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Microsoft / Activision Deal Approval Watch |OT| (MS/ABK close)

Do you believe the deal will be approved?


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    886
  • Poll closed .
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Looking at an impressive success of Starfield.
I cannot wait to see even more impressive success of the next Call of Duty without PlayStation!
Starfield has done great. Tons of gamers. Already hit 10M in 3 weeks. As for sales, of course it wont chart high as it's on GP. Tons of xbox and PC subbers grab it off the sub plan.

That's like saying Fortnite or Warzone have done poorly because it never shows up on a sales chart.

As for PS, relax. COD is on PS for 10 years. You'll have to wait till the year 2033 to see if your wish comes true. And that assumes MS even pulls COD off the platform.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Alicia Silverstone Reaction GIF
 
Longterm most of these studios will be divested, shut down (Lionsgate), stop producing games (The Initiative), or remain as a shell (Arkane). Look at what's happening with Embracer.

Sony will be fine amidst all this; their strategy is solid. The only problem with Microsoft's strategy is that the overall industry will suffer.
Hopefully blizzard finally gets put to sleep.
 

SABRE220

Member
In 10-15-20 years? The world will be fucked up, imo, and MS hegemony on the VG market will be the least of my concern...
The world is more hardy than we think as is the human race, we will adapt. The world is definitely on the wrong path but it will take a century atleast for it to get to alarming levels. That being said with Microsoft I see them strongarming next gen unless by some miracle regulators get some actual backing and power back or Microsoft loses interest in phils project and pulls a nokia.
 
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Damn, it's finally feeling real.

All these fucking franchises on Game Pass:
  • Call of Duty games
  • Crash Bandicoot games
  • Diablo games (Diablo IV!!)
  • Spyro games
  • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games

I don't even know how I'm going to find time to play all this shit, but I'm not complaining.

It's crazy because on one hand it seems like such a big deal. Then on the other hand I look at this list and literally nothing interest me at all. D4 would have but the game has been a giant disappointment.

I was worried about GP and all these sub services but honestly lately with Xbox HW sales dropping YOY consistently now and GP subs stalling for most of 2022. As well as sub services stalling industry wide. I'm just not worried anymore. I think the consumer has spoken. Seeing MS be so far off target as well based on their own projections was also nice to see. I think sub services are a great deal don't get me wrong but I don't think they are good for gaming and what they will do to it.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
It's crazy because on one hand it seems like such a big deal. Then on the other hand I look at this list and literally nothing interest me at all. D4 would have but the game has been a giant disappointment.

I was worried about GP and all these sub services but honestly lately with Xbox HW sales dropping YOY consistently now and GP subs stalling for most of 2022. As well as sub services stalling industry wide. I'm just not worried anymore. I think the consumer has spoken. Seeing MS be so far off target as well based on their own projections was also nice to see. I think sub services are a great deal don't get me wrong but I don't think they are good for gaming and what they will do to it.

Consumers haven't responded because there just hasn't been enough big games to push the service to the next level thus far. That's kind of the whole point of this acquisition, the Bethesda acquisition, and all of these Xbox Game Studios making big games that will be dropping in the coming years.


It's easy to ignore a subscription service when it's biggest title is Halo Infinite from a year ago. It becomes much harder when games like Starfield, Call of Duty, Diablo, Fable, Forza, Hellblade II, Avowed, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, The Outer Wilds II, Indiana Jones, DOOM, Wolfenstein, etc.. etc.. are dropping every few months.
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
It's crazy because on one hand it seems like such a big deal. Then on the other hand I look at this list and literally nothing interest me at all. D4 would have but the game has been a giant disappointment.

