Microsoft Buys Bethesda

Eunos_Cosmo

Eunos_Cosmo

11,698
United States
Marin County
https://www.polygon.com/21449072/why-microsoft-acquired-bethesda-cost-xbox-ps5-pc

Interesting development. On the one hand, maybe it will give Bethesda some proper supervision and funding (I think they need both) but on the other, I feel like Microsoft tends to squash genuine creativity and any risk taking - series under the MS umbrella tend to stagnate...

I also feel like this will inevitably (if not maybe immediately) push the Fallout & Elder Scroll series into Xbox/PC exclusive territory, which would be a shame.
 
...Kinda worried, if I'm honest. A games developer known for releasing great but buggy games will now be supervised by a software behemoth who's been trying to mend their flagship OS since its launch to... mixed results.

On the bright side, all the MS cash may finally give Bethesda a chance to come up with a new engine and just maybe the next Elder Scroll or Fallout won't be as broken at launch...
 
Well, this sounds like a big leap for Microsoft.

I dont wish to be the harbinger of Doom. But imagine the Fallout if it doesn't work.

However, Bethesda have been struggling of late. A few more failures and they could have been on their way to Oblivion!

*exits stage left*
 
JKgo
...Kinda worried, if I'm honest. A games developer known for releasing great but buggy games will now be supervised by a software behemoth who's been trying to mend their flagship OS since its launch to... mixed results.

On the bright side, all the MS cash may finally give Bethesda a chance to come up with a new engine and just maybe the next Elder Scroll or Fallout won't be as broken at launch...
Click to expand...

I think i'd rather have a buggy & broken-at-launch game with some sense of vitality than a charmless, phoned-in, by the book installment that MS stewardship tends to result in. :indiff:
 
Eunos_Cosmo
I think i'd rather have a buggy & broken-at-launch game with some sense of vitality than a charmless, phoned-in, by the book installment that MS stewardship tends to result in. :indiff:
Click to expand...
If it's any consolation, MS owned studios don't start churning out games like that until later iterations. :lol: We might be ok, for some time at least.
 
Buying a publisher known for releasing popular multi platform games. I don't know how to feel about this. This almost like cheating, lol. There's no guarantee that they will let big games like Elder Scroll, Fallout, Dishonored from coming to PS5 in the future, they might be saying now that it will, but I don't trust Microsoft at all specially when the PlayStation brand is still going strong. And I'm surprised by the lack of people denouncing this. Just imagine if Sony bought big publisher like Capcom or Konami?
 
ArR29
Buying a publisher known for releasing popular multi platform games. I don't know how to feel about this. This almost like cheating, lol. There's no guarantee that they will let big games like Elder Scroll, Fallout, Dishonored from coming to PS5 in the future, they might be saying now that it will, but I don't trust Microsoft at all specially when the PlayStation brand is still going strong. And I'm surprised by the lack of people denouncing this. Just imagine if Sony bought big publisher like Capcom or Konami?
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Can I borrow some tinfoil?
 
Worst case scenario is that the games will have "Microsoft Game Studios" on the front of it for every Playstation owner to see. I seriously doubt IPs like Fallout, Elder Scrolls or Doom will be exclusives.
 
ArR29
but I don't trust Microsoft at all specially when the PlayStation brand is still going strong.
Click to expand...

Why would you trust either? At the end of the day they're both after what's in your bank account, that right there should be enough to make you skeptical.

Also, Sony seems to be getting cozy with Epic, wouldn't be surprised to see their 1.4% stake grow rapidly at some point.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/9/2...tnite-investment-250-million-game-development

They're also notorious for buying up music publishers.
 
Eunos_Cosmo
I think i'd rather have a buggy & broken-at-launch game with some sense of vitality than a charmless, phoned-in, by the book installment that MS stewardship tends to result in. :indiff:
Click to expand...

