Microsoft acquires Zenimax/Bethesda

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Haha. These are the kind of megatons I love to see. Get balls-y, go big. Take and make those risky shots. There are so many potential possibilities here for the consumer to consider now. And it DOES affect me. I wasn't planning on getting a Series X at launch, but damn announce something so big the day before pre-orders go live? Just makes the deal sweeter. This past gen I've loved a TON of Bethesda games, despite their main stuff being the usual Gamebryo engine buggy messes. Arkane are amazing. My friends and I were talking about how we wished Sony and MS really went harder this gen, giving reasons to buy into each ecosystem. Hopefully they both keep fighting for the consumer's dollar.

My predictions:
  • Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop are contractually obligated to be finished and released to Sony. Just like Obsidian and InXile's deals.
  • Will they have Bethesda Studios future games be exclusive? I suspect not. As some showed its meant to bolster Gamepass. It really does as well, with more frequent releases.
  • If they are not exclusive what will PS game launches and support look like? Will games release latter or lacking features? Mod support? That was better on Xbox though obviously pc trumps it.
  • If games are exclusive, which I actually kind of wish they were, as exclusives give value to a hardware purchase, it would give MS a pretty big hand to play. I have at least half of my friends list and know many more who love Skyrim, ESO, Fallout, Doom and much more that will flip their shit at this news.
  • MS needs to come out and say whether these games will be exclusive, what perks there are to investing the Xbox ecosystem outside of GP. Otherwise if they all stay multiplatform then PS fans needn't panic. For now. Things could change further down the line, they could go more "anti-consumer" and go back on their "exclusives" stance.
So its quite the surprise. I want a competitive industry. Give me reasons to invest in your box. I love old Bethesda games, but still enjoyed Fallout 4 a great deal, even F76 with my friends for a bit. I love Doublefine and Psychonauts and need to play part 2. Arkane with Dishonored and Prey were amazing and I hope they are given the ability to really make games like that again despite the low sales. Tango with The Evil Within also means a lot to me, with TEW 2 being my game of 2017 and that year was incredible for games. I am still worried about the left-leaning lurch in gaming, such as the stuff in Wolfenstein 2 and that sequel. Japanese and other asian devs are my main focus, but when it comes to western (and one eastern) devs its not bad. Plus Wasteland 3 is a fantastic game. Never thought I'd see MS get so rpg focused. For a big megaton on a Monday the day before preorders go live, it makes me want to get a Series X. I just might. Well done.
 
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I decided to wake up early to get my sleep schedule back on track and was thinking it was gonna be a slog. Totally freaking woke right now.

Oooohh, it's gonna be fun reading the... well actually with something this big this entire thread is gonna be read and re-read worthy for a long time to come.... Fug me man.

What this means for gamepass... I don't care if anything is exclusive, I'd rather their games be able to come to all platforms because I can imagine how I would feel if I owned a box that once played their games and suddenly didn't have the one needed to play them now, but at least bring these amazing games to gamepass. That would be an incredible value.

Literally the biggest non political news of 2020... It's gonna be a while till I can fully process this. Gat dang.
 
CatLady said:
OMG! OMG! It's just hitting ---- Xbox owns Fallout and Edler Scrolls. This is insane and 100 times better than WB would have been.
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I feel like Brian Fargo wants to make an AAA Wasteland game. MS should not shove Fallout down their throat. And Obsidian wants to expand PoE and TOW world.
 
This is absolutely a holy shit moment. Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Starfield, Doom, etc are now exclusive to Xbox and PC. Those are heavy hitters no longer appearing on PlayStation.

Sony should counter by buying Take Two.
 
Clarissa said:
According to my friend who is a Nintendo fanboy who hates Sony, they are selling buildings to keep afloat to stem the bleeding. They have been in the red for a long time.

I also heard the head honchos at Sony are only having left over egg sushi and miso soup for dinner instead of their usual ootoro, unagi and sake.
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I can believe you, there is no free lunch for employees in many companies. 😂
 
Angel of BOOM! said:
Thinking about this, I'd be surprised if these games aren't still released on PlayStation. Means they can get some profit on PlayStation and make them "free" on Gamepass.

They do something similar with Steam.

Making then exclusive is just leaving too much money on the table.
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They'll leave it if makes the projections better. And Sony has been trying to have it's cake and eat it too.

I wouldn't be surprised if MSFT said, gives us yours and we'll give you ours..quid pro quo that bitch all day.
 
Clear said:
They could do once all current obligations are completed. Its basically the same situation as Outer Worlds and Obsidian. They'll finish up what they are contracted for and then are free to do what they want.

