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[assurdum]

I replayed some old AC games not long time ago, and it really feels the quality going downside once Patrick left Ubi, Ezio is so much above all the main characters we got afterward in AC games, and AC2 and Brotherhood are still the best AC games imo, even tho Black Flag is another masterpiece (but it didn't felt Assassin game a lot tho but still it was great adventure game and best pirate game ever). Guess it's also one of the downside of yearly games.

Now this make me think, imagine if Rockstar will ever do a Pirate game someday, that would be so mindblowing, there was a leak talking about that who knows if true, also in RDR2 there were moments and stuffs in the game that actually make you feel and have some pirate vibes, wonder if it's a hint or also it could be nothing, who knows.

Sorry but what gameplay? One can appreciate the previous AC for whatever reasons but gameplay? Really? There wasn't any kinda of interesting mechanic gameplay in the old trilogy, you are basically an invulnerable machine killer and that's it. But sure maybe the characters and story was more interesting but outside that...

 

[Mirtaumn]

So Bethesda exclusives are a case by case basis now

Always has been...

Although games like Starfield are definitely going to be exclusive

 

[Riky]

I can't see Microsoft stopping support of the likes of Fallout 76 and ESO on PlayStation, that would make no sense.

 

[Garani]

Always has been...

Although games like Starfield are definitely going to be exclusive

If it's any good I could get a 1 month $1 gamepass for PC and play it for a month, like I did with AC Valhalla and WD Legions back in November (1 month of UBIPass and that's it.)

Good value for me, in the end (you gotta play by the system's rules)

 

[carloseduardocd]

Rapid Packed Math (int4, int8) in all RDNA 2 GPU devices?

 

[icerock]

*Pretends to be shocked*

The mental gymnastics around the quote from their Xbox CFO was astonishing, saw the quotes about "Well, they can't talk about exclusivity because buyout isn't complete dammit! Do you even legal?" parroted across both forums. Even though the said quote specifically was talking about exclusivity of Bethesda games.

GamePass USP will always be tied to 1) Value, cheap as $10 to play 100s of games including all FP games Day 1 in addition to 2) Flexibility, especially when xCloud evolves more in the biggest gaming market i.e. U.S.

I still don't expect them to commit to their release strategy, they'll throw vague quotes around, like "case-by-case basis", if "the strategy for particular game is fit" yadda yadda, to whip their fanbase into frenzy, who'll cherry-pick the titles they definitely think will be exclusive...but actually won't be in the end because Xbox CFO made it known months ago. For bigger tentpoles, I see timed exclusivity ranging from 6months to an year, followed by a full $70 release on other platforms.

Get your Hazmat suits on, it's gonna get toxic.

 

[Iced Arcade]

If it's any good I could get a 1 month $1 gamepass for PC and play it for a month, like I did with AC Valhalla and WD Legions back in November (1 month of UBIPass and that's it.)

Good value for me, in the end (you gotta play by the system's rules)

Yeah that $1 promo is only once per user. You could make a new email and gamertag everytime you want to do it though.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Get in on Microsoft Rewards if it's in your country

Never pay for gamepass again

I've got over 50,000 points stockpiled for when ever they release something I'm interested in

 

[jroc74]

So Bethesda exclusives are a case by case basis now

If this is true, it make sense.

Because no matter how much some ppl want them to be strictly Xbox exclusive, at the end of the day money talks.

Minecraft still being multi platform should have told ppl this.

*Pretends to be shocked*

The mental gymnastics around the quote from their Xbox CFO was astonishing, saw the quotes about "Well, they can't talk about exclusivity because buyout isn't complete dammit! Do you even legal?" parroted across both forums. Even though the said quote specifically was talking about exclusivity of Bethesda games.

GamePass USP will always be tied to 1) Value, cheap as $10 to play 100s of games including all FP games Day 1 in addition to 2) Flexibility, especially when xCloud evolves more in the biggest gaming market i.e. U.S.

I still don't expect them to commit to their release strategy, they'll throw vague quotes around, like "case-by-case basis", if "the strategy for particular game is fit" yadda yadda, to whip their fanbase into frenzy, who'll cherry-pick the titles they definitely think will be exclusive...but actually won't be in the end because Xbox CFO made it known months ago. For bigger tentpoles, I see timed exclusivity ranging from 6months to an year, followed by a full $70 release on other platforms.

