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March 28, 2024, 03:37:25 PM

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Microsoft buys Bethesda [split topic]

Started by brat-sampson, September 21, 2020, 02:38:40 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

brat-sampson

Microsoft just straight-up bought Bethesda/Zenimax, so expect to see all their future titles also on GamePass day 1. That's fallout, Elder Scrolls, ID Games, Arkane Software, the lot.

Insane.

oustropique

Quote from: brat-sampson on September 21, 2020, 02:38:40 PM
Microsoft just straight-up bought Bethesda/Zenimax, so expect to see all their future titles also on GamePass day 1. That's fallout, Elder Scrolls, ID Games, Arkane Software, the lot.

Insane.

This is mad. Curious about Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, though, originally timed PS5 exclusives. Will they be on XGP at launch now? If you don't have a PC, the Xbox is starting to look pretty good, especially the Series S being sold for far, far less. There are still PS5 exclusives, but Deathloop was the only original IP that grabbed me at all and made me think about a launch PS5, and Sony seemed to be keen to show it off at length each time. I'm stunned.

Woah, the saddo's on the gaming forums are going absolutely nuts over this!

Are they not forgetting about all the promising studios microsoft swallowed up and shat out?

I suppose all the individual companies are big enough and making the sort of safe bet games that microsoft want so they'll probably just let them get on with it, but still, I don't see why a huge company swallowing smaller companies is any cause for celebration.

I don't really play those sorts of games and have no console preference but I'm surprised at the reaction.

Bazooka

Microsoft lost money with the last game pass, hence why Sony has opted against a similar model, no reason it won't happen again, unless the games remain exclusively on Xbox, but again the loss of money from actual software sales when AAA games are going to cost £60 plus next generation.

Thursday

Seeing arguments for and against the idea that this will mean these Bethesda games will become Xbox exclusive, so I'm just going to put this out there and say "I don't know."


Thursday

But no not necessarily is the thing. The fact that's it's on game pass for "free" is the draw and enough to convert people over, but they still get a cut of sales on other consoles. Arguably more than they would if it was exclusive. Some people are still going to stick with Playstation no matter what which means they don't get those people's business unless it's multiplatform.

But again can see the arguments against that, which is why I say I don't know.

Thursday

Anyway apparently it's going to be a "case by case" basis

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1308062702905044993

QuoteTo answer the question everyone is asking: Phil Spencer tells
@dinabass
that Xbox plans to honor the PS5 exclusivity commitment for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.

Future Bethesda games will be on Xbox, PC, and "other consoles on a case by case basis."

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: Bazooka on September 21, 2020, 03:29:15 PM
Microsoft lost money with the last game pass, hence why Sony has opted against a similar model, no reason it won't happen again, unless the games remain exclusively on Xbox, but again the loss of money from actual software sales when AAA games are going to cost £60 plus next generation.

Is that true? I thought I read them saying game sales and dlc sales for games on the pass went up, that's why they're leaning so heavily into it.

Thursday

Yeah I don't understand that comment, seems like it's been a success for them.

druss

Can't ever remember a large company buying out a smaller company ending badly in the history of gaming. Great news.

Bazooka

Quote from: Thursday on September 21, 2020, 05:39:37 PM
Yeah I don't understand that comment, seems like it's been a success for them.

Whaddaya mean? ! No in haste, I meant to say it wasn't that profitable. And with the cost of development set to increase, developers will get an even lower return from GamePass unless system sales dwarf PS5, they'll want to sell their games for a higher profit.

Pink Gregory

God I wish Arkane were independent but I don't think Dishonored and Prey could have been made without big publisher money.   


BeardFaceMan

Quote from: Bazooka on September 21, 2020, 09:27:05 PM
Whaddaya mean? ! No in haste, I meant to say it wasn't that profitable. And with the cost of development set to increase, developers will get an even lower return from GamePass unless system sales dwarf PS5, they'll want to sell their games for a higher profit.

They don't need to sell consoles with the game pass, everyone already has a pc in their house. And from what I've seen developers so far seem very happy with their games going on game pass, so not sure where you're getting all that from.

mobias

I guess it was kind of inevitable. MS desperately needs some big beast studios to rival Sony's portfolio of first party developers. Incidentally the rumours circulating today that Sony is on the brink of announcing a buy out of Take Two Interactive and thus own Rockstar Games is total bullshit. Won't ever happen.

evilcommiedictator

Quote from: Pink Gregory on September 21, 2020, 09:37:01 PM
God I wish Arkane were independent but I don't think Dishonored and Prey could have been made without big publisher money.
I rate Prey really highly, this might be good to get another game in that world (especially after the ending....)

