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Azerth

Prophet of Truth - Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,254
Microsoft trying to choke Sony out of the industry by buying up a huge chunk of the third party business is not good for gamers. It's good for Microsoft shareholders. Removing consumer choice from the equation to force people into one specific walled garden is not a good future for the industry.
But its just business when sony trys to choke ms out with all there timed exclusives.
 

rashbeep

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,522
I do have a PC, so at least I'll have access in the end. But I really hate PC gaming for anything other than strategy games; it's just too much of a headache/hassle, and now I'll have to upgrade before Elder Scrolls comes out (possibly before Starfield). I just bought a new PC at the beginning of 2020, and had I known then that I'd have to use it to play next gen Bethesda games, I would have just spent more money at the time. So this really fucks over my next gen plans in particular a bit.

tes has basically sucked on PS anyways
 

riotous

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,396
Seattle
My prediction:

MS is going to make data driven decisions.. they will likely make a big game exclusive, and see if it significantly moves the GamePass needle. They may make another game timed exclusive, and measure that.. may make a game not exclusive at all, but "day one on GamePass" and see those results. This will likely also include extensive polling of the general public; how much have they heard about the games, would they be interested in them based on what they heard, would they want to play them on their cell phone or smart TV? Do exclusive games generate the same word of mouth as non-exclusives? Or do they not?

They aren't just focused on the profit from an individual game, they are focused on how much it grows their mindshare in gaming way beyond consoles. They won't be satisfied with just competing with Sony. It's what makes them unpredictable, and also what TBH puts their future in a bit of peril. Because if 10 years from now they are still just a competitor to Sony, or even if they've beat them in the home console game.. if they got there by spending 10s of billions of dollars, that is not what their CEO and CFO are spending this money for. They think they can get a piece of a much bigger pie via GamePass or cloud in general.
 

SoulsHunt

Banned
Dec 3, 2019
3,622
I still think this isn't good for gamers as it's pointless, you just take games away from their community. I'd rather see that money spent on new studios and new games. Too bad.
 

VeePs

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,402
now I'll have to upgrade before Elder Scrolls comes out (possibly before Starfield). I just bought a new PC at the beginning of 2020, and had I known then that I'd have to use it to play next gen Bethesda games, I would have just spent more money at the time. So this really fucks over my next gen plans in particular a bit.

Elder Scrolls is probably in pre-production, and is likely several years away. So you have plenty of time (at the very least).

Starfield might be another story.
 

Lothars

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,765
I don't even think there's a point to the conversation at all. Anything day 1 on gamepass would exclude PS by default, Sony has been dodging a "free on gamepass, but $70 on PS" scenario this whole time. MS knows this and their leverage if they ever want on PS ecosystem.
The point is some here want Microsoft to buy as many as they can and take away options for people because of bs. The Bethesda purchase made some similar sense even if I think it's a negative. Hoping they buy EA - Ubisoft and Sega doesn't make me happy to see people cheering that on.

Starfield might be another story.
I think that will be exclusive and I would be more surprised if those games are not exclusive.
 

Taurus

Banned
Jun 15, 2018
733
Microsoft trying to choke Sony out of the industry by buying up a huge chunk of the third party business is not good for gamers. It's good for Microsoft shareholders. Removing consumer choice from the equation to force people into one specific walled garden is not a good future for the industry.
Do Nintendo, PC and mobile gaming exist in your world like, at all? There's plenty of options to play on different platforms.

Also, Xbox gives you the option to play on Xbox, PC, mobile/streaming and soon on smart TVs. That's a pretty consumer friendly attitude compared to Nintendo and Sony for example.
 

Prine

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,724
MS is smartly softening the blow so that when they start giving hard confirmations of games being Xbox exclusive, the outcry will be tempered.
Yup. Every new game from now on will be Xbox/PC/GP (unless its GaaS). The long gap between the announcements will limit the outrage, and eventually just be an expectation.

Bethesda are a pub, so MS are approaching this differently to their other aquisisions.
 

bbq of doom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,606
As it stands, that's probably the safest bet, but until they give an actual announcement, it's up in the air.

Still, though, if that's the only game you want to get a Series X for, might as well just wait until they announce platforms and the game is close to coming out.

Oh yeah, that's why I couched it like I did.
 