Get your Hazmat suits on, it's gonna get toxic.

Yup

 

[M1chl]

Rapid Packed Math (int4, int8) in all RDNA 2 GPU devices?

Rapid Packed Math isn't int4, 8, float16 etc. It's ability to pack those lower precision values (small ones with int) to one bigger one and not waste clocks. It's not the same thing...

*Pretends to be shocked*

The mental gymnastics around the quote from their Xbox CFO was astonishing, saw the quotes about "Well, they can't talk about exclusivity because buyout isn't complete dammit! Do you even legal?" parroted across both forums. Even though the said quote specifically was talking about exclusivity of Bethesda games.

GamePass USP will always be tied to 1) Value, cheap as $10 to play 100s of games including all FP games Day 1 in addition to 2) Flexibility, especially when xCloud evolves more in the biggest gaming market i.e. U.S.

I still don't expect them to commit to their release strategy, they'll throw vague quotes around, like "case-by-case basis", if "the strategy for particular game is fit" yadda yadda, to whip their fanbase into frenzy, who'll cherry-pick the titles they definitely think will be exclusive...but actually won't be in the end because Xbox CFO made it known months ago. For bigger tentpoles, I see timed exclusivity ranging from 6months to an year, followed by a full $70 release on other platforms.

Get your Hazmat suits on, it's gonna get toxic.

Expcet back then they couldn't say what to do with company they are yet to own, so we will have to wait.

 

[IntentionalPun]

but actually won't be in the end because Xbox CFO made it known months ago.

"I'm not announcing pulling content from platforms one way or the other"

They are being vague, not because they already know their exact strategy, but because they probably truly are still weighing their options.

Or they don't want to immediately have the type of reaction Epic got from the internet when they bought up exclusives.

I think we will see a mix, especially in the short term.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Rapid Packed Math isn't int4, 8, float16 etc. It's ability to pack those lower precision values (small ones with int) to one bigger one and not waste clocks. It's not the same thing...

In this case we are talking about that very same thing and no, people could already pack lower precision data in a wider register, RPM is the ability to also increase throughput and in this case additional instructions to handle mixed precision work (FP16 work being delivered at 2x the speed of FP32, INT8 at 4x, etc...). This was optional in RDNA1 and AMD already announced it.

RTG posted non news here...

 

[DarkMage619]

Bethesda was valued at 3.5billion USD. MS bought it for $7bn.

My point is the good engineers would absolutely already have been able to work for MS if they wished. Development is a small Industry - everyone knows who the key guys are.

The only way MS will keep those Bethesda talents are to treat them like Mojang - leave them alone to develop the games they want for the platforms they want in the corporate culture they want.

Let’s see what MS do ...

Pretty sure business increase in price when they purchased. See the Codemasters sale to EA for a recent example. The comments about talent are interesting. Are you saying that if Bethesda makes games only for the platform holder that owns their company there will be some sort of mass exodus? I have heard plenty of people say MS needs Sony for them to make any money in the acquisition but not that they will potentially hollow out if they can't keep making PlayStation games. Interesting theory let's see how it plays out.

Well it's not, because if they are not consumers of particular brand, then it can't be anti-consumer.

Anti consumer is trick like 120EUR Gold, 80+EUR standard edition games and shit like this, which directly impact the consumer of said brand : D

I actually didn't bring up 'anti consumer' Fran did. My main point is that MS does not force anyone to purchase their hardware to play their games so they aren't taking anything from anyone. Sony and Nintendo are the ones following the conventional console model created in the 80s. I guess if you like that model fine but I do appreciate giving gamers options.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

That'very true and also going to lower node nowadays does not yield company any form of cost effective solution. Also I am not really sure what power saving you are getting to go from 7nm to 5nm. I believe that PS5 Pro makes more sense then Slim. Slim could be just a redesign of the board and chassis.

I would actually argue a PS5 Pro on 5nm makes even less sense than a Slim. The density improvement going to 5nm isn't nearly sufficient to make a PS5 Pro worthwhile in terms of performance increase over the base console.

