but didn't succeed that well at trying to replace the mostly mish-mash of custom tools that most AAA studios use for content pipelines for something somewhat more standardized; though of course with the easy retrospect failure of being hobbled by focusing on Xbox first/primarily.) So productionizing id Tech 6 isn't an entirely crazy idea for Microsoft in terms of something that makes cultural sense for them. Game Engines can be an important dev tool; especially in the increasing interest in non-game capital-E Enterprise in game engines for visualization tools (including AR/MR/VR).
But yes, Microsoft seems to have a good working relationship with Unity at this point and probably wants to try to keep a good relationship with Epic, so I don't envy whatever product strategist would have to figure out if that minefield would be worth disturbing.
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#554Earlier 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.
Hm. The pyramids were an architectural and supply chain genius stroke considering when they were made. It also took fantastic human sacrifice to achieve that. One world trade center was built with the assistance of trains and semi trucks brining ore to smelters and steel to the construction site, electricity, cranes etc. Minus the slavery, have we really expended that much human effort and equivalent wealth and time…
The Large Hadron Supercollider?
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#555Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
A lot of people think that Fallout 76 did recover with the last expansion pack (and cross-play and Game Pass). Microsoft acquiring Bethesda even further insures at the very least it will stay a Game Pass mainstay for some time now. (Also, it is interesting to note that with the Bethesda purchase, Microsoft will now own "all" of Fallout and the "Fallout diaspora" caused by Interplay's death, as Microsoft already owned…
>Oblivion
Obsidian, the company is called Obsidian Entertainment.
That said, the folks at Obsidian (especially the creators of the original Fallout and New Vegas) have said they have no interest in doing a Fallout game. Tim Cain specifically mentioned during the Outer Worlds Q&A that the Fallout ship had sailed.
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#556Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Have you seen this one https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/the-outer-worlds-peril-on-... ?
NO! I didn't know this existed! Thanks for the heads up. Turning on the PS4 to buy this right now...
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#557Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft doesn't care about exclusives that much, imo. Sure, a few here and there, but overall they just want people to use their software. That's why their new "exclusive" titles are also on Xbox One. Microsoft will make money by selling their Bethesda titles to PlayStation users, etc. They might make a few of their titles exclusive, but Fallout and Doom won't be among them.
What? They absolutely will make them exclusive. Can you play Halo on the PlayStation? No, for the same reason you can’t play Uncharted on the Xbox. Microsoft will happily support Windows gaming, for obvious reasons. But the PlayStation for a franchise like Fallout or Elder Scrolls? I will believe it when I see it. It makes little strategic sense to offer those titles on Sony hardware when Microsoft have their own con…
Microsoft's Mojang titles are still on PlayStation and with the xCloud partnership with Sony, things are probably going to get weird on what is considered an "Xbox Exclusive" to the point where "Xbox on PlayStation powered by xCloud" sounds almost a reasonable expectation to happen this console generation.
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#558Earlier 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.
Hm. The pyramids were an architectural and supply chain genius stroke considering when they were made. It also took fantastic human sacrifice to achieve that. One world trade center was built with the assistance of trains and semi trucks brining ore to smelters and steel to the construction site, electricity, cranes etc. Minus the slavery, have we really expended that much human effort and equivalent wealth and time…
Pretty sure Appolo or Space Shuttle both were more expensive projects than the pyramids, even adjusted for inflation.
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#559Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For these big conglomerates, the trendy thing is to have your own games store. Complete with exclusivity deals How else are they going to get people to use these stores?
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…
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 remain locked out from buying it anywhere except UPlay + EGS. Ubisoft has moved a few things over to EGS but I love the Anno example because it landed just as EGS was gaining fame so it sits in the weird middle ground of technically being on steam but not really.
Re: Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B
#560Earlier 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…
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 Obsidian Entertainment, not Bethesda Game Studios.
Success kills? Money kills?