...I hear you. Kinda like pop music, in a way - a popular indie artist signs up with a major label and lo and behold, their next album is full of trap beats. Their fans lose their proverbial. :lol:

Microsoft has been on a buying spree of game devs throughout this generation, though. The highest profile acquisition in recent memory has to be Mojang. Non-MS products used to get Minecraft, but what's happening in that regard lately? I haven't been following that game or the news surrounding it but I think that might be a good barometer of things to come.
 
JKgo
Microsoft has been on a buying spree of game devs throughout this generation, though. The highest profile acquisition in recent memory has to be Mojang. Non-MS products used to get Minecraft, but what's happening in that regard lately? I haven't been following that game or the news surrounding it but I think that might be a good barometer of things to come.
Click to expand...

Minecraft Dungeons released in May on all 3 main consoles and PC.

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP4433-CUSA18779_00-DUNGEONSPS400000
 
JKgo
Non-MS products used to get Minecraft, but what's happening in that regard lately? I haven't been following that game or the news surrounding it but I think that might be a good barometer of things to come.
Click to expand...
I don't think anything has changed at all concerning that game. I mean, isn't one of their main selling points about it having cross-play?

"The new update will enable cross-platform play between the Xbox One, Windows 10 PCs, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Gear VR, and now PS4. Minecraft players on the PS4 will also get access to all of their purchases and progress, and the update will be available free of charge."
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/9/...station-4-release-cross-play-support-features

Going off that, it seems it's Sony that was initially hesitant to share a platform with them rather than the other way around.
 
Northstar
Minecraft Dungeons released in May on all 3 main consoles and PC.

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP4433-CUSA18779_00-DUNGEONSPS400000
Click to expand...

ImaRobot
I don't think anything has changed at all concerning that game. I mean, isn't one of their main selling points about it having cross-play?

"The new update will enable cross-platform play between the Xbox One, Windows 10 PCs, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, Gear VR, and now PS4. Minecraft players on the PS4 will also get access to all of their purchases and progress, and the update will be available free of charge."
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/9/...station-4-release-cross-play-support-features

Going off that, it seems it's Sony that was initially hesitant to share a platform with them rather than the other way around.
Click to expand...

...Well, there you go. Going off this very limited single example, Bethesda's games should not be exclusive to MS consoles and PCs. Hopefully. As for how the quality question will pan out, we'll have to wait and see.
 
I don't see how this isn't Microsoft's way of turning the tide. They would 100% make BGS games exclusive to Game Pass and squeeze out Sony. Sorry to say you'll need a PC or XSX to play the next Fallout or Elder Scrolls or Doom or Starfield titles. They have already announced that "specific titles" will be exclusive.

This isn't even as much of a console war than Microsoft playing the long game. They ultimately just want everyone paying $25-30 per month to play any of their titles on Xbox or PC. The days of paying a one-time, $60 fee for your favorite game (on your $300 console) are fleeting fast sadly.

 
Since Microsoft now owns Obsidian and Bethesda, they need to make sure Obsidian Has a hand on all future fallout games. I’ve already seen the “Does this mean there will be a Fallout New Vegas 2?” talk. I’m all for it.
 
£7.5 billion? Sheesh. That's more than Disney paid for either the Star Wars or Marvel franchises, and not far off what they paid for both. That's some serious investment.

I fear it will mean subsequent big titles will be Xbox/PC exclusives, i don't see why else Microsoft would have done it as Sony currently leads the way with that business model.

It's a shame as i'm a big fan of the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series. 👎
 
I don't know how anyone can look at MS actions over the last few years with regards to exclusivity and then look at this deal with worry about exclusivity. Their whole MO for a good five years or so now has been freedom and choice, not exclusivity.

At the mostt you'll see more "Better on Xbox" and "First on Xbox" stuff, but that's about as far as they go.
 
Microsofts short-term game is fairly obvious: Get PS5 folks to buy a Series S for on the side. Of course that won't win over everyone, so exclusives will be timed so they can profit off PS5 players as well.
Microsofts long-term game (IMO): game-as-a-service, platform irrelevant. I could even see them drop out of the HW market after the Series S/X lifecycle, depending how they evolve as a publisher. The Bethesda acquisition shows they mean business, I expect more acquisitions or partnerships in the future. Willing to bet some money that Ubisoft/Uplay+ is going to be in Game Pass in some form or other in the near future and they will add more studios to their portfolio.