Jul 10, 2020
3,598
My prediction:

MS is going to make data driven decisions.. they will likely make a big game exclusive, and see if it significantly moves the GamePass needle. They may make another game timed exclusive, and measure that.. may make a game not exclusive at all, but "day one on GamePass" and see those results. This will likely also include extensive polling of the general public; how much have they heard about the games, would they be interested in them based on what they heard, would they want to play them on their cell phone or smart TV? Do exclusive games generate the same word of mouth as non-exclusives? Or do they not?

They aren't just focused on the profit from an individual game, they are focused on how much it grows their mindshare in gaming way beyond consoles. They won't be satisfied with just competing with Sony. It's what makes them unpredictable, and also what TBH puts their future in a bit of peril. Because if 10 years from now they are still just a competitor to Sony, or even if they've beat them in the home console game.. if they got there by spending 10s of billions of dollars, that is not what their CEO and CFO are spending this money for. They think they can get a piece of a much bigger pie via GamePass or cloud in general.

So no mass exodus of talent because they still work on PS5?
 

ToadPacShakur

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,466
My prediction:

MS is going to make data driven decisions.. they will likely make a big game exclusive, and see if it significantly moves the GamePass needle. They may make another game timed exclusive, and measure that.. may make a game not exclusive at all, but "day one on GamePass" and see those results. This will likely also include extensive polling of the general public; how much have they heard about the games, would they be interested in them based on what they heard, would they want to play them on their cell phone or smart TV? Do exclusive games generate the same word of mouth as non-exclusives? Or do they not?

They aren't just focused on the profit from an individual game, they are focused on how much it grows their mindshare in gaming way beyond consoles. They won't be satisfied with just competing with Sony. It's what makes them unpredictable, and also what TBH puts their future in a bit of peril. Because if 10 years from now they are still just a competitor to Sony, or even if they've beat them in the home console game.. if they got there by spending 10s of billions of dollars, that is not what their CEO and CFO are spending this money for. They think they can get a piece of a much bigger pie via GamePass or cloud in general.

And the devs that'll leave if they can't work on Playstation ports
 
May 25, 2019
6,053
London
I still think this isn't good for gamers as it's pointless, you just take games away from their community. I'd rather see that money spent on new studios and new games. Too bad.

They can't create 8 new studios. They did that with The Initiative how many years ago and we are still how many years away from their first game (Perfect Dark)? The point of an acquisition is that they are already stood up
 

Mugen X

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,744
Colorado
I know today will be all doom and gloom for a lot of folks, but this is good news imo, more people can continue to play these games they love. However I fully expect some Xbox exclusives as well. So best of both worlds to me.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,966
But its just business when sony trys to choke ms out with all there timed exclusives.

Who said timed exclusives are good? Timed exclusives suck no matter who does them. They provide no value to anyone except shareholders at the company who signed the deal.

Reacting to timed exclusives by buying half the industry is worse, though.
 

PoeticProse22

Member
Oct 25, 2017
819
Uplay is likely coming to gamepass and EA play is already on there, so I don't know why anyone would be eager for EA or Ubisoft to be purchased. Aside from how wildly unrealistic it is to posit either of those two giants as potential purchases in even the distant future, the championing for publisher consolidation that's become far more rampant since the Bethesda announcement is such an odd form of fanboyism that I will never understand.
 

Theorry

Member
Oct 27, 2017
61,410
EwDMXR-XAAA3XAs
 

The Lord of Cereal

#REFANTAZIO SWEEP
Member
Jan 9, 2020
9,834
I feel like the "some" part of this is tied more to the "immediate" content releasing (IE, within the next 24 months). When looking at the content we either know or can safely assume is coming from the Zenimax teams the next 24 months, only some will be exclusive. Here goes: Ghostwire Tokyo (multiplatform), Deathloop (multiplatform), ESO expansions (multiplatform), Fallout 76 continued support and expansions (multiplatform), Doom Eternal Ancient gods part 2 and possible future expansions (multiplatform), Wolfenstein 3 (can go either way), Starfield (can go either way, leaning towards exclusive), Arkane Austin's next game (can go either way, leaning towards exclusive) and maybe even a game or two from Zenimax online, which could also go both ways, but if I had to guess will be multi-platform.