I was worried about GP and all these sub services but honestly lately with Xbox HW sales dropping YOY consistently now and GP subs stalling for most of 2022. As well as sub services stalling industry wide. I'm just not worried anymore. I think the consumer has spoken. Seeing MS be so far off target as well based on their own projections was also nice to see. I think sub services are a great deal don't get me wrong but I don't think they are good for gaming and what they will do to it.
Not to mention, if you had any interest in Spyro, Crash, THPS or the older CoDs, you would have bought them already considering they are always on sale for £10-£20.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
Consumers haven't responded because there just hasn't been enough big games to push the service to the next level thus far. That's kind of the whole point of this acquisition, the Bethesda acquisition, and all of these Xbox Game Studios making big games that will be dropping in the coming years.


It's easy to ignore a subscription service when it's biggest title is Halo Infinite from a year ago. It becomes much harder when games like Starfield, Call of Duty, Diablo, Fable, Forza, Hellblade II, Avowed, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, The Outer Wilds II, Indiana Jones, DOOM, Wolfenstein, etc.. etc.. are dropping every few months.

And it becomes easier to ignore when the price of the service increases to correspond to delivering those games "every few months", which I do not believe Microsoft is capable of doing, frankly. I mean.....you are not getting more Starfield, Diablo, Elder Scrolls or Fallout for years at this point so that list is already a bit off. But even if that were the case, it doesn't matter how quickly they push out games if they are closer to Redfall in quality than Starfield. MS would do well to pump the brakes and make sure their quality is where it needs to be and not "good enough for Game Pass" as the mantra has become.
 
Consumers haven't responded because there just hasn't been enough big games to push the service to the next level thus far. That's kind of the whole point of this acquisition, the Bethesda acquisition, and all of these Xbox Game Studios making big games that will be dropping in the coming years.


It's easy to ignore a subscription service when it's biggest title is Halo Infinite from a year ago. It becomes much harder when games like Starfield, Call of Duty, Diablo, Fable, Forza, Hellblade II, Avowed, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, The Outer Wilds II, Indiana Jones, DOOM, Wolfenstein, etc.. etc.. are dropping every few months.

I disagree. I don't think it has much to do with games. I think sub services for gaming just doesn't work like it does for TV/Music. I've wondered for a long time how sub services will do for gaming and I think Sony announcing the end of updating their numbers and the revelation of GP not growing in 2022 are very telling. Not to mention sub services have stalled across all industries. Gaming isn't like TV/Music something you can do while you do other task around your house. I bet most gamers see that list of games and think "that's a great deal but I don't have the time to even play that many games". Gaming consumers are also very different than most other consumers.

Even when I signed up for GP I almost felt overwhelmed and rushed to play and beat games cause I wanted to get to other games before they left. Time will tell but I just don't believe it will change much. Especially right now with people hurting so much financially.
 
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analog_future

Resident Crybaby
And it becomes easier to ignore when the price of the service increases to correspond to delivering those games "every few months", which I do not believe Microsoft is capable of doing, frankly. I mean.....you are not getting more Starfield, Diablo, Elder Scrolls or Fallout for years at this point so that list is already a bit off. But even if that were the case, it doesn't matter how quickly they push out games if they are closer to Redfall in quality than Starfield. MS would do well to pump the brakes and make sure their quality is where it needs to be and not "good enough for Game Pass" as the mantra has become.

Diablo IV will be added to the service imminently, and it's been leaked that both an Elder Scrolls Oblivion remaster and Fallout 3 remaster are right around the corner.

So no, not off.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
Diablo IV will be added to the service imminently, and it's been leaked that both an Elder Scrolls Oblivion remaster and Fallout 3 remaster are right around the corner.

So no, not off.

You really think remasters of 10+ year old games is what is going to make Game Pass "hard to ignore"? I'll give you Diablo 4 but I'd be surprised if that's the game that keeps folks subscribed either considering how repetitive it is. We will see.
 

GHG

Gold Member
You really think remasters of 10+ year old games is what is going to make Game Pass "hard to ignore"? I'll give you Diablo 4 but I'd be surprised if that's the game that keeps folks subscribed either considering how repetitive it is. We will see.

PC gamers have had their own versions of remastered Oblivion and Fallout 3 available for over a decade now with the mods available for those respective titles.