People only looking at this from a PS vs XB perspective are ignoring the fact that MS is playing a completely different game here. They're moving beyond the console war.
 
This is a very clever move both in terms of acquiring studios and titles, and the timing of it. They want people on Game Pass and this has added a huge amount of value to that. Personally I'm only really bothered about Fallout but even then I'd consider getting Game Pass Ultimate to play it on PC and if I'm paying for that it becomes very tempting to add a bit more on top and get a console too.
 
Microsoft trying to get everyone onboard game pass sounds like a better value DRM than they tried originally with the XboxOne.

I'm part of the decreasing physical disc ownership model and I will be for as long as I can be, subscription services just dont appeal to me.

Getting Bethesda games day one for no extra cost on game pass is probably the best thing they could've done to sell it. I hate to say it as this pushes even more people digital and it's only a matter of time until that is the only way to purchase games.
 
Samus
I don't know how anyone can look at MS actions over the last few years with regards to exclusivity and then look at this deal with worry about exclusivity. Their whole MO for a good five years or so now has been freedom and choice, not exclusivity.

At the mostt you'll see more "Better on Xbox" and "First on Xbox" stuff, but that's about as far as they go.
Click to expand...
And you can look at Skyrim for this. The Xbox version got the DLC add-ons first - Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn - by between three and six months, and the mods support for Xbox is better (by Sony's insistence though; Skyrim mods cannot use external assets on the PS4 version). Both consoles got the Special and Legendary editions at the same time (as did PC), but that all said, Bethesda released the PSVR version (technically ZeniMax rather than Bethesda) ahead of any PC VR versions, and I'm pretty sure there is no VR option for Xbox right now.

Timed exclusives are definitely in the mix for TES/FO in the future (and Sony does the same with other titles, so it's not like this is bad guy MS).

As for outright exclusives... that depends on whether Microsoft feels threatened enough by what the PS5 offers to keep TES/FO for itself and forego the millions of sales (and its juicy cut from each). Skyrim passed 30m copies quite some time ago (2016), and though there's neither current sales figures nor a decent by-platform split, the very early estimates put it at about 60:30 in Xbox's favour.

If we assume that split holds and extrapolate the current sales figures, that's potentially 12 million lifetime sales that MS would give up by keeping it away from PlayStation. I suspect that won't happen.
 
At 80 USD/EUR a copy, I don't think so either. I do believe it will be a timed exclusive as TES6 is a potential system seller.
 
I guess a lot of it will come down to how well the Xbox twins sell compared to the PS5 over the coming year. I don't think Bethesda has anything due, other than those two titles already announced, in that time period. There's Starfield and an Elder Scrolls due, but i can't see either appearing for another 12 months, which gives Microsoft chance to see how their next-gen console fares against Sony's. I can certainly see Starfield and TES6 being at the very least timed exclusives though.
 
NLxAROSA
Microsofts short-term game is fairly obvious: Get PS5 folks to buy a Series S for on the side. Of course that won't win over everyone, so exclusives will be timed so they can profit off PS5 players as well.
Microsofts long-term game (IMO): game-as-a-service, platform irrelevant. I could even see them drop out of the HW market after the Series S/X lifecycle, depending how they evolve as a publisher. The Bethesda acquisition shows they mean business, I expect more acquisitions or partnerships in the future. Willing to bet some money that Ubisoft/Uplay+ is going to be in Game Pass in some form or other in the near future and they will add more studios to their portfolio.

People only looking at this from a PS vs XB perspective are ignoring the fact that MS is playing a completely different game here. They're moving beyond the console war.
Click to expand...
So what you’re saying is, in a few years the headline ‘Microsoft buys Sony’ will be reality?
 

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