Microsoft acquires ZeniMax Media (Bethesda, id Software, Arkane + 5 more) [2020-09-21, 2021-03-09]

[iroboto]

I would just sell them on all platforms and be selective that if you really needed an exclusive title, I would make that one particularly exclusive. I won't apply any rule as a general rule across the large number of IPs that they have.

 

[Jay]

a big factor is money. From what i heard ms offered almost 2B more

Sony can make a play for a larger studio or two. It just seems like very day there are less options in this sweet spot of money. I don't think they want to drop much more than 5B on a company at this time as its about where the zenimax talk started to stall.



Here is the thing. All of MS understands how big gaming is. Its one of the things that killed windows phone, its one of the things that keeps windows popular in certain segments of the world and with game pass they have more than just phones to bring it too. Their whole surface line up outside of the book and studio are incapable of playing many games. However with the x64 and arm64 editions of xcloud now you can play whatever you want. A surface pro becomes a nice 12.6 inch portable game system for travel. The surface laptop 15 inch becomes another great device to game on and so on and so forth.


I knew from the moment sony invested in unreal that MS would start to divest itself of unreal. Now they own one of the premier engines in the company and they can tailor it for their technology and services. Even carmack is interested in a collaboration . He lead some good work on getting the oculus link to work on the quest. I wonder if he could work magic on xcloud and get latency down even more

They will let the studios develop on the engines they want to.

There are a lot of benefits to having an engine in house though, and they will also licence it out also.
Hopefully, DX12U and all the xbox features are on top of list to get added in. Would be big for things like XSS also XSX.

 

[eastmen]

Nothing screams delay like asking your dev studios to switch engines for political reasons. I just cannot see Microsoft doing this. This would be dumb as hell.

no one said that.

But now MS will have an in house engine that they can iterate on , add in their own technologies and and license it out to other companies. I think projects further in development will continue to use other engines. But we could see some games like the halo title after infinte to switch we can see games that haven't yet been green lighted to go over also. Even then not all games have to ever be made on a single engine. Even Bethesda doesn't just use 1 engine

 

[Silenti]

Also there is one more interesting thing about Zenimax/ Bethesda that I haven't seen brought up

Care to share with the class you tease!

 

[AzBat]

Also I don't understand some people expecting a response from Sony to buy a big publisher/dev. Is this what they really want? do they really want a large amount of games (especially the AAA games) only available on either platform?

Seriously? All we have heard the last 7 years is that Sony has the best exclusives & that's why they buy their console. PS owners only want exclusives & they don't want their games on PCs or other consoles. They definitely want Sony to answer with their own acquisition.

Tommy McClain

 

[dobwal]

After the last round of acquisitions Phil said that they weren't interested in doing anymore multi-platform releases. Though he could have changed his mind with this deal. Who knows?

Tommy McClain

I get the ideal they might of dropped that notion when considering WB. It’s no way DC or LEGO would have acceptEd less fees due to exclusivity.

7 billion in investment isn’t going to be readily returned through traditional exclusivity. And it’s not guaranteed to boost hardware adoption or sub sales to the point of making it a worthwhile investment.

 

[cheapchips]

CNBC interview

Not much to it, shows just how big this is.
Not just the corners of the net

One of the things Spencers rolled out again was the "we want them to be the best version of themselves that they can be". It sounds funny when said about a large company like Zenimax rather than some of their smaller purchases.

 

[eastmen]

Care to share with the class you tease!

I dunno maybe

Spoiler: are you afraid to click !

are you afraid to click !

 

[iroboto]

One of the things Spencers rolled out against was the "we want them to be the best version of themselves that they can be". It sounds funny when said about a large company like Zenimax rather than some of their smaller purchases.

I thought he said the same thing of all their recent purchases? Just there to support them to make them the best version of themselves that they can be. For me, everything he said was a fairly canned response that I've been used to hearing from him, even that

 

[Silenti]

I dunno maybe

Spoiler: are you afraid to click !

are you afraid to click !

I cannot tell a lie. Well, I could, but... I pulled out the code to see what kind of link it was before clicking on it. I was sure I was about the be rickrolled. If that is a real hint, then it is something I have been waiting for. Damn. Today really couldn't have gone better for me and missus.