The main thing to consider here is that they've just bought a publisher, which is a business in its own right that formerly has kept itself afloat by selling multi-platform offerings. So, going forwards they either try and maintain that business model, but kick-back with priority deals to Xbox, or they basically abandon those revenue streams and go all in as a vassal of the MS mothership.

My feeling is that they'll go the former route, because ultimately they still have to answer to MS senior management and their stock-holders so as to assure them that they aren't simply riding the gravy-train.
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I don't think that's correct in this case, they bought Zenimax. Unlike Outer Worlds where Private Division has a contract to with Obsidian to publish the Outer Worlds, Zenimax/BGS was the publisher and they are now XGS.

I admit I could be mistaken there though
 
Alphagear said:
Handled well in what sense?

What games have they made since Microsoft acquired them?

90% of the new acquisitions haven't even made a game yet for Microsoft.

Microsoft couldn't handle one studio called Rare. They now have 20 plus to handle.
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Games are not made in a year. The first acquisition batch happened in 2018 and its only been 2 years.
 
Hotty Botty said:
This is absolutely a holy shit moment. Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Starfield, Doom, etc are now exclusive to Xbox and PC. Those are heavy hitters no longer appearing on PlayStation.

Sony should counter by buying Take Two.
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More like Capcom, or SEGA or Fromsoftware, cause Take Two is more worth than Sony itself. I don't think they can afford Taketwo.
 
Bethesda games will not go exclusive they will be on Playstation, Nintendo, android ect. MIcrosoft is growing beyond petty hardware wars.
 
Megaton, holy shit
 
DeltaPolarBear said:
That reason is called Minecraft.
Microsoft could make Minecraft exclusive to Xbox at any time. And they still can. But they won't, because doing so loses them money.
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Are you sure about that? Minecraft is a special case, probably because Notch made very specific demands for the sale.
 
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BIg news but changes little in the near term.

The only big game coming soon from Bethesda was/is Elder Scrolls 7, which is likely 2022 or something. Even then, it's up in the air whether this is PC and Xbox exclusive. It might even be on PS4/XB1! Next Fallout is several years away unless Fallout 76 is the next direction and AAA Fallout is over.

If you buy these games on PC nothing at all changes.
 
I'm sure they are still going to release games on PlayStation that's to big of a market to exclude. Probably be just like mojang is right now
 
Hix said:
Psst. He's talking about Gamepass and xCloud.

I know this must be upsetting for you, you'll be busy getting an avatar change after all.
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Why would this be upsetting to me? I cracked a joke. Do you know how many of those games I own? Zero. The only one that kinda bothers me if it goes "exclusive" is Doom because it's a game I'd like to try sometime in the PS5.

As said in the next-gen thread, I sincerely hope MS whips Bethesda into shape, their games have been embarrassing.

Finally, my avatar is perfect and I'll be keeping it.
 
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Wow... that's awful. Sucks to see another big publisher get consolidated. I play all of their games on PC anyway, but I do not like the idea of Microsoft owning them at all. I thought they were kicking ass as a publisher, too. Oh well.
 
FlyyGOD said:
Rare hasn't been in its prime for over a decade . They weren't in their prime when MS aquired them. Rare were making N64 games last time in their prime.
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You should have a go o Sea of Thieves, launched like a demo, now it's really quite something
 
Rockstar Games Studios - If the competition were to acquire them then gamers would be obligated to both platforms.

As it stands, XBOX has won a large share of profit without showing off a single true next gen IP.

That's powerful if you think about it.
 
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That's a big investment for a publisher/studio that has been continuously declining in quality. But Bethesda is a big name, they have huge franchises and maybe Microsoft can work with them and get them to finally ditch their terrible engines/programming. That would be a godsend.
 
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CatLady said:
OMG! OMG! It's just hitting ---- Xbox owns Fallout and Edler Scrolls. This is insane and 100 times better than WB would have been.
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Think of the possibilities.

Fallout 1 and 2 remaster
Fallout Tactics 2 made by Inexile
Fallout 5 a colab between obisidian and inexile
Fallout NV 2?

randymarshjizz.gif
 
Noooo given the actual policy of MS we can now say goodbye to those games being dubbed in to many languages including my native language spanish...
 
FlyyGOD said:
Rare hasn't been in its prime for over a decade . They weren't in their prime when MS aquired them. Rare were making N64 games last time in their prime.
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Rare was acquired almost 2 decades ago in the early 2000s.

They were purchased after their success on N64. Their last major releases being Donkey Kong 64, Conkers Bad Fur day and Star Fox Adventures.

Rare was very much a top tier developer when Microsoft acquired them.
 
FunkMiller said:



If Bethesda games aren't going to be exclusive to XBox, this ain't quite the big deal it seems...
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He's Microsoft's bitch now. He'll do what he's told. There isn't a hope in hell PS owners will ever get their hands on future Bethesda games.
 
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