Soon we'll just have Microsoft, Epic, and a conglomeration of EA, Activision, and Ubisoft after Bobby Kotick forces them all to merge. Facebook will bungle up any chance they have of capturing the gaming market after writing a cryptic paragraph about their legal right to request blood samples from all Oculous users in the TOS. Valve will quietly exit software development altogether, and pivot to building custom vanity knives using their hardware manufacturing experience. Can't wait for the future GAAS market!
Carmack on the acquisition:<p>> Great! I think Microsoft has been a good parent company for gaming IPs, and they don’t have a grudge against me, so maybe I will be able to re engage with some of my old titles.<p><a href="https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1308069857913720832?s=20" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1308069857913720832...</a>
Holy sh!t. Bethesda is huge!<p>Well I was just thinking the other day that Microsoft really doesn't have any first party studio that are really as good as Sony's first party. IMO they didn't release a game 'this' gen that makes picking up a xbox one worth it. This could change that with fallout and doom. Also this allows them to bring the ID tech engine under their stewardship....<p>I just hope that they don't trash the franchises in an attempt to bolster game pass.
All of these consolidations of power are nuts. Feels like we need another round of trust busting in the next 10/20 years to help introduce real competition back into the markets.
Bethesda Games are not going not be exclusive to Xbox -- Confirmed by Todd Howard:<p>>Like our original partnership, this one is about more than one system or one screen. We share a deep belief in the fundamental power of games, in their ability to connect, empower, and bring joy. And a belief we should bring that to everyone - regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you play on. Regardless of the screen size, the controller, or your ability to even use one.<p><a href="https://bethesda.net/en/article/4IwKWIj174Cb2QNTTtBAEb/todd-howard-on-joining-xbox" rel="nofollow">https://bethesda.net/en/article/4IwKWIj174Cb2QNTTtBAEb/todd-...</a>
Microsoft bought Bungie in 2000.
-(Halo was going to be for mac, and demoed by Steve Jobs who I guess made it look so great Bungie sold.)<p>released a bunch of very successful games as xbox exclusives.<p>7 years later Bungie left microsoft as its own company again. (not sure how that happened.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie</a>
The year is 2040.<p>Gigaconglomerates Tencent, Activision Blizzard Ubisoft (ABU), Microsoft and Apple gatekeep the entire gaming industry.<p>Rebel guerilla groups of small publishers and indie developers rise up to take control of their encampments.
This just further confirms that my energy and money is going to the indie space. The level of enjoyment I get out of Factorio, Cuphead, Cogmind, Crusader Kings III, Curious Expedition 2, EXA Punks, Elite Dangerous, Kenshi, etc is so much greater than any AAA title I've touched in the past 5 years, yet these games are cheaper and most can run on a potato. I want to play games, not interactive movies.
Incredible that Fallout and Obsidian are now under the same roof again. The Outer Worlds was fun, and I want to see Obsidians efforts continue. Still, new Vegas 2 would be fine too.
Microsoft is just trying to recreate console lock-in without having to subsidize hardware so much.<p>(1) Microsoft is trying to expand their gaming division, but struggle with first-party games. This acquisition is an acknowledgement that MSFT needs Bethesda creatives.<p>(2) Microsoft's big strategy right now is to build their Xbox ecosystem - they're pushing GamePass, Xcloud, etc. heavily, and trying to become Netflix for games.<p>I'd guess they're basically buying Bethesda's key franchises to drive GamePass subs. They'll build them quick, lock you in with a $10/month sub, and let Bethesda slowly merge with the mothership.<p>Short term, I'm excited because I want these new games! Long term, I fully expect Bethesda to get hollowed out.
Seems like a better deal than the vapid fad that is TikTok, in addition to them partnering with Oracle which looks like a marriage made in a hellstew.<p>Well done Microsoft and Bethesda.
Every time I see these posts, I think of Demolition Man:<p><i>> Now all restaurants are Taco Bell. Taco Bell was the only restaurant to survive the franchise wars.</i><p>Out of all the dystopian sci-fi movies, who would have thought Demolition Man would have it right?