 

[saintjules]

 

[ToadMan]

Pretty sure business increase in price when they purchased. See the Codemasters sale to EA for a recent example. The comments about talent are interesting. Are you saying that if Bethesda makes games only for the platform holder that owns their company there will be some sort of mass exodus? I have heard plenty of people say MS needs Sony for them to make any money in the acquisition but not that they will potentially hollow out if they can't keep making PlayStation games. Interesting theory let's see how it plays out.

You asked if I knew the value of Zenimax and I told you. I made no comment about the deal.

As for the rest - you’re putting words in my mouth. I wrote what I meant.

 

[M1chl]

I would actually argue a PS5 Pro on 5nm makes even less sense than a Slim. The density improvement going to 5nm isn't nearly sufficient to make a PS5 Pro worthwhile in terms of performance increase over the base console.

I meant, by that time when PS5 Pro comes out, it's going to be cheaper than going on it now. I believe. Or just go with chiplets, I guess that's going to be way forward to scale the computational power upwards and the wafer (how is it called in English) problems downwards.

 

[IntentionalPun]

You asked if I knew the value of Zenimax and I told you. I made no comment about the deal.

As for the rest - you’re putting words in my mouth. I wrote why I meant.

Where did you get that valuation from?

 

[LiquidRex]

If anyone is interested you can pre order an Xbox Series X at Game (Uk) and will be available 26th this month.

 

[carloseduardocd]

 

[LiquidRex]

Bad Influence 1992 Christmas special, oh how we lived back then.

 

[Garani]

Yeah that $1 promo is only once per user. You could make a new email and gamertag everytime you want to do it though.

In that case they would catch me on the credit card number. I heard that there is no way to subscribe using a game card, but just credit cards.

 

[LucasBR]

I wish they weren't obsessed with zooming.

 

[mejin]

I wish they weren't obsessed with zooming.

convenient zooming you mean

 

[Dibils2k]

you need to be above native 1440p to make it look crisp on a big 4K TV, simple as

 

[Loope]

Sorry but what gameplay? One can appreciate the previous AC for whatever reasons but gameplay? Really? There wasn't any kinda of interesting mechanic gameplay in the old trilogy, you are basically an invulnerable machine killer and that's it. But sure maybe the characters and story was more interesting but outside that...

You might be right, i'm playing through Revelations now and Ezio is such a good character compared to the other ones. I didn't play Origins or Odissey yet, but i actually prefered Unity's combat system and transversal movement to the old trilogy. I'm a sucker thought for the location of ACII and Brotherhood, especially Brotherhood. Rome is amazing.

One of the reasons i don't have an interest in these new ones is the setting, they're located on open spaces instead of the crowded old cities.

 

[LiquidRex]

 

[SlimySnake]

*Pretends to be shocked*

The mental gymnastics around the quote from their Xbox CFO was astonishing, saw the quotes about "Well, they can't talk about exclusivity because buyout isn't complete dammit! Do you even legal?" parroted across both forums. Even though the said quote specifically was talking about exclusivity of Bethesda games.

GamePass USP will always be tied to 1) Value, cheap as $10 to play 100s of games including all FP games Day 1 in addition to 2) Flexibility, especially when xCloud evolves more in the biggest gaming market i.e. U.S.

I still don't expect them to commit to their release strategy, they'll throw vague quotes around, like "case-by-case basis", if "the strategy for particular game is fit" yadda yadda, to whip their fanbase into frenzy, who'll cherry-pick the titles they definitely think will be exclusive...but actually won't be in the end because Xbox CFO made it known months ago. For bigger tentpoles, I see timed exclusivity ranging from 6months to an year, followed by a full $70 release on other platforms.

Get your Hazmat suits on, it's gonna get toxic.

This is so silly. Just keep these games exclusive to PC and Xbox. There is zero reason to release them on the PS5. Have some faith in your console. People WILL buy it if it has games. They sold almost 90 million Xbox 360s. They were the primary console for hardcore gamers, cod and madden casuals and kinect casuals alike. Who is to say that they cant hit those numbers again without the kinect casuals? It's been 15 years since the 360 launched. Thats an entire new generation of gamers.