So basically, out of the 8/9 games/projects from the teams listed here guesstimated to come out in the next 24 months, most of them will be multi-platform and only some could be exclusive. And I feel that Wolfenstein will likely be multi-platform as well honestly.

Now, maybe it's just some copium here, but personally I hope the games are all/mostly multi-platform going forward but it seems that at least for the bigger games they'll be exclusive
 

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever™
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,612
I officially have a monopoly on the terms "monopoly" and "anti-consumer". My monopoly will monopolize the monopolization of misused terms.
 

NLCPRESIDENT

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,969
Midwest
The point is some here want Microsoft to buy as many as they can and take away options for people because of bs. The Bethesda purchase made some similar sense even if I think it's a negative. Hoping they buy EA - Ubisoft and Sega doesn't make me happy to see people cheering that on.

I think that will be exclusive and I would be more surprised if those games are not exclusive.
I feel you, I learned to live with the Bethesda grab, but wanting them to buy Ubisoft is for more console war chess pieces. If you can't come out with a steady stream of good games with 25 studios, then they have a serious problem.
 

Splader

Member
Feb 12, 2018
5,066
Microsoft trying to choke Sony out of the industry by buying up a huge chunk of the third party business is not good for gamers. It's good for Microsoft shareholders. Removing consumer choice from the equation to force people into one specific walled garden is not a good future for the industry.
Its great for gamepass subscribers though. I'm topped up for 3 years, so this acquisition means I get to play many titles I otherwise wouldn't have bought.
 

Lothars

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,765
I feel you, I learned to live with the Bethesda grab, but wanting them to buy Ubisoft is for more console war chess pieces. If you can't come out with a steady stream of good games with 25 studios, then they have a serious problem.
I hope they do, They haven't been able to consistently since the 360 generation. It will be interesting to see what happens next with the games released going forward.
 

Iron Eddie

Banned
Nov 25, 2019
9,812
Microsoft trying to choke Sony out of the industry by buying up a huge chunk of the third party business is not good for gamers. It's good for Microsoft shareholders. Removing consumer choice from the equation to force people into one specific walled garden is not a good future for the industry.
How do you "get more competitive" when half the third parties in the industry are gone? This shit isn't magic, you can't just grow third party megapublishers out of the ground with seeds and water. You can't just wish really hard and then poof a new EA appears.

All that would happen is Sony would buy out whatever third parties they could get their hands on as a protective measure and then the entire industry would be sliced up into Sony's walled garden and Microsoft's walled garden. That isn't competition, it's erasure of customer flexibility.
How do you get more competitive? Easy answer, you still won't get an Xbox over a PS5 unless someone gives you one regardless if all these games will be exclusive to Xbox and PC. So obviously even ignoring this Zenimax/Bethesda deal it doesn't matter does it. Sony has enough incentive for you regardless, you just want more.

I would also like to see how you can prove this will choke out Sony who is already leading in sales 2-1? Seems to me this deal that was announced prior to the release of the new consoles didn't really change much. All you care about is the prosperity of Sony and that they are in a better situation than the others.

Does it look like Sony is going to have a bad year in 2021? How about 2022? No it does not. This whole the world is doomed theatrics you've got going on is really having no impact anymore because your negative outlook seems to relate to everything, not just this deal. I don't think this hobby serves you well at all.
 

MatrixMan.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,501
I think the concerns around monopoly will only be valid if Microsoft makes moves to buy several more large publishers, and even then it's tenuous. Industry consolidation isn't good but this isn't a good example of it.
 

Spirited

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,792
Sweden
I feel like the "some" part of this is tied more to the "immediate" content releasing (IE, within the next 24 months). When looking at the content we either know or can safely assume is coming from the Zenimax teams the next 24 months, only some will be exclusive. Here goes: Ghostwire Tokyo (multiplatform), Deathloop (multiplatform), ESO expansions (multiplatform), Fallout 76 continued support and expansions (multiplatform), Doom Eternal Ancient gods part 2 and possible future expansions (multiplatform), Wolfenstein 3 (can go either way), Starfield (can go either way, leaning towards exclusive), Arkane Austin's next game (can go either way, leaning towards exclusive) and maybe even a game or two from Zenimax online, which could also go both ways, but if I had to guess will be multi-platform.

So basically, out of the 8/9 games/projects from the teams listed here guesstimated to come out in the next 24 months, most of them will be multi-platform and only some could be exclusive. And I feel that Wolfenstein will likely be multi-platform as well honestly.