Bethesda was already trending this way however this has deep implications. Ultimately I think it's going to slowly kill the core of the modding community as modding is forced into the platform and new users are displace the modding culture.<p>The modding will no longer be able to truly edit the engine itself through some reverse engineering and be forced to utilize the APl/scripting framework. Third-party tools will be locked out. Obviously this has happened already on the console platform. There's still the PC platform but that could be locked down further as well.<p>Think about the time and fostered talent that it took to make some of the communities amazing tools. For example script extenders for elder scrolls series. As mods are now centralized in official 'the store' the community grow around which will never allow mods like the script extender for developers to make advanced innovative mods. Even if other modding communities like the Nexus allow for that It's going to continue to fragment the community and the talent which is foster within the community. Then you throw paid mods into the picture... Thus begins the death of the open source pillar in modding.
<i>"It's obvious that the current trend is creation of the one single worldwide company owning all the businesses and all the countries."</i><p>Vladimir Lenin, 1915.
It's unfortunate that the Xbox Series X and PS5 are so, so, so similar. It seems stupid to have to purchase 2 nearly identical boxes. It's not just the console. You then need multiple controllers for each, and possibly other accessories (Sony has a PS5 specific headset, camera, charger, will have a PS5 VR etc.)<p>I've historically preferred PS exclusives (Uncharted, Spiderman, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn), and the cross platform stuff, was a little worse than Xbox in the PS3 days, and a little better in the PS4 days (at least prior to XoX).
Speaking as a biased PS4 owner, I'm happy with current layout of PS exclusives and cross platform stuff. Each new announcement like this sucks. I like DOOM and Dishonored. I liked being able to get them on PS4 and expected to get them on PS5. I don't think this will make me get an Xbox, but it sucks I'll likely be missing out on these games. I suppose what Microsoft hopes is that people like me get a PS5 and a cheaper Xbox Series S with Gamepass.<p>I love that the Nintendo Switch exists. It's completely different, and doesn't really compete with Playstation/Xbox. As a gamer, it makes sense to purchase a Nintendo Switch and one of either the Playstation/Xbox. I wish Xbox/Playstation differentiated somehow. I suppose Microsoft tried to do that with Kinect, but failed/gave up.
Great, yet another acquisition. So eventually everything will become one company or what?
I like free markets, at least the idea of competition. I hate conglomerates. Am I contradicting myself?
microsoft are seeing that the money is going to be made in a subscription model for games. by purchasing the studios it makes it much easier for them to bundle games (possibly with exclusivity) with their gamepass.<p>i know i'm more likely to subscribe to gamepass (and keep it running for years) vs. the 1/2 games i buy a year.
It's interesting. Despite all the money that these studios have, my favorite games of the past few years have all been indie games (Rimworld, Factorio) or smaller studios (Paradox Plaza games such as EUIV, Stellaris). I understand that the majority of the industry's revenue is generated from these bigger studios, but acquiring first party developers doesn't make me as too concerned.
What I'm concerned about is distribution is controlled by a few parties to a higher degree on desktop, like it is on mobile.
Having just watched Netflix vs. the World documentary (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8407418/" rel="nofollow">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8407418/</a>) last week, this acquisition seems to be inevitable as game streaming is taking off and will eventually become the defacto means of playing video games.<p>Microsoft's endgame is to increase the subscribers to its GamePass subscription so akin to Netflix's insatiable appetite for video content, Microsoft's will be for video games. But since IP development for games is expensive, time-consuming and hard to break into, it's arguably easier to acquire game studios entirely.<p>The impact is so wide-ranging: what becomes of Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now? Same goes for Sony and Nintendo. The most interesting one could be Apple, who clearly does not want game streaming to be the norm.
One weird thing is that Deathloop and Ghostwrite are timed exclusives on PS5. I'm assuming that'll still happen because of contracts, but I wonder if there will never be another Bethesda game on PlayStation afterwards.
I was looking at my list of favorite games when I realized that all my favorite games are indi, except for Fallout/Elder scrolls. KSP, Subnautica, factorio, minecraft, papers please, FTL, EVE, x-plane, city skylines ... they all at least started as indi titles. Then I look at fallout and oblivion, the only non-indi games I've really enjoyed in the last 10+ years. There is something difference about them. So when I see microsoft buying Bethesda, I worry.