• They have Minecraft for kids. Make it exclusive to the xbox.
• They have Doom for hardcore shooter fans. Make it exclusive to xbox.
• They have Elder Scrolls. THE RPG that everyone from casuals to female gamers to hardcore gamers loves.
• Fallout. THE first person shooter RPG.

One of the biggest reasons for the 360's success were the incredible AAA exclusives in the first two years. If you wanted to play Bioshock, you had to buy an Xbox. if you wanted to play Mass Effect, you had to get an xbox. Halo. Gears. Oblivion. They didnt just become the defacto console for Call of Duty Modern Warfare for no reason. The userbase was already there because of previous shooters like Gears, Bioshock and Halo.

They now have that chance to recapture that magic thanks to Sony all but given up on first person shooters. No resistance. No killzone. No Socom. No MAG. No Warhawk. All MS has to do is make the next Doom exclusive. next Fallout exclusive. Have Arkane studio make an AAA game for once. They are talented and with MS money they can make what could be the next Bioshock.

PC gamers love these franchises and if cyberpunk has proven anything, it's that PC is the primary market for these games anyway. They really dont have to worry about losing revenue by making them exclusive.

Once again, i think Microsoft just doesnt believe in their own products. They are not unlike Google in that respect. This should've been an easy win. You acquire studios to make exclusives. It really cant get any simpler than that.

 

[M1chl]

That Sony payroll is doing circles.
DLSS and all that

 

[mejin]

This is so silly. Just keep these games exclusive to PC and Xbox. There is zero reason to release them on the PS5. Have some faith in your console. People WILL buy it if it has games. They sold almost 90 million Xbox 360s. They were the primary console for hardcore gamers, cod and madden casuals and kinect casuals alike. Who is to say that they cant hit those numbers again without the kinect casuals? It's been 15 years since the 360 launched. Thats an entire new generation of gamers.

• They have Minecraft for kids. Make it exclusive to the xbox.
• They have Doom for hardcore shooter fans. Make it exclusive to xbox.
• They have Elder Scrolls. THE RPG that everyone from casuals to female gamers to hardcore gamers loves.
• Fallout. THE first person shooter RPG.

One of the biggest reasons for the 360's success were the incredible AAA exclusives in the first two years. If you wanted to play Bioshock, you had to buy an Xbox. if you wanted to play Mass Effect, you had to get an xbox. Halo. Gears. Oblivion. They didnt just become the defacto console for Call of Duty Modern Warfare for no reason. The userbase was already there because of previous shooters like Gears, Bioshock and Halo.

They now have that chance to recapture that magic thanks to Sony all but giving up on first person shooters. No resistance. No killzone. No Socom. No MAG. No Warhawk. All MS has to do is make the next Doom exclusive. next Fallout exclusive. Have Arkane studio make an AAA game for once. They are talented and with MS money they can make what could be the next Bioshock.

PC gamers love these franchises and if cyberpunk has proven anything, it's that PC is the primary market for these games anyway. They really dont have to worry about losing revenue by making them exclusive.

Once again, i think Microsoft just doesnt believe in their own products. They are not unlike Google in that respect. This should've been an easy win. You acquire studios to make exclusives. It really cant get any simpler than that.

They are not selling games, they are selling GP. There is a huge difference.

 

[martino]

This is so silly. Just keep these games exclusive to PC and Xbox. There is zero reason to release them on the PS5. Have some faith in your console. People WILL buy it if it has games. They sold almost 90 million Xbox 360s. They were the primary console for hardcore gamers, cod and madden casuals and kinect casuals alike. Who is to say that they cant hit those numbers again without the kinect casuals? It's been 15 years since the 360 launched. Thats an entire new generation of gamers.

• They have Minecraft for kids. Make it exclusive to the xbox.
• They have Doom for hardcore shooter fans. Make it exclusive to xbox.
• They have Elder Scrolls. THE RPG that everyone from casuals to female gamers to hardcore gamers loves.
• Fallout. THE first person shooter RPG.

One of the biggest reasons for the 360's success were the incredible AAA exclusives in the first two years. If you wanted to play Bioshock, you had to buy an Xbox. if you wanted to play Mass Effect, you had to get an xbox. Halo. Gears. Oblivion. They didnt just become the defacto console for Call of Duty Modern Warfare for no reason. The userbase was already there because of previous shooters like Gears, Bioshock and Halo.

