Microsoft is buying Zenimax/Bethesda for $7.5 billion

[kaelleria]

Case-by-case probably means only Switch if the game can be downgraded enough. Just like Ori and Cuphead.

Ori and Cuphead aren't actually owned by Microsoft.

[Daedius]

Bolstering their exclusive games for Xbox and PC?

[Rogalicus]

Ori and Cuphead aren't actually owned by Microsoft.

I'm going to assume they've at least bought the exclusivity, so decision to release the games on other platforms still belonged to Microsoft.

[Pakheth]

People seem to think this means console/PC exclusivity but must I remind you MC also owns Minecraft and if Skyrim has a contender for game on pretty much everything then it's Minecraft.
I doubt MC will make TES6 or Fallout exclusive considering there is money in multiconsole releases.

[Easo]

Age of megacompanies and mega buyouts.
But I see absolutely no reason to fear for lack of Doom/Fallout/others on PlayStation. Nobody sane would want to loose on that money.
Microsoft, however, might be trying to slowly build up to fight Steam.
P.S.
What chance there is that we will fianally get less bugy Besthesda games now? -.-

[Beazy]

Nice, does this mean we 16 new remaster ports of Skyrim?

[Hellobolis]

guess this means there now is a slight hope TES6 won't be a microtransaction hell, but not counting on it.

[Heladys]

Yay, finally Microsoft will bring proper bug suppression and remediation processes to Bethesda.

Oh, wait.

[Dhrizzle]

Morrowind was console exclusive for Xbox back in 2002.
Microsoft was in bed with Bethesda since 2002.

When is the last good Elder Scroll game?

I think that was more of a "good" exclusive where Microsoft's involvement was needed to get the game running on the system. Also don't forget that generation has the Cube and PS2 (and Dreamcast I guess) which were significantly lower powered and rarely had hard-drive.

[Mojo03]

A “B” company buys a “B” studio.

They should of bought Bungie.

It is kind of interesting though.

[PenguinChan]

Timed exclusives against Sony here we come. If not, what was the point of buying them out for $7.5 billion? The return on that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

A “B” company buys a “B” studio.

They should of bought Bungie.

It is kind of interesting though.

Bungie got away from Microsoft, then under Activision, then got away from Activision. I highly doubt they're eager to go under them again.

[kaelleria]

Timed exclusives against Sony here we come. If not, what was the point of buying them out for $7.5 billion? The return on that isn't going to happen anytime soon.



Bungie got away from Microsoft, then under Activision, then got away from Activision. I highly doubt they're eager to go under them again.

They were actually in talks at several points in time but Bungie wanted too much money (rumored $20b).

[Serpha]

All 15 people that use Linux or Mac to game will surely be put in a hard spot to be forced to join at least the 90s and run Windows.

Don't cut your self with that edge chief, at least we have established you know nothing about Linux, the only positive thing from your post.

[Mirishka]

As long as they can whip Bethesda into shape and release a mostly-bug free Fallout game, I'm entirely okay with this.

A Bethesda game? Without bugs?



On a serious note, this is not a phenomenon unique to Bethesda games: pretty much every open world game ships with a huge number of bugs. RDR2 for example had a TON of issues at launch (and still does). Even more linear, but still big games like TLoU2 shipped with a massive amount of glitches and problems. Warframe has consistently released undercooked, bug-riddled updates since it launched.

Developing games is more complex than it ever has been, anyone expecting a game of the scale Bethesda is known for to ship without bugs is kidding themselves.

And the idea that this is going to hurt Sony is silly because Bethesda has already said that their games aren't suddenly going to all be XB exclusives. And honestly even if they were, Sony systems have never, ever been 'THE' consoles to have for Bethesda games. PS3 had by far the worst version of Skyrim, PS4 has the most restrictive modding rules for FO4/Skyrim SE, and Sony didn't even have Morrowind at all when it launched. And Fallout 76 is mediocre regardless of platform.

So this isn't suddenly a thing where a feather in Sony's cap got yanked away. They still have a vastly stronger library of exclusives/first part games than Microsoft and until that changes, the pecking order isn't going to change.

[Makabreska]

Yay, finally Microsoft will bring proper bug suppression and remediation processes to Bethesda.

Oh, wait.

I dunno man, you can go only up after F76 shitshow.

[kaelleria]

I dunno man, you can go only up after F76 shitshow.

Depends on how much of the Creation Engine is used in their new engine...


Joking aside, apparently there's going to be some more acquisition news at the Tokyo Game Show on Thursday.

[BeepBoo]

I dunno man, you can go only up after F76 shitshow.

You'd think that, but.... I feel like they might give TES a FO76 treatment

[Mirishka]

They were actually in talks at several points in time but Bungie wanted too much money (rumored $20b).

Bungie themselves shot that rumor down.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bu.../1100-6482136/

[kaelleria]

Bungie themselves shot that rumor down.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bu.../1100-6482136/

Wording is super important. That doesn't preclude all talks, just that particular instance. I will bet you more info will come out in coming months about various talks.

[Mirishka]

Depends on how much of the Creation Engine is used in their new engine...


Joking aside, apparently there's going to be some more acquisition news at the Tokyo Game Show on Thursday.

They are still using the Creation engine in both Starfield and the next ES game. And Bethesda might talk up the overhaul, but they did the same thing when Skyrim was announced - they actually said Skyrim ran on an all-new engine, which was a lie. Skyrim is running on an upgraded version of the same engine used in MW, Oblivion and Fallout 3/New Vegas... there are actually traces of VATS code in Skyrim, and Fallout 76 even reuses some of the code from Skyrim's dragons for the Scorchbeasts. Which explains why they suffer from several of the same bugs (like dead Scorchbeasts randomly appearing and falling out of the sky like dragon skeletons do in Skyrim).

So yeah... take anything Bethesda says about 'omg new engine!!!' with about 10,000 grains of salt.

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Wording is super important. That doesn't preclude all talks, just that particular instance. I will bet you more info will come out in coming months about various talks.

I'm not sure how else to take "this is false" from the CEO, so until the new info you speak of comes out, I will assume he means what he says.