We are going to a world of very big corporations dominating the industries. Market tendency is to concentrate capital. And I'm not sure this is a good thing.
Where's the money? Wherever I look I can only find revenue for the gaming industry but I can't find any profit forecasts. Example: <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/02/superdata-games-hit-120-1-billion-in-2019-with-fortnite-topping-1-8-billion/" rel="nofollow">https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/02/superdata-games-hit-120-1...</a> or <a href="https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/video-games-300-billion-industry-2025-report-1203202672/" rel="nofollow">https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/video-games-300-billion...</a><p>Does anyone have better data?
Bethesda/Zenimax as a whole has had a very rough time of it recently, but their IPs alone are ridiculously valuable and id Software has been killing it lately. I wonder how much Microsoft intends to shake things up.<p>Also, if MS just wants development studios and IPs, I imagine a lot of the publishing arm of the company will be redundant. I wonder what MS intends to do about the publishing staff.
We'll never get a Doom game or any other games for that matter to be first-class supported titles on Linux then. It'll have to be Proton and Valve funding this and the community. I don't like this.
People are forgetting that the original Zenimax Studios is not exactly the most pro-gaming group of shareholders. Their original motivations were to increase shareholder value (I imagine that Fallout 76 decision was a factor among this).<p>I think Microsoft’s gaming vision aligns well with Bethesda’s and they probably have a better vision compared to Zenimax board of directors.
> But the key point is we’re still Bethesda.<p>Day one post acquisition? For sure!<p>A month later? Of course.<p>6 months later? Yes, ok.<p>1 year later? Maybe?<p>3 years later? Never!
That's funny, I watched Bethesda's history documentary by noclip[1] last night. Bethesda studio is/was owned by ZeniMax[2], which in recent history purchased/hostile-takeovered a bunch of studios. ZeniMax's CEO is a lawyer, hence their long history of litigation tactics. And according to the article, Microsoft bought ZeniMax, so in theory it just bought a basket of gaming studios.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKn9yiLVlMM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKn9yiLVlMM</a>
[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda_Softworks" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda_Softworks</a>
Best thing to ever happen to Bethesda Softworks and id. Zenimax is a mess of a parent company and has underinvested in id and hasn’t gotten beyond letting Todd Howard keep going further and further off target from what people want.
Looks like the total being reported elsewhere is $7.5B.<p>- <a href="https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/370520/Microsoft_buys_ZeniMax_Media_owner_of_The_Elder_Scrolls_dev_Bethesda_for_75_billion.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/370520/Microsoft_buys_Ze...</a><p>-<a href="https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1308028640488292352" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1308028640488292352</a>
This (that Bethesda are selling, not that Microsoft are the buyer) isn’t really a surprise. It seems that everything they’ve been doing for a few years now was to align themselves with a sale.<p>This YouTube video predicting that’s what they were doing springs to mind: <a href="https://youtu.be/qJt_i2_vsSw" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/qJt_i2_vsSw</a>
Hmm, MS buying Obsidian was sad news, mainly because their titles became inaccessible on Mac/Linux.<p>This, not so much. Fallout 3 was the last great Bethesda title. Well and New Vegas but that was Obsidian.<p>Completely lost interest in them with Fallout 76.<p>Edit: Oh wait, there's also Dishonored since Arkane is owned by ZeniMax. But that was never available on non-windows OSes so it's not much of a loss.
I genuinely think this is an amazing acquisition.<p>Bethesda/Zenimax has arguably the longest lineup of critically acclaimed franchises in the video game world. Additionally, almost every franchise still feels fresh and has pulling power, unlike ones like Halo and Assassins creed which have slowly lost their thunder.<p>Additionally, Bethesda had no idea what they were doing with their 2 biggest properties - Fallout and Elder scrolls. Hopefully with the MSFT acquisition, both will get some direction.<p>For those that work at Obsidian and MSFT owned game studios, is the Work-life-balance still terrible like most video-game studios or is it more in line with the 'family frendly' pace at proper MSFT ? Am I too naive to think that this might be a good thing for the employees and their sanity.