They now have that chance to recapture that magic thanks to Sony all but giving up on first person shooters. No resistance. No killzone. No Socom. No MAG. No Warhawk. All MS has to do is make the next Doom exclusive. next Fallout exclusive. Have Arkane studio make an AAA game for once. They are talented and with MS money they can make what could be the next Bioshock.

PC gamers love these franchises and if cyberpunk has proven anything, it's that PC is the primary market for these games anyway. They really dont have to worry about losing revenue by making them exclusive.

Once again, i think Microsoft just doesnt believe in their own products. They are not unlike Google in that respect. This should've been an easy win. You acquire studios to make exclusives. It really cant get any simpler than that.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

I meant, by that time when PS5 Pro comes out, it's going to be cheaper than going on it now. I believe.

3yrs the cost of 5nm will still be significant, given that there will still be an inherent base 5nm cost that will always be a fat margin above the cost of the N7P node. With the current slowdown in node shrinks anyway, the costs of both the 7nm and 5nm nodes will fall at a much lower rate than with previously nodes.

We're pretty much at the end of silicon scaling now. The creative physics fabs have to exploit in order to fab at the 5nm level with EUV is insane.

GAAFET transistors at 7nm and 5nm will bring some big gains. But after that it's exotic new materials.

Or just go with chiplets, I guess that's going to be way forward to scale the computational power upwards and the wafer (how is it called in English) problems downwards.

The power consumption and latency costs of inter-chiplet comms will ensure that any chiplet-based PS5 Pro outright won't work. If chiplets work for anything it will be high-end desktop GPUs where increasingly large GPU dies are the only way to reasonably increase performance further, and whose consumers are willing to pay more for it.

For consoles I'm not sure it makes sense.

I agree. When the difference between a reconstructed 4k image and native 4k image is vanishingly small, wasting time working out the internal rendering res is nothing but an academic exercise. It benefits and informs no-one, because it isn't really meaningful to the prevailing majority of gamers.

 

[Garani]

They are not selling games, they are selling GP. There is a huge difference.

They are not selling consoles, they are selling GP. There is a huge difference

There, fixed for you

 

[SlimySnake]

Both Alex and John have been championing reconstruction since the gen started.

But at the same time, they both jerk off to the xsx games hitting native 4k, continue to pixel count on framecuts and all but dismiss reconstruction instead of focusing on the overall image quality.

John bitches about console warring all the time, and yet he perpetuates it by pixel counting in games that are already doing reconstruction to hit 4k. The pixel counting on framecuts is straight up sad because that means they cant pixel count during normal gameplay. Like wtf are you doing if you cant tell the difference during normal gameplay and have to resort to framecuts to pixel count?

The goal for DF going forward should be fairly simple. Can you tell the difference without pixel counting? If yes, then by all means go ahead and declare the victor. If you have to pixel count, you can stop right there. Does the game look blurry compared to the native implementation of PC versions? If it does then do mention that. Is the game dropping frames everywhere? Go ahead. If the game drops frames in one mission, one section on one turn then do you really need to spend 10 minutes talking about it? Of course not.

This kind of anal pixel and framerate counting always rubbed me the wrong way because even PC gamers know that no matter what you do, the game will drop frames every now and then. No setting will ever get you a locked 60 fps unless you dial down the settings so much that you are hovering in the 80-90s range just to account for that one small section where the framerate might drop 30 fps all the way down to the mid 50s. People can handle frame drops every now and then. We grew up playing games on PS1 and PS2 with framerates in the mid 20s. We can handle some minor drops in the mid 50s once every 4 hours. No PC gamer is going out there leaving that much performance on the table for 99% of the game just so we can maintain a locked framerate for that 1%.

Lastly, do average framerate tests. FFS. Stop finding the worst case scenario. Every game has a worst case scenario. You cannot judge a game's performance based on that so why even bother. Run through several different levels and just present the average framerate. This shouldnt be this hard.

 

[Dabaus]

*Pretends to be shocked*

The mental gymnastics around the quote from their Xbox CFO was astonishing, saw the quotes about "Well, they can't talk about exclusivity because buyout isn't complete dammit! Do you even legal?" parroted across both forums. Even though the said quote specifically was talking about exclusivity of Bethesda games.

