This sucks ass, in my humble opinion.
4 Likes
Outside the size of the acquisition, Iâm unmoved by this. Iâm not sure I see the potential outcome. Bethesda didnât need the funding, Xbox in control of their IPs isnât exciting considering they either have the hands-off approach they have touted in the past which would be functionally the same as them buying console exclusivity from Bethesda⌠or become hands-on with them in which case theyâve not proven to be able to produce very many good games the past decade IMO.
But over all of this is the specter of corporate bullshit both platform holders are guilty off and will continue to be guilty of until antitrust is taken seriously⌠so maybe never.
According to Polygon, it appears the last few major releases from Bethesda underperformed expectations (Doom Eternal excepted). Maybe not in the âstudio is imminently closingâ sort of underperforming, but I can see the previous owners wanting to get out from under a âdisappointingâ investment. So maybe they needed the Microsoft money more than is apparent on the surface.
1 Like
Ever since Skyrim came out (the first time), Bethesda has struck me as a very Take-Two kind of company: everything they do is them waiting around for the next BGS game to drop. After the NoClip doc on Fallout 76, it seems to me as though Bethesda threw development resources at getting that Fallout multiplayer prototype in aâŚshippable? state if only so Bethesda could wheel out Todd Howard again and have him say âLook we did a thingâ while Starfield finishes up. 76 turns into a debacle, their last few projects donât meet expectations, the Skyrim fountain starts to run a little dryâŚyeah, I could see $7.5 billion being an enticing prospect.
1 Like
This makes me wonder what happens with a game like Avowed, which was pretty clearly âNot-Elder Scrollsâ. Does MS publish that and Elder Scrolls 6 which are direct competition for each other? Do they rename it âElder Scrolls: Avowedâ for maximum brand synergy?
1 Like
I mean with the grand scheme of things I find it hard to muster much outrage, everything in the world sucks so much that I canât muster the energy to be that mad at the corporate consolidation of media. Itâs a bad thing thatâs really stupid to be excited about, but like existence itself feels precarious these days so like shrugggg
5 Likes
Actually, thinking about it, if Bethesda loses its launcher and goes to Xboxâs infrastructure, itâll be awful.
For some reason, choosing another dive on Xbox Game Pass PC has been nightmarish for me. Windows does not like you going from a HDD to a SSD, and so that majority of my games are installed on the HDD on gamepass.
God⌠Imagine a future janky Bethesda title on a HDD.
not enough energy to get mad; enough for a heavy sigh
2 Likes
I thought all Microsoft first party was going to Steam in addition to the Windows Store. Donât think itâll be a situation where you have to go through Microsoft unless youâre a Game Pass subscriber.
1 Like
I feel like Iâm one of the few lucky ones who has yet to have a bad experience with the PC Xbox program and typing this out has cursed me to experience an issue.
I honestly canât find a reason to actually really care that Microsoft bought them? Sucks that itâs a lot of properties under one company but also thereâs not a lot that theyâre getting that I actually care about. Iâm honestly done with both Elder Scrolls and Fallout. They would have to do something major to actually get me to care at this point considering how bad in general the plots of these games have been.
Theyâre getting:
- Elder Scrolls
- Fallout
- Starfield
- Dishonored
- Prey
- Wolfenstein
- Deathloop
- The Evil Within
- Ghostwire
- Doom
- Quake
The thing I care about is what does this mean for Microsoft game development as a whole when it comes to these acquisitions. Is any studio under the Microsoft banner allowed to share IP with one another? Can Quake Champions start just pulling in characters from other properties for use in it? Can Mojang add Quake enemies to the Nether in Minecraft? If Doublefine said they wanted to make a game set in the Elder Scrolls is that open to discussion?
My understanding is that Bethesda is still going to be listed as the publisher for Bethesda games (probably because there are some Bethesda games that will wind up elsewhere), but I imagine this acquisition would allow for some degree of crossover.
I would say that itâs likely weâll see some crossovers. You can pick Kat from Halo Reach in Gears 5 multiplayer, or have Gearsâs Crimson Omen on your sails in Sea of Thieves. Iâd imagine there will be some degree of crossover going forward.
Well, we know Elder Scrolls is still a very, very long way off - Starfield has to come out first, and even thatâs probably still a couple of years away - so I donât think Avowed and Elder Scrolls are going to clash all that much.
this is where much of my apathy regarding this situation is coming from as well.
also the fact that iâve found bethesdaâs RPGs to bloated jankfests of the highest order - i donât really care who locks them up, i wonât be playing them 
.
edit for clarity: i agree with everyone saying this is bad. itâs bad for the industry and for people who play games. itâs just that watching my country and my society swirling around the drain, im not feeling the usual emotional âumphâ that i normally would at this type of bad news. like, itâs bad news and i get that, but iâve been reading some baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad news for a while now and my reaction to literally anything gaming related (be it joy or dissatisfaction) is pretty muted at the moment⌠sorry if my post came off like a rude âwho caresâ.
1 Like
gosh im so glad obsidian can put the xmen in the mcu now, i love it.
this sucks
3 Likes
Me when I see Sony fanboys on Twitter raging about âconsole exclusives:â
3 Likes
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 theyâve 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 youâre a fan of the end product game or not. (Everything here applies to Sony exclusives as well)
In my opinion if thereâs a merger of any two companies large enough to have a big E3 Press Conference every year, youâve got a monopoly. Thereâs 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 canât 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 thereâs a future were one of the big three buys up Square-Enix or even Ubisoft. Itâs a concerning precedent an acquisition like Zenimax sets.
As a Gamerâ˘, Iâm 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? Whatâs the future of ESO under Microsoft? And yes, fine, okay, you got me, will we get a New Vegas 2?
2 Likes
Iâm 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 donât think many people realized what that meant.
2 Likes
I think that this isâŚ
bad
2 Likes