This is an attack on Vulkan, since Bethesda were very strongly pushing it. Guess what MS will tell them to do now. No doubt more Xbox and DX-only stuff.<p>So it's a lock-in move and again something that should have been stopped by anti-trust, but of course, it's non existent these days.
Good move, Sony had up to now more exclusive titles for their Playstation lines. Many people wrote off the new XBox because there were not enough exclusive titles. Now perhaps next Doom etc. will be time limited exclusive for the Xbox.
A lot of people dislike Bethesda's management, is there now any risk of ex-Bethesda managers or executives poisoning the other game studios Microsoft owns?
Good news: it is not Facebook. I'd rather use a MS account rather than FB account to play games.<p>And as a fan of the acquired franchises, I'm confident about their future. MS has a good track record of handling game franchises.
This acquisition has interesting timing given that they acquired Obsidian not long ago and we know Obsidian is developing a first person fantasy RPG (Bethesda's bread and butter). Have to imagine M$ execs will be thinking about further consolidation.
Cool and if Im not mistaken Zenimax Online's headquarters is down the street from me in Hunt Valley, MD. Nice area with nice housing that isn't crazy expensive, especially right on the border of MD/PA.<p>Any other Hacker Newers live close to there too?
From a strategy perspective this is an absolutely massive win for Xbox. Their entire strategy [1] for the next generation of consoles is breadth vs depth, essentially saying they cant beat Sony in exclusives so they'll offer way more value for a lower price.<p>What this acquisition means is that the gap between potential Xbox exclusives/Day 1 releases and what Sony has is much smaller. Realistically there is a very low chance that any of the IP from this purchase becomes Xbox-exclusive, but even an early launch on Xbox shifts momentum massively.<p>[1] <a href="https://pausebutton.substack.com/p/level-69-the-next-generation-of-strategy" rel="nofollow">https://pausebutton.substack.com/p/level-69-the-next-generat...</a>
Something I'm curious about here is if MS will put in the effort to fix the relationship with Carmack. Bethesda and he have been on bad terms since he left fully to go over to Occulus.
This seems like an attempt to address the "Playstation has better exclusives" argument.<p>Still buying a PS5, not an Xbox Series X. I can (hopefully?) play all Microsoft exclusives on PC.
So this is it! Bethesda is officially dead. ESO was the early prognosis and 76 was the death rattle. This is the funeral.<p>Morrowind was a masterpiece of a game. Oblivion was amazing. Skyrim was quite special and carried the genre forward but left behind important bits from morrowind. The job of making the spiritual successor to oblivion and morrowind is now officially open to anyone because Bethesda will never do it.
Today I learned:<p>Microsoft is buying Bethesda<p>Bethesda is owned by a company called ZeniMax Media<p>It's actually Bethesda Softworks<p>Bethesda is a place in Maryland
From Betheasda news press release: "And, we have a long history of working with Microsoft. Our companies share many of the same basic principles. We believe in a culture that values passion, quality, collaboration, and innovation."<p>Last week Microsoft was thanking Trump from giving them a chance to acquire TikTok. It did not go well.
We all know this was just because Todd Howard wanted Skyrim on MORE platforms.<p>Next week: "Now you can play Skyrim on your Android phones via xCloud!"
Wow, amazing to see Microsoft really being aggressive when it comes to their games line up for Xbox. With the strong offering they are showing with the Xbox All Access I am in general really impressed with them.
Wow, what a press release!<p>Microsoft is serious about great content for its Xbox/Windows 10 platform.<p>The press note still caused some fear in me. Years ago (FASA?) such a move meant closure, since MS was not really in the gaming industry business content wise.
Bethesda has become formulaic, with the elements of gameplay virtually the same amongst titles. Same across the board really, not much genre-defying for quite a while.<p>Outer Worlds, Fallout, and so on just differ by visuals and story, the general jist is all samey samey. No innovation. No just single series but across the estate. Nothings been as good as Fallout 3 & Skyrim, just repetitions and echoes of greatness.<p>Is this a good purchase for MS? Maybe, if it's for tech, IP, and bringing talent on board. Hopefully they'll add some originality in game play elements, not just reskinning.