Microsoft is buying Zenimax/Bethesda for $7.5 billion

[Mosotti]

That's 16 times the value of that shit.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

The publisher being Bethesda Softworks (The parent company of Bethesda Game Studios) and Financial group being Zenimax Media (Parent company of the entire lot).

Todd is second or third place in Bethesda Game Studios. Meaning he doesn't set the release dates or control finances of the overall company. I know people like to poke fun at Todd. But it's essentially pointing at the image and ignoring the man behind the curtain who was the true problem the entire time.

Advertisers and other financial parts of the company set the shipping date. Todd at most lead projects. Like you can't delay a game after someone has suck millions into advertisements. Which shocks me because with a game as big as fallout do you need massive advertisement budgets?

[hellhamster]

Not too fussed personally, got the PC/PS5 combo if they do plan to boycott PS5 out of releasing Bethesda games, which I doubt they will.

Consoles don't make as much money as selling games at least for now when next gen 4k tech is still too expensive for a $400 price tag.

[Dhrizzle]

There's a lot of native games to Linux, and there's Wine. There's also Steam Play from Valve, yes Valve can see the benefit in using Linux.

Haven't Valve all but abandoned their SteamOS and Steam boxes? IIRC it was just Gabe throwing a shit-fit over Microsoft having a store in Windows and crying he was going to make his own OS with blackjack and hookers, but after the initial excitement they kinda screwed over their hardware partners by undermining them with the SteamLink.

[Rennadrel]

More games to add to the Game Pass? Is Microsoft trying to take on Steam with EA Access bundled in or am I dreaming and being too hopeful? Also @OP adding source would help.

Personally, games as a service and subscription models can eat a bag of dicks

[iosdeveloper]

you guys talk about exclusivity, when it's a matter of propaganda
corporation buys out a lot of beloved titles to force their techno-lord agenda

[zealo]

You do realize there is a massive difference in making a exclusive like Ratchet and Clank and buying a Exclusive. Then again seeing who I am replying to I'm not shocked not the response.....

Only if they're making games already having an imminent release date suddenly exclusive.

There is no practical difference to Ratchet and Clank in them buying Bethesda, and then having them make console exclusives with titles that were years out from releasing anyway.

[kaelleria]

Holy shit that's absolutely not a win for Microsoft. Why on earth lose out on sales revenue by putting it on a subscription service right out of the gate? That would be a monumentally awful idea for Microsoft, when they could be reaping millions of sales at $60 a pop. A huge chunk of which are digital so they ain't paying a cut to nobody.

Gamepass subscriptions jumped from 10m to 15m in 5 months. This is a play for the future, not the short term.

Most people also don't buy more than 1-2 games per year.

The attach rate for XBL gold was something like 55% in 2018. The majority of that was at $5-7/month. If you're getting similar attach rates on Xbox ($10/mo) (or higher because GP is an absurd deal) and you add in PC ($10/mo) you can easily see where the GP model eventually comes out ahead.

Then throw in streaming ($15/mo) and you begin to hit markets consoles traditionally don't do as well in (India, China, SE asia, etc...)

Another wrinkle to this deal no one is thinking about...

Any acquisition MS purchases will be moving off of whatever cloud platform they were using to Azure which will end up looking even better on their balance sheets.

[DeiVias]

Gamepass is looking ridiculously good right now.

[Zeta333]

Holy shit that's absolutely not a win for Microsoft. Why on earth lose out on sales revenue by putting it on a subscription service right out of the gate? That would be a monumentally awful idea for Microsoft, when they could be reaping millions of sales at $60 a pop. A huge chunk of which are digital so they ain't paying a cut to nobody.

MS is aiming for gamepass being thier shining feature to sell the console. They dont need to nickel and dime fro revenue, they dont even need revenue from thier gaming section.

[BeepBoo]

"services" for goods that are normally things you buy an own in general can eat a bag of dicks. Games that are single player definitely fall into this category.

[vitor210]

I just can't believe it both Minecraft and ESO are now on the same cinematic universe. What a year 2020 is turning out to be

[bloody251]

You do realize there is a massive difference in making a exclusive like Ratchet and Clank and buying a Exclusive. Then again seeing who I am replying to I'm not shocked not the response.....

Like FFXVI, Spiderman in the Marvel's Avengers, VR in Resident Evil 7, Final Fantasy VII remake and more recently, their attempt to get Starfield?


Edit:

Also, I remember you praising Epic for doing even worse in another thread sometime ago.

[Video Games]

i mean for as much as i shit on ms, this is at least interesting from a competitive point of view. Maybe sony will buy something in return

[Zogarth]

Just when we thought Todd couldn't find any more ways to sell Skyrim...

[aceperson]

Doesn't really bother me much..as I typically play Bethesda games on my PC...so as long as they keep their "timed exclusive" shenanigans focused on the Console Wars... I'm good.

- - - Updated - - -



It's weird that you start with "there is no good reason for exclusives to exist"...and then follow it up with a good reason that exclusives exist. And you even manage to phrase it in the way that a PR guy would.

i don't consider greed a good reason. exclusives are meant to drive competition to bankruptcy through a lack of support. not because their product is better. also, i'm going for a business management degree so that would explain why i phrased it so well. i know how these people think.

[Kallisto]

Just when we thought Todd couldn't find any more ways to sell Skyrim...

Todd doesn't sell anything. He's in a third tier company with those above him telling him what to make and how fast to make it.

[Traveler Voltin]

i doubt bethesda title will go exclusive but i wouldnt be surprised if the playstation version was "delayed"

[Coffeh]

Holy shit that's absolutely not a win for Microsoft. Why on earth lose out on sales revenue by putting it on a subscription service right out of the gate? That would be a monumentally awful idea for Microsoft, when they could be reaping millions of sales at $60 a pop. A huge chunk of which are digital so they ain't paying a cut to nobody.

...You realize it will 100% be day 1 available on Gamepass, right? That's how it works.

[Varitok]

More games to add to the Game Pass? Is Microsoft trying to take on Steam with EA Access bundled in or am I dreaming and being too hopeful? Also @OP adding source would help.

They're trying to bring an end to game ownership on top of it. The world in general is trying to move to a rental society. Never truly owning anything. This is just a step in the direction. It starts great and is an amazing value but once all the competition disappears you'll see the end goal of that.

As an example, Walmart just ended their price matching scheme too, so now people are going to start seeing the benefits of letting their mom and pop grocery stores go bust.