 

[cheapchips]

I thought he said the same thing of all their recent purchases? Just there to support them to make them the best version of themselves that they can be. For me, everything he said was a fairly canned response that I've been used to hearing from him, even that

Yeah. That's what I was trying to say. He's said it previously, but I can't see how you translate that to a 2000+ person independent publish/developer, as opposed to someone like inXile who "would really like some more animators".

As you say, probably his canned response!

 

[Shortbread]

From what i heard ms offered almost 2B more

Can't say, but Sony had every opportunity to finalized negotiations/talks with ZeniMax way before Microsoft came into the picture. Talks of any possible acquisition occurred back in 2019, and stalling around June of this year. Microsoft's gain, Sony's loss...

 

[iroboto]

https://bethesda.net/en/article/4IwKWIj174Cb2QNTTtBAEb/todd-howard-on-joining-xbox
TODD HOWARD ON JOINING XBOX
SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

I have had the pleasure of working with, and partnering with, many of the best gaming and tech companies in the world. But our longest, and closest partner during my career, has been Microsoft.

...full blog link above

 

[eastmen]

I cannot tell a lie. Well, I could, but... I pulled out the code to see what kind of link it was before clicking on it. I was sure I was about the be rickrolled. If that is a real hint, then it is something I have been waiting for. Damn. Today really couldn't have gone better for me and missus.

its still very much alive at MS.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I hope they transition these IPs in to full MS exclusives as soon as possible. I want all platforms to have very strong exclusives, those are the backbone of the platform and a reason to buy a system. This current gen was the first time I was basically a one system user largely due to MS having a very uninteresting 1st party lineup. Now things are getting interesting again. Game pass is really starting to shape up into a absolute killer.

 

[Inuhanyou]

This is what i was afraid of when ms started this shit. Monopolizing huge swathes the game industry with that huge bank account of theirs is the perfect way to destroy it. We live in quite the era

 

[Billy Idol]

I hope they transition these IPs in to full MS exclusives as soon as possible. I want all platforms to have very strong exclusives, those are the backbone of the platform and a reason to buy a system. This current gen was the first time I was basically a one system user largely due to MS having a very uninteresting 1st party lineup. Now things are getting interesting again. Game pass is really starting to shape up into a absolute killer.

Completely agree. MS is finally interesting again! After a full generation of no exclusives and no interesting studios at all...this is quite the great move imo and skyrockets my interest in MS and Xbox. Can‘t wait for a real exclusive super Doom on the X!

If they now can get rid of the weird thing that all their exclusives release on PC as well...I‘ll insta buy a new X! Otherwise, PC I guess.

PS: please fire this asshole Bethesda boss, then kick this old stupid ass engine out of the company such that Starfield can shine!

 

[AzBat]

This is what i was afraid of when ms started this shit. Monopolizing huge swathes the game industry with that huge bank account of theirs is the perfect way to destroy it. We live in quite the era

Stay salty my friend.

What did expect Microsoft to do? Just bale completely from the games business? Do you not want competition in the industry? Keep it stagnate & you won't have any great games to play.

Tommy McClain

 

[London Geezer]

Seriously? All we have heard the last 7 years is that Sony has the best exclusives & that's why they buy their console. PS owners only want exclusives & they don't want their games on PCs or other consoles. They definitely want Sony to answer with their own acquisition.

Tommy McClain

I think a subset of PS owners that you see complain online may fall under that category. The remaining 150 million do not give a flying fakk.

 

[steveOrino]

You may want to look at the more recent Microsoft history and not delve so much into the Microsoft from decades past. Their mode of operation has changed fundamentally since then.

Recent history has been the same. I mean for all the shit EA gets MS has been right up there. They have been in the publishing game for decades and the console games publishing for 3 generations now with an absolute horrid track record of fostering first parties. Just the fact they would prop up 2 studios to shit out Halo and Gears till the end of time tells you everything you need to know.

I don't know who is to blame for it but MS has yet to show they can properly manage thriving software studios. Maybe this time will be different since the core of their business will be acquiring keeping subscribers, but I doubt it.