Microsoft to buy Bethesda/Zenimax

[neatoman]

https://www.gameinformer.com/2020/09/21/microsoft-acquires-bethesda-the-studio-behind-fallout-the-elder-scrolls-doom-and-more

Odd that there wasn't a thread about it.

Anyway, don't expect Elder Scrolls, Doom, Quake, Dishonored, Wolfenstein or Fallout on PS5.

[Cure]

This **** is whaaaaacky. Super dope, though.

[Shark_Blade]

I only care for Fallout so.

If they release past fallout games on Xbox that’d be great.

[Andrew NDB]

I'm not saying it's not, but... how is this a good thing, exactly?

[neatoman]

I'm not saying it's not, but... how is this a good thing, exactly?

It's probably not, good Microsoft maybe because it'll mean Sony is barred from getting some big games on PS5 thereby making Series X seem more attractive to the consumer. And if I'm not mistaken, this might give Microsoft some leverage to compete with Steam as well.

As for the consumer or future installments in the IPs... Not looking quite as good there.

[Cure]

More competition is always a good thing. Simple, really.

[AquaParade]

It distracted me a good portion of the day. What more can you ask for.

[frank_one]

A big company buying another big company is NEVER good news.

[shredder orokusaki]

It seems the prediction about many big things that will happen in the world in 2020 were true. look at how many big important things happend in the world that no one believed such things could happend few months ago. Who could had guesses that Microsoft will buy 10 games companies in just one day and for 7.6 billions? Because Bethesds is 10 companies(id software, arkane, machine games, tango , e.t.c). Anyway as a pc gamer nothing changes for me. As i play evrything on pc so i will continue playing Doon wolfestein evil within dishonored prey ghost wired tokyo death loop e.t.c games on my pc like i do already.

[sdp]

All titles will be available for PS5 and any other console, Microsoft doesn't care about consoles they never did not even with the original xbox, they wanted to be part of your home entertainment system and wanted to do it through gaming, now they see the future of streaming gaming services and they want you to use the Xbox service. This move wasn't done because of Sony, it was done because of Amazon and Google.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Is there even a future for the Xbox consoles in the long term?

[sdp]

Depends on what you mean long term, 5 years consoles will still be around but if you tell me 10 years I'm not so sure what the console market would be like. All we need is a streaming service from Amazon, Google or Microsoft that works from a Roku like device that works well enough for the majority of the population and there goes more than half of the console gaming market. Microsoft has all their money in their cloud Azure services so they'll be happy, Nintendo is niche enough and weird enough that somehow they might be able to continue providing a console solution people want, Sony has shown with the walkman they don't know how to evolve quickly to disrupted markets so perhaps the playstation brand could eventually fail. There will always be someone producing consoles though even if for a small niche, just look at all the NES/SNES clones out there right now and how popular they are but if it isn't profitable don't expect large corporations spending millions to make next gen machines.

We'll likely still see Bethesda games on all consoles but Microsoft has a history of badly managing acquisitions. I can see this trend of buying gaming studios to continue, especially the big 4 of FAANG and I think overall it's going to be bad for games.

[Turo602]

Is there even a future for the Xbox consoles in the long term?

Of course there is. They've addressed this before and it's a huge part of their current messaging. Being accessible to all gamers means all gamers. Streaming, Subscription, PC, disabled, and yes, console gamers.

Playstation 4 has sold over 100 million units, the Switch over 60 million, and Xbox One has sold an estimated 50 million. Anyone who believes Xbox or any of the 3 major console companies would turn their back on console gaming is foolish.

They wouldn't have an entire team dedicated to backwards compatibility and be pushing hardware limits like they have been if they were just gonna ditch consoles and reduce the number of possible customers by a one fits all approach.