Microsoft buys Zenimax for $7.5b

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Looks like MS is going to buy Bethesda. Not that I care about Bethesda itself, but it's likely an attack on Vulkan since they were one of the strongest proponents of using it, among big publishers. Guess what MS will push on them now.

Link to the BBC Article

Moderator's Note: this topic was originally initiated in the The General Videogame Thread. But someone created a new thread, so the earlier discussion has been moved over here, with the side-effect that the OP has been changed.
 
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It's not good for the industry because it's a pretty anti-competitive move. Consolidation of these big publishers is never healthy, especially when one swallowing things is MS. And MS removes someone who was deteriorating their DX lock-in.
 
Yup. Studios purchased by MS are making cool and pretty non-mainstream games (Obsidian, inXile), so hopefully Bethesda will be able to get back to the roots and produce some cool single player RPG's
Really wonder what's going to happen to DOOM as a whole and Quake Champions in particular. The latter isn't bad, I guess, but it does need a few helping hands.
 
Looks like MS is going to buy Bethesda. Not that I care about Bethesda itself, but it's likely an attack on Vulkan since they were one of the strongest proponents of using it, among big publishers. Guess what MS will push on them now.
Whatever MS pushes on them will be better than what they're coming out with at the moment, which is a big nothing. I'm glad somebody bought them; anybody. I'd even have celebrated EA buying them. Except for Elder Scrolls Online, the studio is being managed disastrously. Lots of people would include ESO in the mismanagement, but it has a huge base and is a money maker, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe MS will give them a kick in the seat of the pants, and maybe (hopefully) also kick out some of the current management staff.
 
Holy s**t, that’s a sizeable acquisition! I hope this means a slightly better future for the Fallout franchise, I wouldn’t mind seeing Bethesda and Obsidian doing a collab once again, despite the rough past one. MS resources behind a new Fallout game sounds potentially amazing... if handled well :think: I wonder if the ZeniMax execs still remain in their positions...
 
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It's not good for the industry because it's a pretty anti-competitive move. Consolidation of these big publishers is never healthy, especially when one swallowing things is MS. And MS removes someone who was deteriorating their DX lock-in.
So were you also against Sony buying up third party developers as well? You say it's anti-competitive, yet it seems to me with the number of studios Sony bought up, Microsoft had no choice but to start buying a few to stay competitive.
 
Yep, I'm pretty much against huge publishers swallowing up developers. I don't see anything good in Sony doing that or in MS buying inXile and Obsidian and the like. For them possibly it's something that provides financial safety, but for the industry and actual gamers it's a bad outcome.
 
Yep, I'm pretty much against huge publishers swallowing up developers. I don't see anything good in Sony doing that or in MS buying inXile and Obsidian and the like. For them possibly it's something that provides financial safety, but for the industry and actual gamers it's a bad outcome.
It's not like they swallowed many developers, for crying out loud. They bought ZeniMax, which is a media company that owns Bethesda and family (well, used to). They basically bought publishing and marketing side of things, the teams are very likely to stay the same unless Microsoft decides to for whatever reason. Hope that Microsoft resources do well on everything they've just acquired, exciting times to be a gamer!
 
It's not like they swallowed many developers

They swallowed quite a bit in the recent times. Besides Zenimax and everything they own and mentioned above inXile and Obsidian, they also swallowed Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games. It's like they have some vacuum cleaner that just sucks in gaming studios lately. And I find it disgusting, because as a Linux gamer it means I won't see any of their games in the future.
 
They swallowed quite a bit in the recent times.

Not sure how much company pressure is being exerted. EA is famous for quite literally swallowing up companies and spitting out a shallow likeness of what once was. Don't think I have seen any bad/such developments at Sony or MS, besides from (timed) console exclusives.
 
It's moot. For instance inXile or Obsidian had tight budgets and low profit margins. MS comes along and offers them a ton of $$$. You can say it's not pressure, but at the same time they were easy targets.

And after that they give the short end of the stick to Linux users and possibly DRM-free customers too.
 
Not sure how much company pressure is being exerted. EA is famous for quite literally swallowing up companies and spitting out a shallow likeness of what once was. Don't think I have seen any bad/such developments at Sony or MS, besides from (timed) console exclusives.
They've said that they're going to honor the current Zenimax timed exclusives for the PS5, although I'd be shocked if they even had the option not to. For future products, they said that all games will be released for the PC and Xbox, but they will consider releasing on other consoles on a case by case basis. So, it's possible that Starfield and/or Elder Scrolls 6 may not come to the PS5, a decade or so from now when they're finally released.
 
My avatar sums it up what I'm feeling towards this transaction. Its basically an arm race between Microsoft and Sony along with other publishers and developers buying smaller devs and studios.
 
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