It's a matter of value, they can absolutely afford it with $136+ billion in cash on hand.
^what he said
Microsoft acquires ZeniMax Media (Bethesda, id Software, Arkane + 5 more) [2020-09-21, 2021-03-09]
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^what he said
I can't say for sure, but from what I was told, Sony was concerned about Microsoft obtaining WB gaming studios.
It's in reference to zenimax suing carmack, loosing the case against carmack. Carmack suing back zenimax for money they owed him for id acquisition. This was settled out of court and carmack got paid. The other part of that lawsuit didn't go so well for oculus. Zenimax is/was salty towards carmack, despite loosing the lawsuit zenimax has kept stating carmack did bad things.
https://www.businessinsider.com/fac...d-heres-what-zenimax-had-to-say-at-the-time-6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZeniMax_v._Oculus
Carmack still is part time employed by facebook/oculus as cto.
Who buys this one? S or M?
iceberg187
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I can't think of a time when news just literally shut down the discussion of almost everything else. When I got the alert for the purchase on my phone, it was from a financial site, not a gaming site. I don't get news alerts from IGN or Gamespot on my phone, I do for the money sites though. Phil has already been on CNBC. I'm stunned.
It was a general statement on what's being played out between MS and Sony. More than likely you'll hear something next Sony related about acquiring another studio.
It's definitely a big blow to Sony in terms of future game exclusives beyond DeathLoop. In many ways Microsoft deserves this... Soony has been off their A-game for awhile dealing with messaging and hardware choices.
Yeah problably wont happen. Anyway, i dislike companies having exclusives to one platform, and so do studios.
There will follow more if this studio buying from ms i think.
If I were the studios included in that deal I'd be worrying about which one is going to get dissolved first. Bethesda and Id are probably safe, Arkane not so much. Given MS's penchant for drowning talent in red tape and bottom lines, I bet they aren't all overjoyed by the move. It'll be interesting to see what talent leaves for other studios now.
Sony's history has been to work first closely with studio and then acquire. I don't believe sony has to acquire anything at the moment. They have enough internal studios and can achieve increased output by investing into existing studios.
This acquisition is great for microsoft. If this goes well microsoft can also focus on organic growth after the newly purchased studios have been absorbed.
My gut feeling is that the game left is paying for timed exclusives or even paying for 2nd party exclusive content be it full games, enhancements or dlc.
This acquisition is great for microsoft. If this goes well microsoft can also focus on organic growth after the newly purchased studios have been absorbed.
My gut feeling is that the game left is paying for timed exclusives or even paying for 2nd party exclusive content be it full games, enhancements or dlc.
This type of thinking doesn't make a lot of sense.
The reason why Sony and MS are buying up studios is not because they want their IPs. It's because they want their talent. Very few new studios are springing up, there's just a lack of workforce out there for this type of thing. They need all these studios to keep Game Pass well fed with new titles.
Well MS doesn't have a good track record of keeping studio alive after purchase e.g. Lionhead, Rare et al. Bungie made it out alive but I think they are the only one to do so. But the deals done so it will be a waiting game now to see if these studio's can avoid the Curse of Craig.
D
Deleted member 11852
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I think as far as IP goes, this is a very good acquisition. Fallout and Elder Scrolls alone make this worthwhile let alone what Starfield may become. But I agree with you, in terms of talent you cannot buy people, people migrate from studio to studio. You need to incentivise people to stay. It's that simple. Make the studio such a great place to work, those with choice will decide to stay.
absolutely if people want to leave, they can't stop them. But I don't suspect that MS will be actively shutting down studiosI think as far as IP goes, this is a very good acquisition. Fallout and Elder Scrolls alone make this worthwhile let alone what Starfield may become. But I agree with you, in terms of talent you cannot buy people, people migrate from studio to studio. You need to incentivise people to stay. It's that simple. Make the studio such a great place to work, those with choice will decide to stay.
Yes.
Nope, not since I had a PC with an Nvidia card with a 6 in front of it, if I remember correctly (it ran Far cry well?) that’s how long ago that was.
absolutely if people want to leave, they can't stop them. But I don't suspect that MS will be actively shutting down studios
I'm not saying they will but, given their track record, there is a high chance that a few of the smaller performers will be gone in year or so.
those AA type studios have been the majority of acquisitions for MS the past while. I think they specifically target AA sized studios as opposed to AAA ones. The cost return appears to be much more beneficial to them because they are looking to reduce spend on titles and increase subscriber base. Essentially these smaller AA studios can be funded for whacky projects that don't cost too much but provide a much needed lift to the service to eliminate the homogeneity of all games reducing to the same cookie cutter titles.
See Grounded for instance. Rare studios games have also been pared back in terms of spend. I think you're still going to see a lot of AA type (spend) titles like that coming from MS studios, and very few titles that actually line up and go toe to toe with Sony ones.
tldr; they want studios to have a title release every 1-2 years as opposed to 3-5 years. The former supports game pass better, the latter supports more traditional models.
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.
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