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

[RDGoodla]

They will need to redefine their image if they are to do that.
Nintendo is about gameplay and fun first, everything else second.
Sony's image is more closely associated with the perception that they are providing the most polished single player experience you can get, and that doesn't come cheap.
You cannot make God of War, Uncharted, Horizon, Spiderman and a Last of us every two years.
And right now, it seems that they need a huge game (or more realistically two) every year to compete...
I feel that if MS goes for one more publisher, or a few well targeted individual studios, the game is over.
And it's a shame really, because there is a uniqueness in what Sony does and it would be sorely missed if push comes to shove and they have to cut back.

Too many discussions focus on Sony, not on Nintendo and Steam.
Just think that who will be affected most seriously?
It is most likely: Steam > PlayStation > Nintendo.

Because Nintendo has the most famous IP ever and then Sony also has many 10 million sellers, but Steam has least AAA exclusive games.


How can Steam not be affected since Bethesda's games launch on day 1 Gamepass for PC?

 

[Ike Turner]

Too many discussions focus on Sony, not on Nintendo and Steam.
Just think that who will be affected most seriously?
It is most likely: Steam > PlayStation > Nintendo.

Because Nintendo has the most famous IP ever and then Sony also has many 10 million sellers, but Steam has least AAA exclusive games.


How can Steam not be affected since Bethesda's games launch on day 1Gamepass for PC?

Literally all 1st party MS games which are available on PC Gamepass have been selling gangbuster on Steam (Sea of Thieves, Grounded, MS FS2020, Halo MCC, Ori etc). Things may change in the future but right now PC players don't seem to have a problem paying for game ownership.

 

[RDGoodla]

Literally all 1st party MS games which are available on PC Gamepass have been selling gangbuster on Steam (Sea of Thieves, Grounded, MS FS2020, Halo MCC, Ori etc). Things may change in the future but right now PC players don't seem to have a problem paying for game ownership.

This is what I mean.:If PC players feel okay to pay full price why PS5 players will have problem?

If PS5 players have problem to pay full price, how could PC players not be bothered?

Furthermore if Bethesda games are blocked from PS consoles how could Steam be avoided?

 

[Cyan]

Lol Tod Howard " We would reboot the xbox in such a way that no one would know we were doing it and just have it display a loading screen"

the double memory party with cakes and all after convincing x360 engineers to increase the memory from 256GB to 512GB or the memory trick of the X360 was also fun.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Sega would be a good choice for MS.

I'd love someone to revive some classic Sega IPs with a decent budget.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Furthermore if Bethesda games are blocked from PS consoles how could Steam be avoided?

Eh? All MS game release are also released day and date on Steam now. This wasn't always the case. Gears 5, for example launched on MS Store and Gamepass first.

This indicates that it's most likely that all Bethesda games will also launch on Steam day and date with Gamepass.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

Eh? All MS game release are also released day and date on Steam now. This wasn't always the case. Gears 5, for example launched on MS Store and Gamepass first.

This indicates that it's most likely that all Bethesda games will also launch on Steam day and date with Gamepass.

Regards,
SB

I'd wait on that. Gamepass is out of beta for the pc and the beta xbox experiance for pc will soon exit beta. MS could shift their strategy going forward

 

[Rangers]

(Halo is on the back of the real box)

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'd wait on that. Gamepass is out of beta for the pc and the beta xbox experiance for pc will soon exit beta. MS could shift their strategy going forward

It'd be strange for them to increase their commitment to releasing day and date on Steam this year, which they haven't really done in the past, only to then shortly after that to reverse course.

I'd be extremely shocked to see them reverse course on this. Especially as they did this already knowing internally that Gamepass would be exiting BETA this year...when they made the decision to release games day and date on Steam.

Regards,
SB

 

[eastmen]

It'd be strange for them to increase their commitment to releasing day and date on Steam this year, which they haven't really done in the past, only to then shortly after that to reverse course.

