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EU approves Zenimax acquisition by Microsoft
- Thread starter Xando
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To me its kind of obvious that at least some games will appear on PlayStation. Sometimes I think people just say none will to be contrarian and actually have something to argue about.
In my mind 'case-by-case' means more than zero, they definitely would've given thought to what properties they get from the deal before making the deal. If they were going to make zero available on PlayStation they would've said 'we bought Bethesda for the purpose of expanding the Xbox platform', The fact that both executives, when asked haven't just dismissed the idea to me says they have at least one or two properties they believe they'll release. In all likelihood they just release later, like much later.
But yeah, when the time comes you will see threads go from 80% of posters saying "MS will lock up all the content, they clearly bought Bethesda for exclusives" to the same 80% saying "Sony is outselling MS 2-1, MS would've been foolish to overlook that user base of course they weren't going to make everything exclusive".
The longer they wait, the more people who might have been convinced to buy an Xbox this generation buy a PS5. I can't see a good reason for waiting. The people who were going to be convinced by a stunt like that won't be any less convinced if they announced it now.
It IS a platform. It USED to be storefront in the past. STEAM is one platform, it has its components like STEAMVR, its own Linux based component that makes windows game run on Linux and they're in the severals of 1000s. It has his own Community Market Place with its own community run economy, its own game input system with STEAM Input.
One thing that is i would say is that the storefront on STEAM is a critical component of the platform/ecosystem however you cannot simply call STEAM simply a storefront anymore. A platform doesn't need to be hardware necessarily either.
Yep ! In fact the best way to announce this would be before a generation launch. They'll be ready for the next !
Fair comment. I'm also inclined to agree to a certain extent but I'm not sure how much Microsoft actually care about pushing Xbox specific hardware. Of course they care, but with PC's & Xcloud, people don't need to rush out and buy an Xbox console to take advantage of their services.
Though, it's going to be interesting to see how they play this. I could be completely wrong.
someone RT'd on my timeline so I thought it was something new, my b lol
Lol they really have been all over the place. When they do go public with their plans that thread is gonna be an event. Will be very fun to watch lol.
My thinking has shifted that most of the games will be multiplat eventually. Just feels like something Microsoft would do
I have seen a lot of gold posts today but yours takes the cake, would you copyright strike me if I stole it ?🤣, jk.
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EU dont think they're that big, which means more to come ;)
Not in headcount I dont think, but I am not sure, how do you mean it though?
It's not guaranteed a PS version was ever worked on in the first place. My understanding is these games tend to be developed for PC first, then ported over to supported platforms.
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i assume porting and optimizing to consoles would be done very late into development in this case. it'd make the dev's job easier if they have less platforms to worry about, if anything.
I think it will be exactly like that. It will depends of the game. But in the end 12-24 months later they will bring a version to other platforms from every game.
Throw away what money?
Every person buying a console and subbing to Gamepass just to play surely has to equal more money down the line.
They're probably close. Nintendo still maintains the largest singular studio though (EPD) by a good margin (over 1k staff).
I think saying case by case is the best way honestly. Seeing how any seemingly different stance is met with anger why even make a hard stance. Things change so they can say games will be exclusive but put out a game and ppl will be mad. No exclusives and if one comes then anger while come.
Didn't Microsoft say much the same thing about Switch ports only to later imply Ori 2 would be the last (Minecraft stuff aside, of course) by way of commenting that such case-by-case decisions were "unsustainable"? I really wouldn't read too much into any non-committal language at this juncture.
Edit: Also, if memory serves, the Ori games are literally the only non-Minecraft titles MS has willingly released on a competing console.
Edit: Also, if memory serves, the Ori games are literally the only non-Minecraft titles MS has willingly released on a competing console.
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Nice, glad it went through! What a time to be a multi platform owner. Every Bethesda game on Gamepass is huge for me!
they didn't even publish ori 2 on switch themselves (iam8bit did). i think that was a clear signal about the future.
in another thread, a poster was lamenting the purchasing claiming ms now had a monopoly on wrpgs
as another Mac user but doesn't keep on top of all this - i'm curious - is this going to be a feasible/easy way to play? because right now the workarounds aren't worth it for me.
