It was more a thought I found amusing, to combine the infamous aspects of both companies' PC games, than actual sincere anguish but touché
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According to The Information; MS, EA, Take 2 and Activision interested in buying WB Games
- Thread starter jbug617
- Start date
Well, Phil hinted his vision back in 2018, XGP model needs substantial support:
And MS have gone on to say that there's potentially 2 billion gamers which they want to reach. They're partnering with 5G providers in Asia, TV manufactures worldwide, social media giants in an effort to massively increase their reach. They need more then15-18 studios for that, and for GP to be a thriving userbase with millions of users who continue to pay a fee, they need more creators. With the wider goal to sell their tech stack to business as its been test driven and proven with Xbox. So there's multiple reasons.
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what we are witnessing is most ps players actually don't have a capable PC to play next gen Xbox games. Hence the MS complaints in this thread. It's all lip service.
if you have a capable gaming pc then this works in your favor maybe even more so than Xbox owners
I did, and any other multiplaform publisher who bought them could have given the financial support they wanted.
Remember Obsidian had to go and do Kickstarter only because Microsoft canceled their previous project, and they had a lot of success after that with Pillars of eternity and Tyranny.
Again, what i'm seeing here is more developers who wanted real Creative Freedom and not only financial support for their future endeavors. That's the reason they choose Microsoft.
This is a big thread, lol.
Searched for "Hoeg" in it, no results... so Imma post this vid
Found this posted on SIFTD.
I would've never thought of the ( Stalking Horse Offer type thing ) thing that he brings up. I've never even heard of that term before.
Interesting watch, though.
Searched for "Hoeg" in it, no results... so Imma post this vid
Found this posted on SIFTD.
I would've never thought of the ( Stalking Horse Offer type thing ) thing that he brings up. I've never even heard of that term before.
Interesting watch, though.
That was my take too, lol.
Quick glance at wikipedia and some googling gives us these notables:
- 720°
- Arch Rivals
- Area 51
- Asheron's Call
- Blood
- Condemned
- Defender
- F.E.A.R.
- Game Party
- Gauntlet
- Hard Drivin'
- Joust
- Klax
- Marble Madness
- Mortal Kombat
- Narc
- [NFL] Blitz
- Paperboy
- Pit Fighter
- Primal Rage
- Psi-Ops
- Rampage
- Rampart
- Ready 2 Rumble
- Roadblasters
- Robotron
- Rush
- Scribblenauts
- Sinistar
- Smash TV
- Spy Hunter
- The Suffering
- Super Sprint
- This is Vegas
- Toobin'
- Touchmaster
- War Gods
- Wheelman
- Xybots
Basically a ton of old Atari/Midway classics plus the stuff picked up when they bought Turbine and Monolith. And, uh, Scribblenauts.
I actually think the retro arcade lineup could be pretty interesting for Microsoft, who are at a disadvantage somewhat in that area vs Nintendo or even Sony. Microsoft coincidentally owns Hydro Thunder too, one of the few Midway IPs WB didn't scoop up.
Then that's what they need to be concerned about and not just where the WB games end up. Sitting out of reach of everything MS will release going forward is not going to be fun.
Already confirmed last year:
Project xCloud streaming tech is coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2020
Your Xbox game library and Xbox Game Pass subscription are getting the Project xCloud streaming technology next year after the current test ends.venturebeat.com
What's not clear is if they'll charge extra for bundling in xCloud streaming to a Game Pass sub. I'm just guessing, but I can imagine it being part of the Ultimate bundle that's currently $14.99.
Wow that's great. Yea it's definitely going to be part of Ultimate. Can't imagine they'll charge extra for that tier.
i understand why they are picking up studios but i see no reason why they would pick up this publisher and those devs. they have a lot of stuff MS has no use for and the only IP worth a damn is MK. The rest would need to be licensed and paid forever and even a couple of those licenses like LOTR and HP aren't fully owned by WB anyway.
i could see them going after NRS and MK if they can get it solo but other than that?
What I'm getting from this discussion is that a decent number of people would prefer that these developers and their IPs be eviscerated by big monolithic publishers if it means Microsoft doesn't get exclusivity...because that's sure as shit what's going to happen if Take Two, EA, or Activision get their paws on them. Hell, WB Games isn't even immune to criticism on this front. Under current Xbox, they would more than likely be Avalanche games, Rocksteady games, Traveller's Tales games, Monolith games, but if not? EA games, Activision games, Take Two games. You do not want this. You might think you want this for whatever weird "inside thought only" kind of reason, but you do not. Related: there's a distinct whiff of "I want to play these games but want to never ever be forced to give money to Microsoft in order to play them." Am I the only one getting that from a lot of these comments? Like needing to buy a PlayStation for some games is just how things are, it's PlayStation haha if you wanna play this cool game guess you gotta go buy a PlayStation sport, but needing to buy an Xbox? Out of the question. Like, are you interested in the games, or the specific platform holder? Do they not sell Xboxes in your village? Is your money not formatted for Xbox purchasing? Microsoft is part of the gaming landscape and some of you are gonna need to make peace with it. You can't just shun them until they realize they're not wanted and sadly shuffle off to go sell hawk Office 365 subs or whatever.