I'd be extremely shocked to see them reverse course on this. Especially as they did this already knowing internally that Gamepass would be exiting BETA this year...when they made the decision to release games day and date on Steam.

Regards,
SB

Quite simply they can be using the current titles as a way to get people interested in the franchises again before trying to get them to move over to their own store. IT can simply be as easy as wow you loved gears of war 5 ? Well gears of war 6 launches on pc exclusively to game pass / windows store.

I think its going to be a longer tail for them to switch. I don't think its over night but i think you will see it as they start to execute larger game releases on a consistent basis. Once they have a big title every 3-4 months and a smaller game in between it will be easier to convince steam users to purchase game pass for hte title. It becomes well I could pay $60 each for these 4 games I want this year or I could pay $120 for game pass and get those games plus another 4-6 games i'm kinda interested in and then have access to the rest of the library.


Also what if Valve is the next purchase

 

[Daozang]

Also what if Valve is the next purchase

Valve is not a public company, and I'm pretty sure Newel is not selling at least in the near future.

 

[Daozang]

Too many discussions focus on Sony, not on Nintendo and Steam.

Sony relies on console sales too much.
The problem they are about to face, is an increased difficulty in convincing the consumer that their console is worth buying, especially since the reason the PlayStation brand is recognized for, is high production values of single player experiences.
Nintendo is the king for a certain demographic, and their brand recognition is unparalleled. Their first party titles are also a lot cheaper to produce.
As for Steam, it seems to me that Microsoft won't push that front, for the time being at least, although, I can't think of a way they won't go for it down the line.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Microsoft seems to have to play by different rules, for example they always must offer browser choice, but Chrome OS does not have to offer any choice in browsers, you can only use Chrome. So no, I doubt that would be allowed either legally (particularly EU) or by public pressure. Apple is allowed to do things others are not.

You must not understand monopolies. Microsoft have an effective monopoly in desktop operating systems because of the proliferation of Windows. Apple does not have a market monopoly in any market: macOS and iOS/iPadOS are tiny markets compared to Windows and Android, ditto ChromeOS.

If you have the massively dominant platform, then you have to adhere to very specific anti-competition laws preventing abuse of that market monopoly. I had mentally filed Microsoft's recent acquisition of Zenimax as being more relevant to Xbox but these studios also release Windows games and, in many games, games on non-Windows desktop OS platforms like macOS and linux. So yes, in this regard Microsoft will want to tread carefully. Xbox isn't Windows, of course, there is no freedom there.

An intersting perspective.

 

[Nesh]

That's same bullshit we saw in streaming movie/tv-series business year ago. Then the mantra was netflix is going to die as the big boys are coming(apple, disney,...). Business is still as normal, market is big enough to have multiple players. The market shares might change but I seriously doubt any one company could monopolize gaming and serve everyone. If anything gaming market is still very small and ever growing as young people used to gaming become older(more money to consume, make new people who like gaming) and older people who don't like gaming die away. Similarly developing countries become richer and eventually will have resources to spend on gaming.

Thats a lot of sugar coating.

 

[eastmen]

Thats a lot of sugar coating.

Its a weird stance that he has also . We aren't at the same stage for games as we are for movie/ tv streaming. We are at the Blockbuster had a chance to buy netflix part of the stage. MS just pulled up with gamepass and xcloud in a great low price package and now the other companies can either continue on like they were or embrace the change themselves and adapt and stay relevant.

Blockbuster figured out to late that netflix was popular and couldn't keep up by the time they really got the mail rentals working right netflix was leaps and bounds ahead in their streaming platform. Hopefully both sony and nintendo wont feel that pain.

 

[Tkumpathenurple]

Hopefully both sony and nintendo wont feel that pain.

I don't really see why they would. Sony already have PSNow, and Nintendo could presumably make use of GeForce Now infrastructure for their own streaming service.

PSNow and PS+ both need an overhaul IMO, in order to better integrate with each other, but the service - that of an instant game catalogue, with the option to stream - is already virtually identical.

