Microsoft Buys Zenimax! (DOOM, Fallout, Skyrim, and the whole LOT!)

Lorddarthvik

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I can't wait to buy Skyrim AGAIN for the new XBox!
 

DirectorGunner

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Ya know, what's crazy to me... for $7.5 billion dollar investment, M$ will likely make their money back. From what I can tell, Disney has already made or nearly made their money back on the Star Wars IP purchase. For M$ to make their money back, you can expect a lot of (to their hope top-selling products) AAA games to release in the coming years from these subsidiaries and IPs.
 

Cugino83

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Holy shit!:wut:
This is a big blow for the future of some title out there...
I mean the all Fallout series (ok, maybe not the 76...) has get a lot of benefits from the Bathesda's open world concept, I wonder how MS will carry on this aspect and type of gameplay lots of gamers are now used too. Latest Obsidian title I remember is "Kindom of Amalur" that is far to be a bad game, but is a little poor on the richness of gameplay that Bathesda's games have.
 

Radegast74

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While I generally hate oversize behemoth companies getting even bigger, anything that would light a fire under Zenimax/Bethesda's ass & get them to stop fucking up their game production would be welcome...

I have a feeling, though, that part of the reason why is because M$ sees Bethesda's in-game monetization as being aligned with their own ideas about monetization. Hopefully I'm wrong!
 

Lorddarthvik

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I think most of the franchises are safe for now. The Outer Worlds was made by Obsidian (of New Vegas fame) after MS bought them. It was kinda flat and disappointing, but still it was Fallout in space! I hope the peeps and Obsidian get to work on the new Fallout title so it'll be as good as New Vegas.

@Radegast74 That's an interesting point about the monetization. Question is, which one they want to go with? Don't forget that while F76 is a lowest-of-the-low cashgrab that cheated the players out of their money wherever it could, ESO has a very very different system which is kinda okay and works alright! Both are Bethesda/Zenimax.
Also, they already have heavily monetized original titles like all the Forza games. With their car packs, season passes, special car packs, boosters, map helpers, card packs for racing suits and all that shit, they are a goldmine! And it works without much controversy.

Imo, they NEED Exclusives for the XBox X to make it viable. No matter how much stronger faster sharper brighter and whateverer it is compared to a PS5 (which it isn't as they both run off the same AMD chip), they don't have the games! Halo is a no-show on launch, and .... what else do they have? Everything else is already coming out on PC and/or PS4-5 as well!
Back with the 360 you had to buy it for Halo and Forza at least! Now there is nothing!
 

Gotin

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meh....most of those titles had already become hot garbage anyway. Doom has been rubbish since the 2010 (whatever date it was), half assed attempt to revive the franchise that fell on its face. And the new "game" is a vomitus adhd speed run spazfest. Gone and dead are the days of autosaving literally before each and every turn half way through a map because you have 21hp, 5 shotgun shells, and no armor and are playing on map 13 on ultra violent.....and sweating bullets playing this abusive game in the dark. No, now it's this....eh, not even sure what tf it is but it's just not DOOM....could have called it something like Halo: MC finally dies and goes to hell. Or anything other than DOOM.

Fallout 76 was fine, ya'll need to chill on that. The problem it has is that it isn't (is NOT), Fallout FIVE.....which is apparently what everyone was expecting it to be while the devs never once said that's what it was. So all the thirsty fanboys got up in arms and waved their tiny t-rex arms denouncing it as abhorrent when it's a perfectly fine....if a tad bit boring....game.

Personally, I find it sad that the mouse and now M$ are snapping these things up like this. M$ can go screw itself right in the eye, I don't want a console and don't want console crap on my windoze install. I removed all that on install and have to KEEP removing it every n'th patch now. I pay for the game, I pay for an ISP line, I do NOT wish to also then pay for the privilege of using the multiplayer feature my games have just to make M$ a fast buck.

....but they need titles to keep pumping fresh blood into the console sector. Anyone else remember how they got started?.....Halo was their first title right?

........anyone here know what Halo was doing right before that? Oh right, it was a mod being developed for Unreal. And right in the 11th hour before release, literally that week....M4 swooped in and threw a truck load of cash at the dev and bought it out from under us PC guy's feet. Still bitter about that (no really, tell us how you really feel lol)......so go to hell M$ and take your crap box with you.

M$ and the mouse are two of the worst dev houses for making good IP's into family friendly tripe. Imagine if they bought the Witcher or 7 Days.....or God forbit SC.....uhg, omg I need a shower just thinking about it.
 