That aside, Microsoft is pretty much objectively the only one of the four that would be good for these developers, and yet I still find myself surprised that it managed to pull as much as 70% of the vote from this community. These publishers are as bad as, and arguably even worse than 2013 Microsoft, and people would prefer WB Games go to them rather than a 2020 Microsoft that would let you play the games on PC, or with a DualShock 5 like you want and on any screen that can support xCloud? It's Mind-boggling to me. Consolidation of the industry is bad, I get that, but not every game gets to be on every platform; PlayStation will never be your one stop shop for everything while there's strong competition in the market and there's nothing wrong with that. It would be nice if there were no exclusives but that's just not the reality at the moment, and isn't wanting all games to be on one platform and not the other basically consolidation anyway? I get that not everyone can own more than one console for a number of reasons (financial, limited free time, etc.), but wanting all games to be available on a single console is silly given the way console gaming has always worked. Historically, if you wanted the full gaming experience, you needed to have all consoles, and that's not really changing outside of Microsoft's new ecosystem-focused strategy of putting games on PC. So between the four available options, Microsoft is such a vastly superior choice that I'm not even sure why there's a poll, because with the other three, sure, you might still get those games on PlayStation, but given those companies' histories, they might not emerge as games any of us are interested in paying money to play.
side note: stop this Netherrealm/KI talk. Stop it stop it stop it. EW. Double Helix and Iron Galaxy shit all over MK last gen. From sound work to animations to actual combat...Hell, KI dropped trou on SFV from upper Earth orbit in nearly every way, which would've sounded impossible back in the halcyon days of 2011 (especially to me, who always viewed KI alongside other janky 90s fighting games jokes), but here we are. I submit that there's only ONE studio Microsoft should've bought this gen and didn't--and it was Double Helix.
Boy howdy were you ever right about that one
That aside, Microsoft is pretty much objectively the only one of the four that would be good for these developers, and yet I still find myself surprised that it managed to pull as much as 70% of the vote from this community. These publishers are as bad as, and arguably even worse than 2013 Microsoft, and people would prefer WB Games go to them rather than a 2020 Microsoft that would let you play the games on PC, or with a DualShock 5 like you want and on any screen that can support xCloud? It's Mind-boggling to me. Consolidation of the industry is bad, I get that, but not every game gets to be on every platform; PlayStation will never be your one stop shop for everything while there's strong competition in the market and there's nothing wrong with that. It would be nice if there were no exclusives but that's just not the reality at the moment, and isn't wanting all games to be on one platform and not the other basically consolidation anyway? I get that not everyone can own more than one console for a number of reasons (financial, limited free time, etc.), but wanting all games to be available on a single console is silly given the way console gaming has always worked. Historically, if you wanted the full gaming experience, you needed to have all consoles, and that's not really changing outside of Microsoft's new ecosystem-focused strategy of putting games on PC. So between the four available options, Microsoft is such a vastly superior choice that I'm not even sure why there's a poll, because with the other three, sure, you might still get those games on PlayStation, but given those companies' histories, they might not emerge as games any of us are interested in paying money to play.
side note: stop this Netherrealm/KI talk. Stop it stop it stop it. EW. Double Helix and Iron Galaxy shit all over MK last gen. From sound work to animations to actual combat...Hell, KI dropped trou on SFV from upper Earth orbit in nearly every way, which would've sounded impossible back in the halcyon days of 2011 (especially to me, who always viewed KI alongside other janky 90s fighting games jokes), but here we are. I submit that there's only ONE studio Microsoft should've bought this gen and didn't--and it was Double Helix.
Boy howdy were you ever right about that one
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Thanks. Yeah, some of the midway stuff would be pretty cool - could try to restart a few of those franchises. I guess Mortal Kombat would be the only big IP they'd get that's they wouldn't have to fire back up themselves.
excluding Mortal Kombat i would pay about $20 for those IPs.
Many publishers being able to provide financial stability doesn't mean these publishers are interested in buying a studio.
Everyone wondering why people prefer MS over Activision should read your post.