Now, maybe it's just some copium here, but personally I hope the games are all/mostly multi-platform going forward but it seems that at least for the bigger games they'll be exclusive
That's true, there's quite a lot far in development and existing contracts/products that will be continued to be supported on multiple platforms. Saying everything will be exclusive would be an even worse thing to say when it's just not true. Though they could have said most or going forward we will develop exclusive games without any "some", "most" or "all" to specify the amount.
 

JimD

Member
Aug 17, 2018
3,554
They're live service games which means they continue to get content as time goes on. That content isn't suddenly being pulled off of other platforms because MS owns Bethesda now.

But he specifically says "some new titles." Titles, not "content," meaning he's talking about sequels or new IP. It also makes zero sense to keep a live service game on a platform and stop delivering content. Timed exclusivity? Sure.
 

jokkir

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,198
When are the games landing on game pass? Come onn

Edit - oh wait I just saw the other thread
 

Deleted member 7051

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,254
I agree. I basically didn't care for practically anything they did during the Xbox One generation, which really hurt because the 360 was my main platform the generation before. However, what they're doing this generation has me excited to get an Xbox again.

Same here. I didn't even get an Xbox One because I just wasn't interested in it at all. Everything I wanted to play was on the 3DS, the Switch or the PS4 - and this is in spite of the fact that I really enjoyed playing Gears of War, Left 4 Dead 2 and stuff like that on the 360.

It seems, though, that ever since Phil Spencer took over Microsoft has really been putting in the effort with Xbox and it's paying off big time. I chose to get a Series X over a PS5 at launch last year because of the backwards compatibility and Game Pass.

Microsoft turning around and saying they just bought Zenimax just made everything so much better, too. It really adds to the value of Game Pass, which I was already impressed by, and we haven't even hit the six months mark yet (which are usually the weakest months in a console's lifespan).
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,966
Its great for gamepass subscribers though. I'm topped up for 3 years, so this acquisition means I get to play many titles I otherwise wouldn't have bought.

Do you really think it's good for the industry for Microsoft to keep buying publishers after this Bethesda deal, though? Like at which point does the overall health of the industry and of multiplatform games on all platforms outweigh the personal benefit you get from being subscribed to Game Pass?
 

Quellyford

Banned
May 16, 2020
4,072
THERE IT IS!!! And they even confirmed some games will be Xbox exclusive. This is HUGE! Good luck to Xbox, excited for this gen :)
 
Jul 10, 2020
3,598
Why exactly was it funny? Thanks for helping I guess, but it's not like the snide twisting of my words was constructive in the first place.. suggesting it was funny.. is not helpful.

Look man it's nothing personal, we meme shit here.
I know what's it like to be a victim of it, but you either leave or grin and bear it and move on.
 
Jul 28, 2020
678
User warned: platform wars
I still think this isn't good for gamers as it's pointless, you just take games away from their community. I'd rather see that money spent on new studios and new games. Too bad.
The only reason they were sold is because they wanted to be sold. Microsoft didn't ask them, they advertised.

As it stands, Microsoft is the best buyer there could have been. If Sony (who I have seen claims were bidding) had bought them those titles would have been far less likely to make it to PC, Switch. If you don't have an xbox machine, you could always stream them with a gamepass sub.

The worst of all worlds would have been amazon, Google, Facebook or apple buying them. Then those games would have been even less available.

Really, gamers should be breathing a sigh of relief that Microsoft, the solid gold heroes that they are, have saved the day, once again.
 

Puroresu_kid

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
9,477
Microsoft trying to choke Sony out of the industry by buying up a huge chunk of the third party business is not good for gamers. It's good for Microsoft shareholders. Removing consumer choice from the equation to force people into one specific walled garden is not a good future for the industry.

Na they just want to see Gamepass grow.

Sony will be fine and MS ain't trying to kill the Playstation. This wasn't no hostile takeover, they wanted to be bought. MS saw an opportunity and ran with it.

The exact same thing could happen with a different third party and it could be Sony who makes the acquisition.
 

Bansai

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,413
I knew people would fly off the handle but holy guacamole.

No wonder MS is playing hooky with wording, they'll want people talking about it (or rather, losing their collective minds) for as long as possible.