From a PC perspective those games won't move the needle one iota.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
oopsie, putting out career entries for Activision already.

Wait a few more weeks y'all.


F65kf4jXsAASNP4




PC gamers have had their own versions of remastered Oblivion and Fallout 3 available for over a decade now with the mods available for those respective titles.

From a PC perspective those games won't move the needle one iota.


The 'remasters' are supposedly going to be UE5 based, it's not exactly the same thing though
 
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Deleted member 848825

Unconfirmed Member
Wait......Bethesda couldn't bother with a new engine for Starfield, but Oblivion and Fallout 3 get UE5????

Animated GIF
That's immediately what I was thinking too. But Oblivion is running on Gamebryo engine rather than Creation. No professional coder or anything but I spent a couple of years modding Skyrim and understanding how all the scripting and cells work and cant begin to imagine how you'd get all the script code working in something as different as UE5. But Gamebryo may well be more straight forward....
 

MarkMe2525

Banned
You really think remasters of 10+ year old games is what is going to make Game Pass "hard to ignore"? I'll give you Diablo 4 but I'd be surprised if that's the game that keeps folks subscribed either considering how repetitive it is. We will see.
What if it was like.... a bunch of remasters

Edit. Like a lot
 
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PaintTinJr

Member
oopsie, putting out career entries for Activision already.

Wait a few more weeks y'all.


F65kf4jXsAASNP4







The 'remasters' are supposedly going to be UE5 based, it's not exactly the same thing though
The advert does specifically say "upon close", so they aren't being arrogant in counting their chickens IMO. Just probably thinking the process should conclude because of the Undertakings In lieu that they've offered the CMA, and getting the job listings done early because interviewing is a timeline process, and could still not be completed even if the new feedback leads this merger to a phase 2 for the Ex-Cloud in the new year..
 
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Deleted member 848825

Unconfirmed Member
That Oblivion remake sucks for the people on the Skyblivion project. Feels like they've been working on that forever.
Sure, but just imagine a departure away from Creation and all of its limitations and quirks. I'm still not sure how open world's really do with UE5. But even after special editions etc with Skyrim & Creation its still fairly easy to make it fall over and crash. I can go to certain spots in skyrim equipped with certain spells in vanilla and make it crash to this day. Thats, what on an enhanced/special 64bit version with none of the originals RAM limitations, a version 10 or 11 years on from the original release of 2011 and its still unstable, with bugs. Getting Oblivion into UE5 could be excellent and if what Adams Apple says is true, could lead onto something brilliant. I doubt it'll be as mod friendly, but who knows what mod tools they could potentially provide. Its all if, buts and maybe. But its potentially great if they extended beyond Gambryo and onto Creation stuff too.
 
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Sure, but just imagine a departure away from Creation and all of its limitations and quirks. I'm still not sure how open world's really do with UE5. But even after special editions etc with Skyrim & Creation its still fairly easy to make it fall over and crash. I can go to certain spots in skyrim equipped with certain spells in vanilla and make it crash to this day. Thats, what on an enhanced/special 64bit version with none of the originals RAM limitations, a version 10 or 11 years on from the original release of 2011 and its still unstable, with bugs. Getting Oblivion into UE5 could be excellent and if what Adams Apple says is true, could lead onto something brilliant. I doubt it'll be as mod friendly, but who knows what mod tools they could potentially provide. Its all if, buts and maybe. But its potentially great if they extended beyond Gambryo and onto Creation stuff too.
Yeah, as a player I'm more than happy for Bethesda to be doing an official remake in a new engine. Just saying it sucks for those people working on Skyrim is all. You'd think if it was at all planned by Bethesda they'd give these dedicated fans a heads-up and maybe some involvement in it! I don;t know maybe they have ...
 