*btw this isn't in regard to bethesda games as I have the means to play them, but thinking about PC gaming in the future
Using Rosetta, no. Rosetta does not emulate Windows apps.
What is possible is running Windows Arm in Parallels and then emulating X86 games inside of Windows Arm. How well that would work is not known.
The easiest option for Mac users will be Xcloud.
I dont think MS plans to say a particular statement about Bethesda exclusivity. Theylll just release games and 99% of them will be exclusive. Making blanket statements isnt something a company as big as microsoft usually does.
Phil saying things like first, best, or better on Xbox/PC, then also saying he doesn't need PlayStation to make the Bethesda deal work, makes it all a bit confusing.
I am curious to see how they handle it because it could signal how they handle the next acquisition or two.
Not crazy at all, it's just math. They bought a fuck-ton of established developers / publishers in a short space of time.
If they were just looking for games to release day one on game pass they could get them for a lot less than $7.5 billion without needing to add multiple studios to their payroll. I don't see how this deal makes any sense if the games still launch on Playstation and all MS gets is a day one release on game pass.
You didn't add in the 30% platform holder fee. So they would make ~ $50 on that $70 sale on PS.
Also how does Sony make money off GP being on PS?
So literally like somebody would have to buy 3 games and DLC to equal the amount of recurrent spending on one year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Yeah but them buying an entire publisher is sort of unprecedented.
And they have a lot of talent to keep happy; does every company under the Zenimax umbrella really want to abandon PlayStation?
Does Zenimax as a publisher want to?
I don't think Microsoft is as predictable as people think they are; they could be keeping Zenimax as a separate publisher BECAUSE they don't want to make them all Microsoft exclusive. It'd be kind of odd to keep an entire publisher in tact, and then have them only release on GamePass, PC, Xbox..
(granted, they'll likely leverage this purchase for SOME exclusivity, not saying they won't, but I also would not be surprised if we really did see a big mix of exclusive, timed exclusive, and not at all exclusive in the Zenimax umbrella)
People who do not keep topping up their subscriptions will still buy games and Game Pass will drive those sales (as well as DLC purchases). For MP games, it can possibly increase PS+ subs as well.
Those aren't there decisions anymore. While I'm sure Phil and Satya will talk to Todd, Pete and others, when Zenimax decided to sell to Microsoft, they kind of left the decision making up to the new boss.
They clearly sold to Microsoft for a reason or reasons that will be unknown to us for sometime.
Surely if they keep up the acquisitions then they should rise to the top.
Read my edit though.. why even keep them around as a publisher, only to have them release only on the platforms MS already is publishing too?
And Zenimax, iD, etc are a collection of people.. with connections, talent, and everything else, they can take elsewhere. I'm not suggesting they won't have Microsoft overlords as a company, but as a group of human beings they can choose to go elsewhere.
Who knows? But for now the EU doesn't seem to have a problem with it due to strong competition from Sony and Nintendo.
I agree with you that it's a lot of money to keep the status quo and something will change. Just trying to make sense of what Phil said.
They could make certain games timed exclusives where it's only Xbox and PC for 6 months or 1 year. Diehard Bethesda fans aren't going to want to wait.
Oh, I didn't mean to suggest there's no chance of future Bethesda games being multiplatform (although, as far as personal opinion is concerned, I am on the side of the fence that believes they won't be). My point is just that it's too early to infer anything from the little that's been said thus far.
That many studios is a lot for one person to oversee. Plus letting Zenimax keep a familiar structure without laying off a bunch of redundant people will make for a smoother transition. And sure, if they are Xbox exclusive it may rub some employees the wrong way but I'd assume having financial stability is more important than making games for Playstation for most of them.
And all the ips, engines and cloudtech. It wasn't just too cut out ps. No matter what some fanboys want to belive.
To be fair, I'm pretty sure he said at one point, that until the sale was complete he legally couldn't make any definitive statements about the company's future.
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