GamePass USP will always be tied to 1) Value, cheap as $10 to play 100s of games including all FP games Day 1 in addition to 2) Flexibility, especially when xCloud evolves more in the biggest gaming market i.e. U.S.

I still don't expect them to commit to their release strategy, they'll throw vague quotes around, like "case-by-case basis", if "the strategy for particular game is fit" yadda yadda, to whip their fanbase into frenzy, who'll cherry-pick the titles they definitely think will be exclusive...but actually won't be in the end because Xbox CFO made it known months ago. For bigger tentpoles, I see timed exclusivity ranging from 6months to an year, followed by a full $70 release on other platforms.

Get your Hazmat suits on, it's gonna get toxic.

First Klobrille, then Parris, Now warren all asking people to walk back expectations and to keep an open mind. Writing is on the wall folks.

 

[Elog]

This is so silly. Just keep these games exclusive to PC and Xbox. There is zero reason to release them on the PS5. Have some faith in your console.

It is not about faith - it is about the willingness to take a 3.5bn USD earnings hit in a quarter or not due to investments in gaming, That is a big hit even for a Company such as MS - that is the rough size of the earnings hit they would take if they went all exclusive for these games. Timed exclusives or exclusive content does not give any hit. I am sure what the CFO of MS prefers...it is not impossible (MS can afford it) but I would argue it is unlikely.

 

[skit_data]

First Klobrille, then Parris, Now warren all asking people to walk back expectations and to keep an open mind. Writing is on the wall folks.

And still people keep saying ”do you think they bought Bethesda for 7.5 billion just to keep it on Playstation? Are you stupid?”

I couldnt care less, the only games i would consider an actual loss are the iDtech games and Arkane. The rest of the IPs belong to genres in which Bethesda have been surpassed by better developers.

 

[SlimySnake]

It is not about faith - it is about the willingness to take a 3.5bn USD earnings hit in a quarter or not due to investments in gaming, That is a big hit even for a Company such as MS - that is the rough size of the earnings hit they would take if they went all exclusive for these games. Timed exclusives or exclusive content does not give any hit. I am sure what the CFO of MS prefers...it is not impossible (MS can afford it) but I would argue it is unlikely.

$3.5 billion? How do you figure that?

The hit they will take is a one time hit for this upcoming quarter and that is roughly the $7.5 billion they paid. If they werent willing to take that hit then they shouldnt have bought Zenimax.

Zenimax doesnt even come close to making $3.5 billion a quarter. Are you talking about when they release Star Citizen? Even then I dont think they will come close to hitting $1 billion if they launched on all three consoles.

Lets say if they sold 10 million units. We can see from Cyberpunk, the split is 50-50 PC and consoles with PC sales having a slight edge. The PS has a 30-20 edge. Thats 3 million in sales or $180 million in revenue IF they sell 10 million copies of Star Citizen in a quarter. Who is to say that people who wouldve bought it on PS wouldnt jump to PC or Xbox just to play it? Thats pretty much the only reason why you buy studios. To get people to jump. Elder Scrolls, Doom, Fallout and pretty much all Zenimax games are PC centric anyway.

 

[SportsFan581]

"I'm not announcing pulling content from platforms one way or the other"

They are being vague, not because they already know their exact strategy, but because they probably truly are still weighing their options.

Or they don't want to immediately have the type of reaction Epic got from the internet when they bought up exclusives.

I think we will see a mix, especially in the short term.

Especially true if they have other acquisitions in some stage that might still need regulatory approval down the line. Not that I think these video game deals would ever be a problem, but still you don't want to go out looking too monopolistic.

But, they may opt to keep things as they are. Maybe that would make the games almost free in terms of GP and maybe that is something that they want for now.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

And still people keep saying ”do you think they bought Bethesda for 7.5 billion just to keep it on Playstation? Are you stupid?”

I couldnt care less, the only games i would consider an actual loss are the iDtech games and Arkane. The rest of the IPs belong to genres in which Bethesda have been surpassed by better developers.

I agree Arkane would be the biggest loss (to me anyway) if they went exclusive. I mean, I will always have a PC, so I'm good, but for console exclusive people, it would be a shame.

