BREAKING NEWS MICROSOFT BUYS ZENIMAX MEDIA FOR 7.5 BILLION

[Graf Zahl]

18 minutes ago, seed said:

 

Why?

 

Because that one concentrates too much power in a field of business in one hand. Hollywood was already only a handful of players, and now it's one less.

 

[scalliano]

"Monopolies are a terrible thing...

...unless you have one." - Rupert Murdoch

 

As much as it pains me to see another piece taken from the chess board, let's face it - we all knew this day would come eventually. At least this way, the PC platform is safe for now.

 

Though I have to admit, watching the Sony fanboys lose their godsdamn minds over this has been a rather exquisitely hilarious piece of karma. Suddenly, exclusivity is a BAD thing.

[TakenStew22]

3 minutes ago, scalliano said:

Though I have to admit, watching the Sony fanboys lose their godsdamn minds over this has been a rather exquisitely hilarious piece of karma. Suddenly, exclusivity is a BAD thing.

If Sony fans really are getting angry over this they're basically just proving that Microsoft doing this was a good move lol. I will admit I am somewhat biased towards Xbox thanks to my childhood of playing the 360 so I guess you could say I'm kinda satisfied with this.

[seed]

And I always thought the 360 had better games, and was also a better console than the PS3 overall, so I'm a bit biased in Microsoft's favor too.

[Aaron Blain]

To me, Doom is an innovative and idiosyncratic product of a small team of mega-nerds. The more recent games under the 'Doom' brand do look fun, but I'm much more interested in the modern equivalents of 1993 Id.

 

I wonder, now that Microsoft is pretending to be cool (like Sauron's stint in Numenor), could we have some source releases for Daggerfall, AoE 1/2, or Fallout 1/2? I rather doubt it.

 

How great would it be if other fandoms had the equivalent of GZDoom and decades of exploration and refinement, rather than a handful of wonky and incomplete fan re-implementations?

[scalliano]

I used to be a Pony myself, but I gave up on brand loyalty a long time ago. These days, I just go where the games are. PS4 has been mostly fantastic this gen, bar some rather questionable SoCalisation decisions and carving up of game content. I'd rather the acquisition hadn't happened at all, but of all the first-party publishers, Xbox is probably the least egregious. Ironically.

[Gokuma]

8 hours ago, Graf Zahl said:

 

Because that one concentrates too much power in a field of business in one hand. Hollywood was already only a handful of players, and now it's one less.

 

Exactly.   20-30 years ago, all the TV channels were in the hands of about 20 companies.   Then it was down to five, so I guess it's now four.  Of course it's not like many of us even have cable anymore.   I only ever paid for my parents' cable while I was back home for a year after college.   But the conglomerates are shifting, consolidating, and controlling all kinds of media.   In spite of what little competition may still exist between them, they're quite cooperative with each other in protecting any corporate interests, and maintaining bullshiit mainstream narratives such as Epstein officially committing suicide, while having a total media blackout on lots of things that matter, and exclude anyone outside of the two major parties from politics.

[Mordeth]

3 hours ago, Aaron Blain said:

the modern equivalents of 1993 Id.

 

You mean, being served a C&D for using interpretations of famous rock tracks, or using the likeness of D&D monsters, or being sued by their erstwhile employer for using its hardware for your own personal business?  Because that is what would happen now.

[Aaron Blain]

1 hour ago, Mordeth said:

You mean, being served a C&D for using interpretations of famous rock tracks, or using the likeness of D&D monsters, or being sued by their erstwhile employer for using its hardware for your own personal business?  Because that is what would happen now.

I read about an excellent game, One Strike, having an issue with some copyright shadiness. Apparently it was temporarily pulled from the Switch store while they sorted it out. I don't mind what shenanigans devs get into, so long as they're basically tolerable human beings.

 

Today, there are plenty of small, tightly-knit teams making innovative games that are full of personality and have a strongly original voice/vision. That's how I view Doom, and unless I read that Microsoft is somehow hindering the indie scene, I don't care what they do.

 

I think it's cool that the AAA sector is showing serious improvements, but I don't look to Bethesda as the stewards of gaming greatness.

[bfredric]

On 9/22/2020 at 2:26 PM, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I hope this will lead to a new Doom game with a bigger budget. I thought 2016 was good, but found Eternal underwhelming. Hopefully they will do something different with the series now, and hopefully the next Doom game will focus more on atmosphere, which could be bolstered by a bigger budget and better graphics. This is my optimistic side talking.

Yes. And a more competent staff. Then even those few accidents could have been avoided

[Caleb13]

9 hours ago, bfredric said:

Yes. And a more competent staff. Then even those few accidents could have been avoided

Dr. Betruger would be proud.

[Devalaous]

On 9/23/2020 at 10:05 AM, rustygizzard said:

wow! yeah remember that time they turned minecraft into halo?

 

 

Yes.

[rustygizzard]

11 hours ago, Devalaous said:

Yes.

you got me. on a real note though i was referring to the concept of "ruining games by turning it into something else" that people are fixated on.

[Devalaous]

Oh im aware, this was just too perfect not to post :p (This special Halo world for Minecraft came out before the purchase of Mojang actually!)

 

The only thing they did after the big purchase on this Halo/minecraft front was make it available to people on the Switch, so you can have the Halo world on a Nintendo platform. I think Sony said no to that though, once the same update appeared on theirs (Sony also refused to let the LittleBigPlanet Minecraft stuff go to other platforms)

 

Microsoft these days isn't that bad compared to a lot of other ones out there. Sure, it'll only last till the heads at the company change, but for now, its nice.