Lorddarthvik

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meh....most of those titles had already become hot garbage anyway. Doom has been rubbish since the 2010 (whatever date it was), half assed attempt to revive the franchise that fell on its face. And the new "game" is a vomitus adhd speed run spazfest. Gone and dead are the days of autosaving literally before each and every turn half way through a map because you have 21hp, 5 shotgun shells, and no armor and are playing on map 13 on ultra violent.....and sweating bullets playing this abusive game in the dark. No, now it's this....eh, not even sure what tf it is but it's just not DOOM....could have called it something like Halo: MC finally dies and goes to hell. Or anything other than DOOM.

Fallout 76 was fine, ya'll need to chill on that. The problem it has is that it isn't (is NOT), Fallout FIVE.....which is apparently what everyone was expecting it to be while the devs never once said that's what it was. So all the thirsty fanboys got up in arms and waved their tiny t-rex arms denouncing it as abhorrent when it's a perfectly fine....if a tad bit boring....game.

Personally, I find it sad that the mouse and now M$ are snapping these things up like this. M$ can go screw itself right in the eye, I don't want a console and don't want console crap on my windoze install. I removed all that on install and have to KEEP removing it every n'th patch now. I pay for the game, I pay for an ISP line, I do NOT wish to also then pay for the privilege of using the multiplayer feature my games have just to make M$ a fast buck.

....but they need titles to keep pumping fresh blood into the console sector. Anyone else remember how they got started?.....Halo was their first title right?

........anyone here know what Halo was doing right before that? Oh right, it was a mod being developed for Unreal. And right in the 11th hour before release, literally that week....M4 swooped in and threw a truck load of cash at the dev and bought it out from under us PC guy's feet. Still bitter about that (no really, tell us how you really feel lol)......so go to hell M$ and take your crap box with you.

M$ and the mouse are two of the worst dev houses for making good IP's into family friendly tripe. Imagine if they bought the Witcher or 7 Days.....or God forbit SC.....uhg, omg I need a shower just thinking about it.
Doom 2016 a bad game? HERETIC!!!!
It was the best damn shooter in like 10+ years! And perfectly Doom-ish! It's no Brutal Doom, I'll give you that much, but still...
Doom: Eternal Resource Manager 2019 was kinda crap though.
Both made tons of money and are the farthest you can get from "fell on it's face".
On the rest of the games I kinda agree.

Had some time to think this over, what games are we looking at here:


-Starfield. We know nothing about it, but the hype-potential is off the scale. It could be one of the reasons MS bought them. If they can turn it into a cashcow like Minecraft, it will be an amazing investment for them.

-Then you have TES and ESO, big names making loads of cash. And will do again and again as long as there will be new consoles, there will be new editions of Skyrim. Printing money.
Everyone is waiting for TES6, and it could be Micropenis' ticket to selling all those new consoles and games passes! I expect it will be tied to an updated Xbox X-Super or whatever stupid name they come up with next. I just hope they don't meddle with story and such...

-F76 was the most low-effort boring piece of cashgrab I've ever seen. Way worse than Anthem. The problem it has is that it feels like a mod made by a 15 yo on a slow weekend. It is pointless and boring and as buggy as SC alpha, and introduced zero new content apart from some green trees and grass instead of everything being brown. Too bad cos I really wanted to like it. I gave it a go during the beta, on launch, and even tried it now on the game pass, but it's still the same snoozefest. But, it made money for zero effort and spending, despite messing with the merch and selling outrageously priced bullshit in-game that didn't even work and all the controversies.
It also lowered expectations and made fans more hungry for a "true" new Fallout, so whatever comes next, will make money!

-Wolfenstein is basically dead at this point, I don't see that being revived very soon. Oooor they will try to reboot it, again! I hope they don't. It was bad enough already...

-Prey, or whatever it was called, was indeed a huge flop. Never tried it, never will, gameplay and story looks really dated and boring. I think it will stay dead. Unless they turn it into more of an RPG it's not worth the effort.



So all in all, as @Gotin said, MS bought itself a goldmine, like the mouse did with SW. Whether they will ruin it like the mouse did theirs, remains to be seen.
I won't hold my breath for a new Fallout as "openminded" or "edgy" as the original first 2 games though, that's for sure.


I wonder how long it wil take untill the "ex-zenimax devs set up new studio" thing happens, as is usually the case in these scenarios...

Btw, what did I miss? What other significant games did they get?
 

Radegast74

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I think most of the franchises are safe for now. The Outer Worlds was made by Obsidian (of New Vegas fame) after MS bought them. It was kinda flat and disappointing, but still it was Fallout in space! I hope the peeps and Obsidian get to work on the new Fallout title so it'll be as good as New Vegas.

