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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

#671

Post by henrikschroder »

puranjay wrote: post #348
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GTA V, mainly thanks to their online offering, has been the 2nd best selling video game of all time, second only to Minecraft... which Microsoft bought in 2014 for $2.5 billion. Mind you, Minecraft's income comes from a lot of merchandise and spinoffs, whereas GTA is mainly from the game itself. I was curious; RDR 2, also a Rockstar game, is the #14 best selling game of all time apparently; I didn't know it did that…

It makes me happy to see RDR2 do well financially. It's a breathtaking game that's not just about mindless fast-paced action all the time.

And then you shoot a squirrel.

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

#672

Post by zamalek »

codezero wrote: post #669
zamalek wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> quality of game engine is completely orthogonal to how good a game is, right? That's exactly my point. I haven't once conflated the two, all of your comments have.

I’m feeling like, during the lockdown, we need to have some kind of shit throwing HN comment competition to get all the angst out of our systems. First rule: make every assumption about the other commenter’s intent. Second rule: never actually directly respond to the other commenter. It’s like code golf, but to get toxic online interactions out of our systems in a controlled environment. What do you think? :)

Sign me up :)

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

#673

Post by umvi »

Shebanator wrote: post #666
whynaut wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

take a look at Nier: Automata or Dragon Age (1-2, and/or Inquisition). Both easily enjoyable if you like ME.

These are all great games with huge art budgets. Nothing remotely indie about them.

It's like when people considered "Star Citizen" an indie game

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

#674

Post by georgeecollins »

ethbr0 wrote: post #568
georgeecollins wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many indie developers are barely making it. Some are killing it. New ideas come from indies, but sometimes from big companies too. Big companies depend on distribution and marketing, small companies depend on innovation. I have been in video games for twenty five years. It has always been like that.

Where it seems to have broken down is via vertical integration. When publishers were publishers and developers were developers (80s and 90s), it seemed like there was healthier competition. Even if there were a lot of abusive deals struck. Now that we have giant, integrated publisher + development conglomerates, there's zero incentive to step out of that structure to publish a popular indie game. It feels like news s…

I strongly disagree. No publisher or developer conglomerate dominates today more than Sega, Nintendo, or EA did at different times 25- 30 years ago. The past always looks great in retrospect. Today's ecosystem is so much more diverse.

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

#675

Post by noncoml »

zamalek wrote: post #662
noncoml wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do understand that the quality of game engine is completely orthogonal to how good a game is, right? For some reason you believe that your opinion about the game is universally true, while the opinion on the other is personal preference. You are just trying to prove that vanilla flavor is universally better than chocolate. Edit: Retracting "Borderline bigotry."

> quality of game engine is completely orthogonal to how good a game is, right? That's exactly my point. I haven't once conflated the two, all of your comments have.

> That's exactly my point. I haven't once conflated the two, all of your comments have.

How? The disagreement is if Fallout 4 was a moneygrab or not. Is that correct?

According to you it was because it "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."

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't this "conflatng" the effort gone into a game, and specifically the engine, with the quality of the game?

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

#676

Post by jtsiskin »

QuixoticQuibit wrote: post #194
curiousllama wrote: post #172

Microsoft is just trying to recreate console lock-in without having to subsidize hardware so much. (1) Microsoft is trying to expand their gaming division, but struggle with first-party games. This acquisition is an acknowledgement that MSFT needs Bethesda creatives. (2) Microsoft's big strategy right now is to build their Xbox ecosystem - they're pushing GamePass, Xcloud, etc. heavily, and trying to become Netflix f…

I don’t see how $10/mo is at all profitable with them adding all these AAA games to it.

I would assume there are more people who would pay $10 a month ($120/year) for access to all of these AAA games than there are people who buy >2 new AAA games a year (~$120/year). Thus, roughly speaking, it should be profitable. There is ~0 marginal cost for a customer playing a new game

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

#677

Post by noncoml »

codezero wrote: post #669
zamalek wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> quality of game engine is completely orthogonal to how good a game is, right? That's exactly my point. I haven't once conflated the two, all of your comments have.

I’m feeling like, during the lockdown, we need to have some kind of shit throwing HN comment competition to get all the angst out of our systems. First rule: make every assumption about the other commenter’s intent. Second rule: never actually directly respond to the other commenter. It’s like code golf, but to get toxic online interactions out of our systems in a controlled environment. What do you think? :)

I don't see it as shit throwing or being toxic. Apologies if I came across like this. I am just trying to argue about something that really doesn't matter for the sake of making arguments

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

#678

Post by georgeecollins »

phone8675309 wrote: post #572
ethbr0 wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where it seems to have broken down is via vertical integration. When publishers were publishers and developers were developers (80s and 90s), it seemed like there was healthier competition. Even if there were a lot of abusive deals struck. Now that we have giant, integrated publisher + development conglomerates, there's zero incentive to step out of that structure to publish a popular indie game. It feels like news s…

It feels like the video games industry has done the reverse of Hollywood. Hollywood went from a vertically integrated system that handled production, distribution, and exhibition by a single entity to a system where production, distribution, and exhibition were done by separate entities. It feels like game development went the reverse way.

Yes and no. Big companies do development, but they don't necessarily do more development than they used to. EA and Activision actually probably develop fewer titles than they did twenty years ago. They just spend a lot more on each title.

But again: Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Nintendo have always been vertically integrated. This is not new.

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

#679

Post by LegitShady »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #148
nindalf wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dota 2 is dying I'm old enough that I remember people saying this in 2014. Actual data on active users - https://steamcharts.com/app/570#All . This indicates that it's far from it's peak of 1.2M active players but 700k active is still respectable. > Dota 2 is by far their biggest game. Not by players. That would be CS:GO ( https://steamcharts.com/app/730 ) with 900k active players.

900k active presumably includes the 50% of Deathmatch players that are zombies? It's interesting to see there seems to be some evolutionary pressures at play as a couple of new routines are being used, not just 'rotate on the spot', one or two shoot now (yes, I got shot by an XP farming zombie) and one does epicycles which makes them surprisingly hard to shoot.

I think its actually someone in a computer lab in pakistan etc running 10 computers at a time and just selectively doing an action or two per account each round. CSGO has the same thing.

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

#680

Post by erikpukinskis »

dangoor wrote: post #382
NegatioN wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wanted to point out a small discrepancy here: As his bio on Twitter says, he's currently an independent AI researcher. But also sometimes consults for Oculus VR, although not actively employed there anymore. [0] It'd be very interesting to see if his return to Id might spark some changes :) [0]: https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack

Carmack's Facebook Connect talk last week[1] sure made him sound very plugged into what's happening at Oculus. I was surprised, given that I, too, thought he had essentially left for AI research. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXmY26pOE-Y

I am guessing Carmack "retiring" from Oculus is something akin to "went from 80 hours a week to 40".
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