[Man of Doom]

Welp, we may have to accept the possibility of the next Doom title being an Xbox exclusive now. (Or at least, not ever seeing the PS5.)

 

EDIT: So many of the big talking heads are pretty much the ones speculating that the whole “future Bethesda titles being Xbox exclusive”, and after taking a step back, I’ve since come to realize that this statement is basically no different than the whole “future Bethesda titles will be examined on a case-by-case business”.

 

 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Man of Doom

[TakenStew22]

I have mixed feelings.

[seed]

Same, but hopefully they will just see a delay rather than not seeing the platform at all.

 

I hope that they realize the less people play their games, the worse it will be for everyone involved. It can only be a decision that will backfire in time, and hopefully they'll realize that sooner rather than later.

Edited October 17, 2020 by seed

[NoXion]

FFS. Exclusives are stupid. You can make more money selling on more platforms.

[Murdoch]

Quote

Welp, we may have to accept the possibility of the next Doom title being an Xbox exclusive now.

 

There is absolutely no goddamn way Microsoft will make Bethesda games XBox exclusive. They have shown more than enough desire to make Windows a viable gaming platform in the last few years to back this up. And as I said earlier in the thread, if you spend 7.5 billion on a company then immediately cut off the vast majority of said company's customers you are securing your place in the Hall of Idiots at the Business History Museum. Now might they cut off PlayStation? Possible and indeed probable. I would wager the vast majority of Bethesda customers are on PC and XBox, and they may take the gamble that it will push some PS customers to make the switch. But they will not cut off PC.

[Ar_e_en]

You know, back when Bethesda bought id Software, I had a theory that the reason why Skyrim keeps getting re-releases is because Todd Howard found out that DOOM can run on anything and learning that fact made a light-bulb appear above Todds head.

[Gez]

1 hour ago, Ar_e_en said:

Skyrim keeps getting re-releases

I know it's kind of meme to joke about Bethesda just republishing Skyrim instead of making new games, but honestly the only re-release they did was the 64-bit version. The "GotY" version with all the extensions is a standard industry practice and console-specific releases are also normal for every cross-platform game. So really it has had less re-releases than, say, Doom 3.

[seed]

Indeed, the "Skyrim forever re-released" meme is just dumb, like all memes otherwise, and the people keeping it alive are morons.

 

It had exactly 2 re-releases, the GOTY aka Legendary Edition after all DLCs came out, and years later it was followed by a 64-bit remaster in the form of Special Edition. And that's it. Most if not all games enjoy Deluxe/GOTY reissues, it's a standard practice that's been there since forever. It just so happened that Skyrim enjoyed a remaster on the Fallout 4 version of the Creation Engine because it was the most modern and easiest to port out of the bunch, and still on the same engine but with a number of enhancements that that version brought, such as volumetric fog. If they were to remaster an older game they'd have to basically redo it all over again in an entirely new engine, which may or may not be well-received due to all the changes that have to be made.

 

Doom in comparison received numerous re-releases and console ports of all kinds, but apparently no-one cares enough to point that out.

[Chezza]

9 hours ago, seed said:

Doom in comparison received numerous re-releases and console ports of all kinds, but apparently no-one cares enough to point that out.

 

I would say "But does it run Doom?" would overshadow any re-release meme. Anyway It's Doom, you can get it free, pay for it, bundle it with other games, whatever. It's Doom, just make sure every computer has a copy and all is well.

[Murdoch]

9 hours ago, seed said:

If they were to remaster an older game they'd have to basically redo it all over again in an entirely new engine, which may or may not be well-received due to all the changes that have to be made.

 

Yes the number of people who cannot seem to wrap their heads are the technical process of a remaster is rather mind-blowing. Particularly those demanding a remaster of Fallout 3 when that games' version of the engine is held together with duct tape and used chewing gum.

[seed]

18 hours ago, Murdoch said:

Yes, the number of people who cannot seem to wrap their heads at the technical process of a remaster is rather mind-blowing. Particularly those demanding a remaster of Fallout 3 when that games' version of the engine is held together with duct tape and used chewing gum.

 

Or worse, Morrowind, which is plain ancient at this stage, and I'm hearing that it even requires mods and various tweaks to run halfway decent nowadays.

 

In these cases, Skywind and Skyblivion are their best bet. Older games like these can only enjoy a remake really, rather than a remaster. These people probably live under the impression that to remaster a game all you have to do is fiddle with some code, put some hacks in place for widescreen, and bang, remaster. Uh-huh...

[Lizardcommando]

On 9/21/2020 at 11:09 AM, NoXion said:

At least they weren't bought by Ubisoft.

Or worse, EA.

[seed]

44 minutes ago, Lizardcommando said:

Or worse, EA.

 

Nah, Actiblizzard is where it's at now.

 

EA has actually been... okay throughout 2019 and 2020.

[Edward850]

5 hours ago, seed said:

EA has actually been... okay throughout 2019 and 2020.

Uhh, yeah about that, here's 3 videos from just the past couple of months. 

 

 

 

[Biodegradable]

EA have zero chill when it comes to their scummy behaviour.

[Murdoch]

I honestly have no idea why anyone would even CONSIDER buying a sports game from EA now, and even a non-sports game you should be waiting at least a month. Not to excuse EA's scummy behaviour but said behaviour is extremely well documented. People should research before they buy and stop buying from dodgy companies. If you keep rewarding their behaviour then of course they will keep doing it.