This absolutely sucks and is straight up actually Bad. The Disney comparison is definitely appropriate, but this has a whole nother side to it as well. It sucks that Disney owns more and more IP, but at the end of the day if I choose I can still watch those movies in any theater, rent them digitally to watch at home and eventually own a disk that will play on any player. Here Microsoft owns the studio making the game, the digital storefront, and the box / operating system you need to play them. With this acquisition they’ve already said that future games will be coming to other consoles on a case by case basis when just yesterday one could play them on anything. A single company producing, publishing, and setting the prices of a game, plus requiring their own several hundred dollar box to even play it is Bad regardless of whether you’re a fan of the end product game or not. (Everything here applies to Sony exclusives as well)
In my opinion if there’s a merger of any two companies large enough to have a big E3 Press Conference every year, you’ve got a monopoly. There’s always been a part of me that - despite loving many of their games - was opposed to Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft even being allowed to develop games or own studios while also producing the hardware. Movie studios can’t own theatre chains, right? Microsoft controlling both a major console and the primary alternative to consoles, on top of multiple beloved IPs, is absolutely a monopoly.
Is it as bad as Disney-Fox, probably not, but I think games are a different space. Indie games do better than indie films, generally; there are still a lot of big competitors in the games sphere, though I wonder at the future of the ones that are exclusively about games. Sony is a film studio, an electronics company, etc., but one wonders if there’s a future were one of the big three buys up Square-Enix or even Ubisoft. It’s a concerning precedent an acquisition like Zenimax sets.
As a Gamer™, I’m certainly curious about the future of the games I personally care about. How will Microsoft affect the tone (Zenimax was happy to allow some pretty leftist messaging go by for the sake of taking our money, but will Microsoft?) and development of Wolfenstein: The New ____? Will Microsoft want Arkane to focus more on a Dishonored 3 than a Prey 2? What’s the future of ESO under Microsoft? And yes, fine, okay, you got me, will we get a New Vegas 2?
I’m finding the reactions to this story kind of ironic having seen SO MANY people online wanting Microsoft to get some skin in the game in the exclusives front.
I don’t think many people realized what that meant.
I think that this is…
bad
Microsoft. Proud to be one of America’s six companies.
For all the people feeling guilty about being optimistic about this merger for a potential New Vegas sequel, don’t. Not because it’s okay to be excited about the thing you like (it is), but because the Outer Worlds exists and is as beige a game as you could make while trying to capture that New Vegas magic.
Obsidian aren’t capable of making that game. And if they still were, it would likely be due in part to the input of a dude who shouldn’t be in game development anymore, so I wouldn’t want it at that point. Play Wasteland 3 if you want that kind of kick because it’s basically the same thing.
Aren’t a lot of the people behind New Vegas kind of… Compromised now?
I’m interested in a New Vegas 2 if, and possibly only if, Sawyer is in charge.
Counterpoint: Pillars of Eternity, Pillars of Eternity 2. Both directed by Josh Sawyer.
Obsidian are still absolutely capable of making a game as good as, if not better than, New Vegas. The Outer Worlds was never going to be that game, because the folks most responsible for New Vegas’ success didn’t work on it—instead, they made Pillars.
Obsidian don’t need Avellone - assuming that’s who you’re referring to - to make great games. They’re so much more than that. And I say that as someone for whom KotOR II - possibly the single game for which Avellone can take the most credit - will always be an incredibly important, formative piece of work, even if I now hate the man.
Avellone’s a shit, and very much no longer part of Obsidian, but the game’s director and lead writer - Sawyer - is, so far as I’m aware, lovely. I haven’t heard anything about anyone else on the team.
it exists solely because Bethesda made NV’s dev a living hell for basically no reason, but i still want Sawyer to lead another game that he mods post-release with a ridiculously rough .esp he just dumps on the internet again.
Question (sarcastic): Wasn’t the previous episode full of praise for PS5 because of PS exclusives? 
#freenaughtydog 
Down with all console exclusives! Games for everyone!
IGN posted this:
[extremely Denis Dyack voice] A single hardware standard made by any electronics company that wants in so developers can write the most optimal code possible and it runs well on anything
Reads like a PC to me. 
$70 games, weird monopoly crap like Microsoft buying Bethesda, subscription services galore, market platforms for everyone, I’m probably gonna have to finally upgrade my computer again, and I don’t like the PS5 controller design, I’ve been kind of intentionally not staying up to date but this next-gen kinda looks like it’s gonna suck.
Personally, I’m still entirely game to stan J.E. Sawyer. That said if you really want to go digging for things to poo-poo on, it’s still kind of up in the air how much he’s responsible for Honest Hearts being… Honest Hearts. Again, personally, I blame John Gonzalez and I have Zero Dawn to back up that blame.
i know this apparently isn’t a violation of anti-trust, but can you imagine the sheer 2020 horror of having to see Certified Gamer AOC explain this sh*t during a congressional hearing like she had to try to lay out why the pentagon shouldn’t be streaming fortnite to recruit kids…
I wonder if she needs a video game consultant.
smash cut to Rob Zachny explaining the flying mammoth bug to a House Judiciary subcommittee
I’ve been thinking this over for a while, and I’m not sure this acquisition specifically bothers me so much as, like, the entire idea that it’s cool for platform holders to outright own development studios. Acting as a publisher is one thing, but owning studios is just one vertical integration step too far IMO.
And so even though what MS, Sony, and Nintendo have been doing meets neither the legal nor colloquial definition of “monopoly” (since there still are plenty of 3rd party publishers and developers apart from the two of them), I still don’t like the vertical integration aspect one bit.
I think the bigger issue at play is that subscription based services inherently create a need for consolidation. By that I mean Disney isn’t just acquiring Fox to get bigger and whatnot, but they have to do it just so Disney Plus has a breadth of content that can keep people subscribed indefinitely. Like, as. Disney Plus subscriber, I’m more likely to stay subbed because I can watch Simpsons reruns on it. Similarly, with Game Pass, having Bethesda on the service simply makes that service better. Microsoft would be foolish not to engage in vertical integration in that case.
But yeah, it’s a really tough situation as a customer. On the one hand consolidation is almost always bad, but on the other the past decade of streaming services have let me experience a massive amount of media at a much lower cost than when I bought movies, music, or games piecemeal. It’s not a great justification, I’ll admit, but I can’t deny the temptation to just roll with it and enjoy the ride as long as it lasts.