You really think remasters of 10+ year old games is what is going to make Game Pass "hard to ignore"? I'll give you Diablo 4 but I'd be surprised if that's the game that keeps folks subscribed either considering how repetitive it is. We will see.
Diablo 4 player count is supposedly down 99% so even people who actually paid for it and can play it forever is they felt like it aren't still around. The GP people will bounce off it after they finish the main story, if they even get that far, and never come back.
 

bender

What time is it?
Sure, but just imagine a departure away from Creation and all of its limitations and quirks. I'm still not sure how open world's really do with UE5. But even after special editions etc with Skyrim & Creation its still fairly easy to make it fall over and crash. I can go to certain spots in skyrim equipped with certain spells in vanilla and make it crash to this day. Thats, what on an enhanced/special 64bit version with none of the originals RAM limitations, a version 10 or 11 years on from the original release of 2011 and its still unstable, with bugs. Getting Oblivion into UE5 could be excellent and if what Adams Apple says is true, could lead onto something brilliant. I doubt it'll be as mod friendly, but who knows what mod tools they could potentially provide. Its all if, buts and maybe. But its potentially great if they extended beyond Gambryo and onto Creation stuff too.

It would be fascinating to see another developer and engine being used to tackle the remasters. Object persistence has always been important to Bethesda and their games and I've always been led to believe that they've worked in the same modified engine for so long as that is the engine that can and will support those ambitions.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
A $600 PS3 with no good games and hardware issues that came in a year after the competition didn't kill playstation, but we are supposed to believe Activision will?
 

PaintTinJr

Member
A $600 PS3 with no good games and hardware issues that came in a year after the competition didn't kill playstation, but we are supposed to believe Activision will?
It was more like 18months prior to PS3 IIRC, but had Microsoft not had a strategy to overclock to match the PS3 clock resulting in RRoD by pushing beyond what their own testing showed it could handle before the overclock, and if the Wii hadn't disrupted the market at a perfect time for PS3, giving it time to come through yield and blue diode scarcity issues and get some good games out, it could easily have killed it.

Wii trouncing everything causing Microsoft to shift to Kinect focus probably saved PlayStation that gen, and gave PlayStation a second reboot opportunity (after stereoscopic 3D fade) with then doing PS Move versus Kinect, allowing it to sell just enough to claim a hollow victory in console sales numbers.
 
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Deleted member 848825

Unconfirmed Member
It would be fascinating to see another developer and engine being used to tackle the remasters. Object persistence has always been important to Bethesda and their games and I've always been led to believe that they've worked in the same modified engine for so long as that is the engine that can and will support those ambitions.
Yeah amazing possibility isnt it. The limited knowledge I gained modding Skyrim. Was enough to become fascinated with how the world "ticks". Its like a massive clockwork world. It does cull a lot of objects within set time periods, they're just set very long. And it also contains them within each of its own separate cells (the many areas it breaks the world up into). So you have part of it triggered by a time period but also whether the player leaves and re-enters a cell can trigger some of it too. But its the scripting which truly fascinates me. So many things move and act due to the scripts constantly running. Which is why I think the games can end up feeling so immersive - somethings really are constantly moving which you may not even know about. When an NPC decides to meet you somewhere, they usually are actually walking the entire journey. Like I say its very much like an intricate time piece or clockwork world running.

Then when you think about how many years the unofficial patch team still kept finding issues in the original code with Skyrim, you do wonder about the size of task getting it to all work in another engine. And actually run as intended. But thats Creation and Skyrim. Gamebryo is a more limited version of Creation, so who knows it might be more straight forward to do Oblivion, I never touched any modding in Oblivion.... I actually wasnt a huge fan of the game. Skyrim will always have a special place in my heart though.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?

Driving the news: On Friday, a lawyer representing a group of gamers who are part of a suit in federal court to block the deal, pressed federal District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley to compel Microsoft to produce any communication it has had with tech pundit and occasional consultant Florian Mueller.

  • But on Monday, Corley denied the request, saying "the information sought is not relevant to any claim or defense" in the lawsuit.


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