However, they will release anywhere they can, so no, Xbox has no exclusives

 

[DarkMage619]

This is absolutely the stupidest take I've ever heard in my entire life.

First and foremost not everyone has a PC to play those games also not every game is present on XCloud, which is a service you still have to pay. They're still forcing people onto their ecosystem regardless if you're paying $570 dollars total to own everything or $20 dollars a month to only rent the service.

Also how are you ignoring the fact that Sony acquisitions have never taken anything away from Xbox? Almost every now first party studios only developed for PlayStation or only had a few instances of developing multi-plat games. (I mean yeah you could make a case about Sunset, but MS had been sitting on that IP for ages and never really did anything with it. Hopefully Sony can pick it up and actually do something great with it)

Sony acquired Insomniac in 2019, a studio that already primarily developed for PS, after launching a game that was from start developed and funded by Sony.

MS acquired Bethesda and all it's subsidiaries in 2021, a studio that developed multi-plat games and some timed exclusives.
It's not even the same thing.

Games that are being developed by Bethesda like Starfield, TES 6 etc... were being developed as multi-plat games. So if MS's acquisition blocks those games from coming out on PS then it is an anti-consumer practice (at least in the sense as you guys like to call it when it's PS doing it).

Also don't try to bring up timed exclusives as if it's proof that Sony is the only anti-consumer company here. MS also does it all the time and I've never seen any of you complain about it. I mean Rise of the Tomb Raider was also timed exclusive for MS, but no Sony is the anti-consumer backwards thinking company and MS is here to save all gamers from bad Sony and Nintendo.

Nobody here is saying that MS is bad for acquiring Bethesda, just that you guys don't really have a case anymore about Sony being anti-consumer when MS buys an entire publisher to artificially grow their library and potentially block other players.

I have heard time and time again that many Sony fans don't need to buy an Xbox because they have a PC. Those same people should have no issues with the Zenimax acquisition. The IP MS has acquired were not PlayStation IP. They were historically PC titles. Doom, Wolfenstein, Prey, Fallout, and TES all made a name for themselves on the PC. So this idea that something is being taken away from PlayStation is a bit silly. On top of that games like Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop will still be honored even if MS now owns those IP. In fact my good buddy Frank was just making that point about those exclusives coming to PS5.

MS letting some games they own come to PlayStation is pretty different from games Sony does NOT own actually being blocked from the Xbox. You toss out Tomb Raider but when was that? Also people howled when MS did that to the point they came out and said it was only timed. I haven't heard a peep about when FF7 R will hit the Xbox though. That is one of MANY recent titles Sony has paid timed exclusivity for. That is WORSE than simply buying the IP. At least in that case the it would make sense that if Sony owned the IP they could do whatever they want with it. Perhaps Sony gamers are just entitled to think that every game should be a PlayStation only release and Sony is more than willing to block other platforms to feed that narrative. What MS is doing IS different that what Sony has done.

It's all business like I said but MS has shown time and time again they are willing to put their games on more than just the Xbox. You don't have to buy their console to play their games and that remains true with this recent move. This wouldn't even be a conversation if Sony grabbed Zenimax which already shows both companies do business differently. I actually don't buy into the anti-consumer sentiment but I do think that MS has made many pro gamer moves and of that there is little doubt.

 

[Elog]

$3.5 billion? How do you figure that?

The hit they will take is a one time hit for this upcoming quarter and that is roughly the $7.5 billion they paid. If they werent willing to take that hit then they shouldnt have bought Zenimax.

They have not taken any cost at all. They have made a 7.5bn USD investment and has an asset on their balance sheet (assets plus goodwill/IP) with a total value of 7.5bn USD.

Earnings have not been touched at all by this acquisition.

Roughly half the profits of Zenimax comes from Playstation sales. Dropping Playstation will result in a write-down of the 7.5bn USD with roughly 50% or roughly 3.5bn USD - and that is conservative since it is highly unlikely they can reduce the cost base with 50% as well so the real write-down might be bigger.

Point is - going XboX/PC exclusive results in a massive earnings hit the moment they make the decision. As stated - I think they will hesitate to do that and rather go all exclusive on an unannounced future title and rather play with timed exclusives and exclusive content with regard to all games we have heard about. MS can ofc afford going all out but that is a lot of money even for them.