@Radegast74 That's an interesting point about the monetization. Question is, which one they want to go with?
Jim Sterling had a great video on this, the meat starts at about 6:18, but the whole video is worth watching:
View: https://youtu.be/hJBlWYqVQbQ?t=378


In a nutshell, out of the gate, Microsoft (having been beaten back by Sony regarding the whole DRM thing) immediately started implementing microtransactions in their titles...I hope they aren't as ham-handed the next-gen as they were the previous generation, but, they have to make back their $7.5 billion back somehow. That's an amazing amount of money, considering that Disney bought all the Star Wars rights for just over $4 billion...
 

Cugino83

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Holy Jeebus.

They better not make any of the Bethesda Games X-Box exclusives.
That will be a sure bet, at least for the launch of the new console, in the future, since MS is aiming to the "unified app" it could be possibile that we will actually have more game for PC since all the new title will be more easily being implemented for winzoz also... ok, now I can sto dreaming.
 

Talonsbane

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I'm just waking up & I'm seeing a whole lot of words with some making sense & the others being mentally translated as various brands of beer since this is TEST Squadron.

I don't know if any of you have thought about this yet, but more than likely MS won't make ALL of their games XBox exclusives as they can double down by also making them PC usable at the same time. & more importantly, with this purchase they will be making money off of the sales of certain games by these developers from those that use the Playstation systems. I'd call that a rather brilliant financial move as it will ensure that even when their rival makes money, so will they. Personally, I'm hoping that this purchase will send a massive surge of energy throughout the developers to light the fires of producing great content instead of half done games like some of you have already mentioned.
 

Radegast74

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I'm just waking up & I'm seeing a whole lot of words with some making sense & the others being mentally translated as various brands of beer since this is TEST Squadron.

I don't know if any of you have thought about this yet, but more than likely MS won't make ALL of their games XBox exclusives as they can double down by also making them PC usable at the same time. & more importantly, with this purchase they will be making money off of the sales of certain games by these developers from those that use the Playstation systems. I'd call that a rather brilliant financial move as it will ensure that even when their rival makes money, so will they. Personally, I'm hoping that this purchase will send a massive surge of energy throughout the developers to light the fires of producing great content instead of half done games like some of you have already mentioned.
yes, I can see them doing what they did with Skyrim --> it will be an Xbox "timed exclusive", which will then release like 90 days later for PC and Playstation.

And just as they did with Skyrim, I can see them gimping the PC version for a long time, so they can say that there is no difference, & that the Xbox is "just as powerful as a PC" lmao ... The history of the past 15 years or so has been MS giving PC gamers the shaft, so they can promote the Xbox to get back their money...I don't see that changing any time soon.
 

Talonsbane

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yes, I can see them doing what they did with Skyrim --> it will be an Xbox "timed exclusive", which will then release like 90 days later for PC and Playstation.

And just as they did with Skyrim, I can see them gimping the PC version for a long time, so they can say that there is no difference, & that the Xbox is "just as powerful as a PC" lmao ... The history of the past 15 years or so has been MS giving PC gamers the shaft, so they can promote the Xbox to get back their money...I don't see that changing any time soon.
I know & I understand that my friend. I've been going through a sort of hell lately & I'm doing my best to be positive where possible.
 

Lorddarthvik

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Game pass. Need to buy me some gamepass. Anyone know anything about it? Do I get the ultimate edition or just the PC version?
Waitt, what? There r editions now for the PC pass version as well?

I only have the standard PC pass that I got upon launch for a quid/month or sumthing crazy cheap. It's been serving me really well. Played way more stuff than I payed for. You will need to install the XBox app for it, but it works alright. Had zero issues with the games install or running them. Best thing is, that they got loads of big titles on their launch day, so whenever you see a highly anticipated game pop up on steam, you can probably find it in the xbox app on your PC as well and play it without the 70+ bucks you would be spending on steam. It's well worth it imo for games you just want to play through once.

Shortcomings are that most of the games are not moddable in any way! I learned this with MechW5 and resorted to buying it on the Epic store. Also, games do get rotated out after quiet a short time sometimes (think a month for the shortest) so you better pick up and play whatever catches your fancy as soon as possible. Some titles stay for rally long though, so no need to worry.

You can also buy the games on there with 10% off I think if you have the pass, and keep em as you would on steam. I would not recommend this, I'd rather look around for a cheap steam code, for the proper access to the game files and such. I have never bought a game on Xbox app, only played them with the pass.
 
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