The struggles are well-documented and some main inIxile guys were really happy about not needing to fly around the world to pitch their games to publishers, as they now can focus in the games instead of business.
lmao. I don't think he understands how independent studios will struggle more and more as development costs increases.
No, not necessarily. But some of those games the studios made didn't sell well and some studios wanted to do bigger games again. Try getting 80-150 million a AAA current gen games costs via kickstarter.
To be fair, he gave you evidence you choose to complete ignore and then talked about how a dev creating games via Kickstarter doesn't mean they are in financial trouble. That's true, but at the same time some studios not having issues doesn't mean these studios didn't have issues.
MS, platform exclusive would be a bummer, I feel with all the dlc and mtx they'll stick it too you a little more gently. Also great for game pass.
Any other multiplatform publisher could have provided them financial support? Really? Which multiplatform publisher tried to buy them? None you say? Well no shit! So your point is moot? Got it.
So you're saying Obsidian had to turn to Kickstarter for financial support? So they were not in a good position? Well it's a good thing Microsoft bought them then, huh?
Some probably still have enough name cache they could be brought back. I mean stuff like Gauntlet or Rampage were just as big as KI or Battletoads, if not bigger. I feel like a dedicated retro service or line with these original emulated titles could be interesting itself though (shades of Game Room) and maybe a good add for Game Pass.
MK is really the only one currently going strong though yeah. Scribblenauts and Game Party still hung on this gen too but aim a lot more casual than the traditional Xbox demographic.
Do we know all the ins and outs of those kind of deals? Other bids could have been done by other companies.
Before Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian nearly met its end
I had no idea things at Obsidian Entertainment had been so bad. I knew things weren't great before the record-breaking …
www.eurogamer.net
Certainly it's true that Obsidian nearly died because of that canceled project in collaboration with Microsoft. They had lots of layoffs after that but Pillars of Eternity ultimately saved them not Microsoft.
Not bad for a poor Kickstarter project, huh?
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Jesus there couldn't be any worse third parties than those 3, and no thanks as well on their properties sticking to just one platform and PC.
"Best" option here still doesn't mean good, hope WB remains indepdent (so to speak).
"Best" option here still doesn't mean good, hope WB remains indepdent (so to speak).
So you're talking out of your ass? Got it. No wonder the other poster put you on ignore.
I would not want Mortal Kombat locked on their streaming service. Hell no.
You mean to tell me there is a chance we could get a 4k/60 version of Toobin' with Sea of Thieves water effects?!?! How has this not been done yet!!
It's the truth. Some regulars here hate everything and treat this standard business as if it's apocalyptic.
Let's see, Pillars of Eternity released in 2015 and what did they release after that.
Uhm, Tyranny and guess what? It didn't sell
Why didn’t Tyranny sell? Paradox on Obsidian’s RPG “everyone was hoping would do better”
Obsidian’s Tyranny is destined to be remembered as one of the boldest RPGs of the decade - not that anything so rote as destiny would figure into a world ruled over by an all-powerful but unseen genderless communist. It also felt uniquely timely, releasing as it did right on top of the election of
www.pcgamesn.com
Let's put Tyranny aside, they started to work on a Free To Play but guess what? They dropped the development
Obsidian is no longer working on Armored Warfare
Ongoing work on the F2P tank sim will be handled by My.com.
www.pcgamer.com
Oh and yes, they made a KS campaign for PoE 2 which did really good, but when the game releases? A big bomba!
Pillars of Eternity 2 Has Been a Sales Disaster | GameWatcher
In a shocking turn of events, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire has apparently had an extremely underwhelming financial turnout.
www.gamewatcher.com
Now, tell me how do you keep a nearly 200 devs studio running when your only hit was Pillars of Eternity released in the year 2015?
Even The Outer Worlds was not enough since the game was developed by "only 80 devs" at Obsidian while the rest tried to work on other project splitting the studio.
You want a proper discussion, here it is.
The main difference is that i know what i am talking about since i've been following Obsidian for years but you clearly don't.
It's just an hypothesis but the possibility of this happening is real with a developer like Obsidian.
Sigh, we are talking about thousand people who may be unemployed because any companies which already do publishing would not want to keep Publishing studios or maybe Supports/Mobile studios. And we are in a middle of health crisis and economic crisis, so you should not want people to lost their income and to be put in difficult situation. People are more important than games so it would be better if companies which don't have publishing assets were buying WB instead of MS/EA/T2/Activision.
This is happening no matter what. AT&T is actively looking to sell this entire division, people will ultimately lose jobs. At the asking price AT&T is currently at, only publishers would be able to support the purchase. There is no way around that.
I don't think I've read a post yet in this thread that's so complete in response to unfounded concerns.