 

[iamvin22]

Exactly, and I would blame Phil Harrison whom at this point seems like the curse of every company he has ever been involved with.

Naw Jayde Raymond takes that title. At this point companies should stay far away from her and phil

 

[Dabaus]

Speaking of 3.5 Billion, wasnt that what sony allegedly offered them back in January of 2020 when Zenimax wanting to sell initially started? I remember that number coming up for some reason.

 

[HoofHearted]

So Bethesda exclusives are a case by case basis now

Eh - They've only been saying that for months since the acquisition was originally announced.. this isn't new news....

However, they're also all over the place on their statements - depending on who you ask (Spencer or Stuart).

You have to "read between the lines" of the corporate speak and.. obviously, guess.

Aside from the current list of scheduled titles already planned for release (Deathloop and Ghostwire) - expect MS to absolutely and certainly plan to "test the waters" with taking the rest of the Bethesda titles to an Xbox/Gamepass exclusive status...

Unless there's a significant reason to release a game outside of Xbox/Gamepass. This isn't about immediate sales, and people thinking that MS would be leaving money on the table by not selling to the PS4/5 console market don't fully understand the direction MS is now taking.

This is very much a long term play for control of the GaaS market. Google/Amazon are already bowing out... and selling games at $70+ a pop isn't a viable long term strategy ...

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

"I'm not announcing pulling content from platforms one way or the other"

They are being vague, not because they already know their exact strategy, but because they probably truly are still weighing their options.

Nah... they knew the strategy from the outset.

If the intent was to make every Zenimax game Xbox exclusive, there would be no need for them to also buy the Zenimax publishing functions. MGS replicates this, meaning including Zenimax publishing would be wholly redundant. They would have gone after the studios alone, which would have meant buying the whole, dissolving the publishing functions and rolling the studios under MGS (or dissolving MGS publishing functions and rolling their existing MGS studios under Zenimax publishing).

We already know from the regulator proposal submission that the intent is to keep the whole of Zenimax as a wholly owned subsidiary under MS. So the mere fact of them retaining the publishing functions of Zenimax wholesale, strongly indicates their intent for continued multiplatform publishing. The whole deal would have been structured differently otherwise.

 

[SportsFan581]

They have not taken any cost at all. They have made a 7.5bn USD investment and has an asset on their balance sheet (assets plus goodwill/IP) with a total value of 7.5bn USD.

Earnings have not been touched at all by this acquisition.

Roughly half the profits of Zenimax comes from Playstation sales. Dropping Playstation will result in a write-down of the 7.5bn USD with roughly 50% or roughly 3.5bn USD - and that is conservative since it is highly unlikely they can reduce the cost base with 50% as well so the real write-down might be bigger.

Point is - going XboX/PC exclusive results in a massive earnings hit the moment they make the decision. As stated - I think they will hesitate to do that and rather go all exclusive on an unannounced future title and rather play with timed exclusives and exclusive content with regard to all games we have heard about. MS can ofc afford going all out but that is a lot of money even for them.

You don't actually think Zenimax profits from PS would ever represent 3.5b on any single filing right? LOL

If MS ran things exactly as it is, the ROI on this deal would likely be 50 to 75 years in the future.

 

[Elog]

You don't actually think Zenimax profits from PS would ever represent 3.5b on any single filing right? LOL

If MS ran things exactly as it is, the ROI on this deal would likely be 50 to 75 years in the future.

I did not state that there is no ROI on going all exclusive. I am saying that they would take a short-term earnings it if they did - you cannot asseetize future money streams outside of acquisitions. That is what Enron did and all those loop holes are closed.

In other words - going all exclusive will result in a significant short-term earnings hit. MS can afford it so maybe they will do it - I doubt it though (as I have stated in many threads).

 

[MasterCornholio]

LOL

So funny because Digital Foundry had to ask them about the resolution of the UE5 demo.

But ultimately the final image quality is what matters. If reconstruction can achieve results I don't see why anyone should have any Concern over this.

 

[mitchman]

Naw Jayde Raymond takes that title. At this point companies should stay far away from her and phil

Jade Raymond leading AC development, yeah, totally hasn't been a huge success for Ubisoft. Do you have more gems you want to tell us?