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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

#761

Post by RealStickman_ »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #653
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…

> 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. There isn't a conspiracy here. Epic pays developers to make certain games (like Control) temporarily exclusive to EGS. Other developers, like CD Project RED, have not made such a deal, and thus Cyberpunk 2077 is available on many different…

I meant the case of DARQ, where the developer was specifically told to either go exclusive or every other store with no possibility of selling on EGS and other stores. [1] According to the article other indie games got similar offers, while the big budget ones can go to multiple stores.

[1] https://www.dsogaming.com/news/epic-games-wanted-darq-as-an-...

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

#762

Post by rawbot »

AlexC04 wrote: post #401
awill wrote: post #274

It's unfortunate that the Xbox Series X and PS5 are so, so, so similar. It seems stupid to have to purchase 2 nearly identical boxes. It's not just the console. You then need multiple controllers for each, and possibly other accessories (Sony has a PS5 specific headset, camera, charger, will have a PS5 VR etc.) I've historically preferred PS exclusives (Uncharted, Spiderman, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn), and the cr…

I've been a Playstation gamer since the PS2. I have multiple PS4s and a library of over 1000 games in my digital account. With that context laid out that I am a big-time PS user, looking at the XBOX game pass subscription model where you get the console for free is REALLY tempting. In every market I've looked at, there is a deal that works out to about $30 a month for two years. They give you the console, instant acc…

I don't think there's any payment plan that nets you the console for free? The payment plans are good on their own right, because you aren't paying much more (or slightly less) if your plan was to get a Series S + Gold + Game Pass (Gamepass Ultimate). But there's no plan where you get it for free.

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

#763

Post by dijit »

aceofspades19 wrote: post #756
dijit wrote: post #739

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

To be perfectly fair with you it's a mistake I commonly make as I'm not exactly interacting with Canadian provinces and it has very little to do with my day to day.

What I am repeating is a "fact" I've heard multiple times from multiple executives and I live half a world away, I've never been truly interested in what the various political systems are in Canada (or the US, or Mexico, or wherever) but I am acutely aware of different laws in those countries too.

For instance in some states in the US it is legal to turn right on red.

If I use the wrong terminology when referencing county or region then it has little bearing on the things I've actually heard.

I never claimed to be an expert on Canadian law, just that I had heard this anecdote and I'm trying to say as often as I can that I'm not an expert in law or Canada itself.

I understand your point, but it _is_ rather pedantic as it doesn't actually change anything about what I said to get it wrong.

I'm sure you know very little about how Switzerland is segmented but you are aware of the direct democracy antics of the country.

Ignorance of one thing does not preclude knowledge of another.

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

#764

Post by gambiting »

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.

So.....no, because gamer press is ruthless :P We've had one graphical bug in one of our games(which I'm certain everyone on the internet has seen by this point), and in reality it was only happening if you played on one specific GeForce card, and only when using beta Nvidia drivers. But of course no one cared that the bug only happened when using experimental drivers - it was somehow a proof of how broken our games are. If this(the vulkan backend) lead to any graphical bugs in our games, I can almost guarantee that they would be paraded everywhere, no matter how clearly we mark it as experimental and unfinished.

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

#765

Post by dkersten »

chaostheory wrote: post #700
dkersten wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s ok. It scratched that “Bethesda fallout” itch better than Bethesda did, but ultimately I found it got a bit monotonous and dull after a little while. It’s not a bad game, but it’s no masterpiece.

Yeah, I didn't like it either. The graphics are good, but there was nothing that made me want to keep going; the writing just wasn't good. It's one of the best games ever since I wasn't tempted to play for just "5 more minutes". No loss in productivity.

I played a good chunk and then I decided to see what would happen if i just shot everyone. I mean literally everyone, civilians, guards, everyone. I was disappointed to see that this tactic could actually have carried me to the end (I played a good 20% of the game like this to see how far I could push it and... I just didn’t hit any major resistance so in the end got bored and gave up — a little bit after deorbiting the ship, for context. It’s my understanding that’s reasonably close to the end although I can’t be sure since I didn’t continue)

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

#766

Post by account42 »

Osiris wrote: post #384
logicOnly wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the inevitable trend of gaming since the 90s. Small team makes innovative and interesting game. Gets bought, makes a good sequel, then milks IP forever. It's up to you to move on.

The trend is definitely moving away from many separate games and toward "living" games. Look at how many games these days end up just doing updates/DLCs over many years rather than releasing whole new versions of the game. Look at Destiny, there was originally planned for Destiny 3, but now the plan is just to make Destiny 2 the only game for the next 10 years with constant content updates. Even now, Destiny 2 of tod…

From a historical preservation viewpoint I find this trend extremely disturbing. Along with online requirements this makes it more and more impossible to experience older games the way they used to be. Even for completely single player games, online content distribution platforms tend to only give you the latest version (except for a few games where the developers specifically set up legacy branches), often even refusing to launch an already installed game until available updates are downloaded. If updates were only bugfixes that would not be a problem, but it is not unheard of for post-launch changes to significantly change the core mechanics of games.

This is a significant step down from the old phsical media distribution model where any changes from the initial master were optional.

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

#767

Post by mattmanser »

Sander_Marechal wrote: post #750
mattmanser wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ESO has been pretty successful, 15 million players: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjagneaux/2020/03/30/elder-... I'd guess that the article has it wrong and they're mainly on the free tier and that's not the subscriber count though.

ESO has no free tier. You need to buy the base game.

I forgot, that's true. But it wasn't a big hit on release, I'd imagine the vast majority of those are bought when it's on sale, like the steam summer sale.

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

#768

Post by antonyh »

Tsiklon wrote: post #112
antonyh wrote: post #91

Bethesda has become formulaic, with the elements of gameplay virtually the same amongst titles. Same across the board really, not much genre-defying for quite a while. Outer Worlds, Fallout, and so on just differ by visuals and story, the general jist is all samey samey. No innovation. No just single series but across the estate. Nothings been as good as Fallout 3 & Skyrim, just repetitions and echoes of greatness. I…

The Outer Worlds was by Obsidian (founded by former Black Isle developers), and was unrelated to Bethesda’s games. Now of course with this announcement Obsidian and Bethesda are sister studios.

Really? I can hardly tell the difference in gameplay elements, so I thought them to be the same.

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

#769

Post by antonyh »

scollet wrote: post #376
antonyh wrote: post #91

Bethesda has become formulaic, with the elements of gameplay virtually the same amongst titles. Same across the board really, not much genre-defying for quite a while. Outer Worlds, Fallout, and so on just differ by visuals and story, the general jist is all samey samey. No innovation. No just single series but across the estate. Nothings been as good as Fallout 3 & Skyrim, just repetitions and echoes of greatness. I…

> Nothings been as good as Fallout 3 The irony is beyond my mortal understanding, but NV certainly flagships the IP today, behind maybe 2. Both different developers.

I hated NV. It added complexity in crafting without joy for me.

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

#770

Post by antonyh »

ben_e wrote: post #117
antonyh wrote: post #91

Bethesda has become formulaic, with the elements of gameplay virtually the same amongst titles. Same across the board really, not much genre-defying for quite a while. Outer Worlds, Fallout, and so on just differ by visuals and story, the general jist is all samey samey. No innovation. No just single series but across the estate. Nothings been as good as Fallout 3 & Skyrim, just repetitions and echoes of greatness. I…

Outer Worlds and Fallout come from two different developers.

Perhaps staff crossed over between the two companies?
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