Right. Just a hypothesis. Nothing based in fact.
And from your prior example, Naughty Dogs, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, and Media Molecule could have been acquired by any other third party so they wouldn't be locked down by Sony. See how stupid that sounds?
Every project obsidian worked on the last 10 years left them in some financial trouble, way back to Fallout New Vegas and the missed MC bonus, Stormlands wasnt the thing that "ruined" them. And Tyranny (where money mostly went to paradoxx) and specially Pillars of Eternity 2 were anything but successes saleswise and they put obsidian on the brink of bankruptcy before microsoft stepped in. The outcomes for Obsidian post PoEII where a) being bought or b) closing down according to several people inside the company including feargus urqhart
You should research a lot more before talking about stuff you have no clue about.
It doesn't sound stupid at all actually, especially for Insomniac Games, they don't hold any IP of real value ( apart from Sunset Overdrive) because Sony already holds the rights to Ratchet and Clank and Spider-Man games for now. And they bought the studio for an enormous 229 millions dollars.
There is always a possibility that multiple potential buyers could have upped the bid before like Facebook, ect...
Universal Games could have kept Naughty Dogs AND the rights to the Crash IP but they choose to pass on the developer and invested only in the Crash bandicoot Franchise.
So you're only concerned about the IPs? Don't be. The IPs that come with WB Games will also release on PC. It's a good situation for most gamers.
OK, but that's not happening and we're dealing with the reality of what's likely to happen. People are going to lose jobs regardless.
i dont think such an expensive purchase would be in the same lines as obsidian , NT etc. Dont think the xbox division has that kind of free cash. Either way, id prefer ,to wait for steam releases if it does go the way of exclusivity.
people think just because Microsoft is worth 1.6 trillion their games division has access to unlimited cash
No there are plenty of companies that could buy them and keep all those people. Matt gave some examples in the other thread.
And about why it's bad for these company which have already publishing assets to do this move:
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How do you not think the Xbox division has that kind of free cash when reputable sources are reporting MS is among other companies interested in buying WB's gaming unit.
Microsoft by itself easily has that kind of money but i dont think this is remotely comparable to the xbox divisions' recent acquisition. Id be surprised if this happened but im not too fussed.
Rather they spend this money making games and fostering new/struggling studios though rather than established powerhouses.Coz then it just seems like a business move that benefits no gamer.
Well nothing about their recent acquisitions suggests to me that they do. Really as simple as that. The microsoft who paid for minecraft can buy this in their sleep but their cash richness does not imply exclusivity. Because unlike the other supposed bidders, team xbox is the only one directly invested in selling hardware which would impede them from maximizing software profits. Its a no risk venture for EA , Take 2 , tencent and the likes.
And yet this thread is based on reputable sources reporting Microsoft is interested in buying WB's gaming unit. How difficult this must be for you to reconcile this. LOL
Yes of course. But the less is better. And that's why I'm not really happy to see publishers buying other publishers.
Ok but it's not the corporations faults for buying them. AT&T is trying to get rid of their gaming unit.
I'd like to see you provide the statements of the numerous people inside Obsidian including Feargus Urqhart after PEII and before Microsoft's final acquisition stating that Obsidian are surely "closing down."
Before Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian nearly met its end
I had no idea things at Obsidian Entertainment had been so bad. I knew things weren't great before the record-breaking …
www.eurogamer.net
On the contrary before Pillars of Eternity 1 they had a really rough time when their project with Microsoft got canceled. And Josh Sawyer from Obsidian qualified any project they could sign from publishers after the cancelation as "Life-saving".
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Microsft paid 2.5 billion just for Minecraft. I can see 4 for all that development talent and the IPs.
No lies detected.
What's the point in talking hypothesis. Maybe Obsidian next Kickstarter project would be more successful than Minecraft? Something anyone could say in a hypothesis, but is it likely?
.
Nah, most people aren't thinking Xbox has unlimited funds. But they play a bigger role than ever before under Nadella and have it's backing. Then you need to look at the situation and how rare it actually is that a publisher gets sold. If MS sees value in it they can easily do the deal, that's all most people are saying.
Amazon and Google would probably fire less employees in the short term, but I don't think they are really committed and I worry about the long term. The best would be WB not getting sold at all, but that's already decided and all those publishers rumored to be interested have their publishing teams and will sadly for the WB employees fire them.
I know a lot of gamers on this forum hate Microsoft, but they are easily the best choice if you want to still have access to these games without all of the BS. Being able to play their games on the cheap through Gamepass, Xcloud, or PC make them the easy win. Also, if the Lockhart is sub 300, then it's a real no brainer. All of the teeth gnashing really makes no sense to me if MS were to buy WB.
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