H-O-W-L

This is going to be total fucking shit and take a big steaming heaping shite in gaming for a while. If I'm wrong I'll do absolutely nothing and maintain my rightness-at-the-time.

Pink Gregory

First party stuff and indie might be alright (guaranteed income), but anything else...if you thought microtransactions were bad now, just wait until the EAs and the Ubisofts and the 2Ks engage in their usual behaviour when the buy-in price is lowered.

brat-sampson

So far Microsoft's more recent acquisitions seem to have been pretty unaffected by the move. Psychonauts 2 is happening, Grounded, Outer Worlds still dropped on other platforms, Ori 2 just released on the Switch etc. I'm cautiously gonna hope that this isn't like EA buying Bioware etc.

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: Pink Gregory on September 22, 2020, 03:40:32 AM
First party stuff and indie might be alright (guaranteed income), but anything else...if you thought microtransactions were bad now, just wait until the EAs and the Ubisofts and the 2Ks engage in their usual behaviour when the buy-in price is lowered.

Why would that happen? You think when games get released on multiple platforms they're going to put extra microtransactions into the xbox version? Or do you mean all games will have more microtransactions across all platforms? Because that's been happening for a while and it doesn't have anything to do with games pass, just corporate greed. And it's generally reached a peak and is kept strictly cosmetic these days, they get too much of a backlash with-pay-to-win, and if they do pay-to-win or lootboxes or anything like that they run the risk of being legislated for it, so I don't think the game pass will have too much of an effect on that.

Thursday

Yeah the situation that happened with EA and Star Wars Battlefront 2 sort of hit the crisis point for this so companies tend to be far more careful with them now. Not sure if it was leaving Activision or just covering themselves so they wouldn't have to worry about anything coming up, but Destiny for instance was always cosmetic only "loot boxes" but they changed it so was just directly buying the cosmetic items. There's been others that have shifted in this direction.

Pink Gregory

You have a point there.  And as long as MS have a good first party stable - one that I never really looked twice at last gen but now that Arkane/Machine Games/Whoever Makes Doom is in there I'm looking, and as a windows user - it could probably make a bit more space for more varied and interesting game design within that.

You'd hope so, anyway.

bgmnts

Please just keep letting Arkane and Obsidian making games without fucking them.

Please please please.

Pink Gregory

At least they won't become Kinect slaves like Rare.

evilcommiedictator

Just had a chat about this on a podcast, we reckon that Sony should officially just buy FromSoft, Rockstar and Kojima projections as a royal 'up yours' to Microsoft (given that they pretty much as PS developers).

This means we have Blazkowicz, Doom Guy and Master Chief all on one platform. I reckon they should just do a Smash Brothers style game and be done with it for all the new IP, Joanna Dark vs Doom Guy vs Commander Keen vs the guy from Fallout 4 in Power Armour vs a Dragonborn from Skyrim vs Corvo from Dishonored

Also, Apple should buy out Nintendo, and have all the shiny, overpriced hardware with kid-friendly stuff on one device ;)

Ferris


Thursday

It's completely implausible that Sony would be able to buy Rockstar/Take-Two. GTA V probably generates more in a month than Sony does as a business in an entire year[nb]This may not be based on any actual figures[/nb]

Pink Gregory

It's funny that Captain Olimar from Pikmin bashing up Samus is totally plausible in Smash, but in that Playstation All Stars thing having Parappa the Rapper being smashed up by the guy from Killzone just isn't the same


mobias

It may well be that Sony announce the buy out of a major third party studio in a tit for tat move with MS but as a few games journalists were pointing out on Twitter yesterday Sony are not a cash rich company at the moment and the PS5 may or may not sell well going into next year given the global situation. It seems unlikely.

I know a lot of Sony fanboys salivate at the idea of Sony buying Take Two and therefore owning Rockstar but there's a whole load of reasons why thats massively, massively unlikely. The economics of GTA are really complex. Obviously its the most successfully games franchise of all time but GTAV came out in 2013 and GTAVI isn't anywhere on the horizon. Its a massively expensive and time consuming game to make and more than 50% of the sales of GTA come from Xbox and PC combined so it wouldn't really make financial sense for Sony to pay over 8 billion dollars for Take Two only to take a big gamble on how much money they would make from its biggest franchise by making it exclusive to the Playstation.

The other aspect of it is that a few big companies have shown an interest in acquiring Take Two over the years, EA got to quite an advanced stage of doing so after GTAIV came out, but truthfully people balk at the idea of owning and managing Rockstar, a studio which famously operates as a law unto itself within the games industry.