Again, IMO, Sony would be best served by funding a plethora of indies to bulk out PSNow, as their AAA titles sell millions as is, and losing that revenue to compete with a loss leader isn't wise.

Clearer messaging, as well as a clear vision would help here too. I think Sony should put all of their PS4 exclusives on PSNow, openly state that all of them are coming to the PC, and that all PC enhancements will be freely included in PlayStation editions of those games.

Then they need to give the assurance that all first party PS5 games will remain exclusive to the PS5 until the PS6, at which point, PS5 games will be treated like the aforementioned PS4 games.

 

[milk]

Its a weird stance that he has also . We aren't at the same stage for games as we are for movie/ tv streaming. We are at the Blockbuster had a chance to buy netflix part of the stage. MS just pulled up with gamepass and xcloud in a great low price package and now the other companies can either continue on like they were or embrace the change themselves and adapt and stay relevant.

Blockbuster figured out to late that netflix was popular and couldn't keep up by the time they really got the mail rentals working right netflix was leaps and bounds ahead in their streaming platform. Hopefully both sony and nintendo wont feel that pain.

Only that nintendo, steam, sony, etc aren't blockbuster in this scenario. They are iTunes movies, or HBO GO. Gamestop is blockbuster and even they know it.

 

[manux]

It boils down to basic consumer rights. If I buy a device I would like to be install any app/game/store I like to it instead of platform owner controlling what I can and cannot do. It's not very different from freedom of speach or right to repair. Right to repair is also struggle with apple. My major worry here is that once freedom is taken away it's very difficult to get it back. It would be better for consumer if apple lost the case against epic, spotify & co.

 

[eastmen]

I don't really see why they would. Sony already have PSNow, and Nintendo could presumably make use of GeForce Now infrastructure for their own streaming service.

PSNow and PS+ both need an overhaul IMO, in order to better integrate with each other, but the service - that of an instant game catalogue, with the option to stream - is already virtually identical.

Again, IMO, Sony would be best served by funding a plethora of indies to bulk out PSNow, as their AAA titles sell millions as is, and losing that revenue to compete with a loss leader isn't wise.

Clearer messaging, as well as a clear vision would help here too. I think Sony should put all of their PS4 exclusives on PSNow, openly state that all of them are coming to the PC, and that all PC enhancements will be freely included in PlayStation editions of those games.

Then they need to give the assurance that all first party PS5 games will remain exclusive to the PS5 until the PS6, at which point, PS5 games will be treated like the aforementioned PS4 games.

Sony's PSNow is woefully out dated. Its 720p maximum and its limited in scope to the devices you can use. Sony hasn't announced any updates to the service. With MS we have a time table for when they are switching over to new hardware. Remember Blockbuster tried with its own mailing platform and streaming platform.

Nintendo going to another company for its streaming solution may not work. They might as well start selling streaming rights to other companies like Disney and HBO did .

Only that nintendo, steam, sony, etc aren't blockbuster in this scenario. They are iTunes movies, or HBO GO. Gamestop is blockbuster and even they know it.

We are at the start of this . Itunes movies never really took off and has been replaced with Apple TV and HBO go has been merged with Warner brothers and all the services have become HBO MAX.

Gamestop has already tried to diversify , they became a publisher , an online gaming platform (new grounds i believe) and so on. They just never were able to get any of it off


Who knows maybe sony will be able to get ps now to a point where its a good experiance on multiple platforms

 

[eastmen]

It boils down to basic consumer rights. If I buy a device I would like to be install any app/game/store I like to it instead of platform owner controlling what I can and cannot do. It's not very different from freedom of speach or right to repair. Right to repair is also struggle with apple. My major worry here is that once freedom is taken away it's very difficult to get it back. It would be better for consumer if apple lost the case against epic, spotify & co.

The only thing I want is for apple to allow third party apps to be installed outside of the app store. Then anyone can make an app store and you can do what you want