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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

#751

Post by gpderetta »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #476
qchris wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I began gaming for the first time (unless you count playing on my roommates' XBox in college) this past week, mostly for The Witcher 2/3--both on Linux. The Witcher 3 was never supposed to run on my platform, but somehow Steam and Proton/Wine made that not only possible but actually enjoyable. I know technically they're doing it to make money, but I can't help like feel it's also something of a labor of love as well.…

If you want to be cynical, Proton was made from the scraps of a contingency plan that was the Steam Machine. When they realized that Microsoft wasn't going to force their platform onto users, they gave up on Steam Machines and I guess they leveraged the tech to something else.

I think that it is a bit more complex than that. Their original plan was for native[1] gaming on Linux.

When it proved hard to bootstrap that and seeing that the Steam Machine itself they started looking for options. Wine was already pretty good but DX11 support was bad. I do not know if it was serendipity that DXVK started showing promises around they same time they started looking into wine or whether it was the reason for them focusing into wine in the first place.

The rest is history, although the side effect is that it pretty much killed native ports for AAA games on Linux [2].

[1] for some values of native. Many, most, ports are based on internal close source equivalent of wine.

[2] I do not really care about native vs proton, but it would be nice if game companies did officially support proton.

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

#752

Post by [deleted] »

apatters wrote: post #94
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…

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…

[deleted]

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

#753

Post by MaxBarraclough »

jhasse wrote: post #736
monsieurbanana wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I'd like that, I can hear from here the outcries from the gaming community. "Your game is bugged! It doesn't work! I want a refund!" "But the vulkan renderer is only tested on Stadia, it's not officially supported and the game is free." "I. Want. A. Refund."

Make it a command line flag ;)

Not a bad idea, especially if it's something like --experimental-vulkan. Unlikely to get blamed if it goes wrong, that way.

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

#754

Post by rawbot »

vlunkr wrote: post #604
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…

As long as no one buys From Software everything will be ok. Praise the Sun.

There's been already 2 Playstation exclusives from From Software, Bloodborne and Demon's Souls (original and remake), so you never know.

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

#755

Post by rawbot »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #753
jhasse wrote: post #736

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make it a command line flag ;)

Not a bad idea, especially if it's something like --experimental-vulkan . Unlikely to get blamed if it goes wrong, that way.

Or a beta branch in Steam.

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

#756

Post by aceofspades19 »

dijit wrote: post #739
aceofspades19 wrote: post #725

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of which are states.

A federated state and a province are interchangeable terms. They have more specific names in some places, e.g. oblasts, emirates, etc. In much of the world the term state is usually used to refer to sovereign states unless directly talking about the US. But you knew what I meant and are being pedantic.

My point is you can't write a long post about Canadian law, use the wrong terminology and expect to be taken seriously. It's not like its commonly referred to as the Ontario state or state of Quebec. It would be like if I was talking about US law and said the territory of Maryland. It is technically a territory as in "an area of land under the jurisdiction of a ruler or state" but no one refers to it as the territory of Maryland either formally or informally and also makes my post less credible as it sounds like I don't know what I am talking about.

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

#757

Post by rawbot »

websap wrote: post #685
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…

Yup, I have the same feeling. I've had an Xbox since the Xbox 360 days: Xbox 360 -> Xbox One S -> Xbox One X But, looking at the different showcases. Definitely getting a PS5 this time. I don't do many multi-player games and actually enjoy story based single player games. Looking forward to play God of War, Unchartered, Spider Man, etc. Maybe this will give Microsoft the boost they need to make some fun next gen game…

Then you might be getting the best deal with the new PS Plus Collection offer. You'll get to play some of the best games of the past generation immediately on release of the PS5.

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

#758

Post by MrDresden »

grawprog wrote: post #411
nonbirithm wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>if a Steam monopoly would have been any better for consumers and developers. Well steam runs on and is actively supported on linux, Epic takes games that used to support linux then removes linux support and makes the games exclusive to their store. So for me personally, a steam monopoly would be better. The epic game store's existence has actually caused games to be removed from the platform I use. It's taken away c…

Now I'm curious, what title previously destined to have linux support and distribution on multiple storefronts did Epic do this to?

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

#759

Post by RealStickman_ »

lagadu wrote: post #748
RealStickman_ wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exclusivity deals were disruptive because they took games that were promised to come to steam and made them exclusive. The customer has no benefit from the lower cut epic charges. Epic doesn't treat everyone equally. Big games like Cyberpunk 2077 are allowed to also sell on other platforms, while smaller games either go exclusive or go with everyone else. Competition is good, but I'd rather have GOG be that compe…

Should we also rail against Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo for paying developers to make games exclusive to their platforms?

No, because it's clear from the beginning what platforms their games will support. That wasn't the case with Metro Exodus [1] for example and one other indie game I can't remember the name off.

[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/metro-exodus-pulled-from-s...

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

#760

Post by account42 »

lagadu wrote: post #748
RealStickman_ wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The exclusivity deals were disruptive because they took games that were promised to come to steam and made them exclusive. The customer has no benefit from the lower cut epic charges. Epic doesn't treat everyone equally. Big games like Cyberpunk 2077 are allowed to also sell on other platforms, while smaller games either go exclusive or go with everyone else. Competition is good, but I'd rather have GOG be that compe…

Should we also rail against Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo for paying developers to make games exclusive to their platforms?

Yes
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