Microsoft Buys Zenimax/ Bethesda for $7.5B

[Xevross]

How about you wait until the games are out to see if they'll actually be sold for that price. The MSRP in Europe is apparently 70€ at the moment, which I sure as hell wouldn't have known if I didn't have to buy Final Fantasy VII Remake on the PS Store during lockdown. I've never had to actually pay that price day 1 at a store.

And no offense to the UK but the pound has lost a lot in value and with Brexit there is probably not a lot confidence of that turning around. 70 pound is about $90 sure, but consider the 20% VAT and you're actually a lot closer to the US price without taxes at the equivalent of $72.

Sure we've been lucky in the UK that physical games have stuck at £45-50 to pre-order or buy new for so long, I've been expecting that to go up. However, stores know that this is how much we've been paying so suddenly expecting £70 is a huge ask and it feels like a big shock. And yeah £70 probably lines up well with the currency situation right now but jumping straight up to that is the problem.

I am very much waiting to see what happens with prices, if it turns out this is just because PS5 isn't out yet and prices to pre-order games in the future drops then that's awesome. If £70 for new games sticks then I guess I'll be pre-ordering nowhere near as much this gen and waiting for sales a lot more.

[the-pi-guy]

Microsoft is paying $7.5 billion in an all-cash deal, which is expected to complete in the second half of 2021, subject to regulatory approval.

https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-buys-zenimax-bethesda-id-arkane-131006192.html
I feel like a lot of the articles glossed over this bit.

[Dr. Pezus]

https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-buys-zenimax-bethesda-id-arkane-131006192.html
I feel like a lot of the articles glossed over this bit.

Oh its 2021. So they will mos def release their current works in progress on ps5

[Xevross]

Oh its 2021. So they will mos def release their current works in progress on ps5

Xbox already confirmed that Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo deals remain unchanged. As for Starfield and further out then I think they're far enough away to change.

[Xevross]

One thing that xbox haven't bought their way to here is GOTY contenders, which is the biggest area they lack compared to Sony. Bethesda Game Studios are the only dev team in the XGS roster to have won a fair few GOTY awards this gen with Fallout 4 and I think its safe to say they seem to be going downhill and a GOTY contender from them is no guarantee for their next game.

[the-pi-guy]

One thing that xbox haven't bought their way to here is GOTY contenders, which is the biggest area they lack compared to Sony. Bethesda Game Studios are the only dev team in the XGS roster to have won a fair few GOTY awards this gen with Fallout 4 and I think its safe to say they seem to be going downhill and a GOTY contender from them is no guarantee for their next game.

Yeah. I kind of feel like you were/are overselling how big of a get this is for MS.  

Like it's big. But I am not convinced yet that Sony is in trouble.

[Legend]

Yeah. I kind of feel like you were/are overselling how big of a get this is for MS.  

Like it's big. But I am not convinced yet that Sony is in trouble.

I think Bethesda has a lot of potential. If Starfield and TES6 are Skyrim level while the other studios keep doing what they did this gen, that's huge.

[Xevross]

Yeah. I kind of feel like you were/are overselling how big of a get this is for MS.  

Like it's big. But I am not convinced yet that Sony is in trouble.

Well no. GOTY awards don't matter at all, its mainly just bragging rights. The size and popularity of games is what everything is all about. Bethesda have some of the biggest IP in gaming and they sell fantastically. This is absolutely insanely big for MS but that doesn't mean Sony are in trouble either.

[DerNebel]

It is big and certainly at least worrisome to Sony on several levels in my opinion.

A) Elder Scrolls, Fallout & Doom are all big to huge series that will hurt not having. Starfield could be that too. It also remains to be seen what kind of domino effect this has on WRPG's on Playstation as a whole.

B) It sets a huge precedent for acquisition sizes that I imagine Sony wasn't expecting. What if MS is willing or even looking to do more than this? A fully Microsoft backed Xbox that actually has real access to the "warchest" isn't something to take lightly. In fact it's hugely troublesome.

I don't know how I would even want Sony to react to this. I don't agree at all with people who brush this aside. This is big - huge - even. Sony can't just act like this is business as usual and like this couldn't affect their position. But I don't want this to turn into a fudgy natural pine-for-tat acquisition extravaganza. That road leads to nothing good.

[kitler53]

It is big and certainly at least worrisome to Sony on several levels in my opinion.

A) Elder Scrolls, Fallout & Doom are all big to huge series that will hurt not having. Starfield could be that too. It also remains to be seen what kind of domino effect this has on WRPG's on Playstation as a whole.

B) It sets a huge precedence for acquisition sizes that I imagine Sony wasn't expecting. What if MS is willing or even looking to do more than this? A fully Microsoft backed Xbox that actually has real access to the "warchest" isn't something to take lightly. In fact it's hugely troublesome.

I don't know how I would even want Sony to react to this. I don't agree at all with people who brush this aside. This is big - huge - even. Sony can't just act like this is business as usual and like this couldn't affect their position. But I don't want this to turn into a fudgy natural pine-for-tat acquisition extravaganza. That road leads to nothing good.

take two interactive,..  it will be bought.  the only question is who does it.

[DerNebel]

take two interactive,..  it will be bought.  the only question is who does it.

Not Sony, that's for sure.

[the-pi-guy]

I think Bethesda has a lot of potential. If Starfield and TES6 are Skyrim level while the other studios keep doing what they did this gen, that's huge.

BGS is easily the biggest get.  
TES, Starcraft, etc is the only thing that Sony isn't able to match.  

This is really biggest concern here

It sets a huge precedence for acquisition sizes that I imagine Sony wasn't expecting

MS is interested in gaming on a level they never have been before.  

[Xevross]

BGS is easily the biggest get.  
TES, Starcraft, etc is the only thing that Sony isn't able to match.  

This is really biggest concern here


MS is interested in gaming on a level they never have been before.  

I think MS must have been convinced by the vision for game pass. They expect that it's going to be absolutely massive and one of Microsoft's biggest money makers down the line.

Subscription models is where every other entertainment media industry is going and gaming is the biggest of them all by revenue. If that gets converted to sub models and game pass has a monopoly then that's going to be insane.

[the-pi-guy]

The biggest thing that MS gets from this is Bethesda's brand power with Elder Scrolls in particular. There are plenty of cheaper ways to build up a solid studio base of the quality and quantity but you can't really build an IP like TES.

I think with where ND, SSM, IG, GG, and PD to an extend, they can match almost all of this. If it were Zenimax minus BGS, i think it would still be Sonys court. But BGS tips the scale a bit.


There are so many ways things could go from here.

It's easy to assume this means that companies are going to get bought up like we have never seen before. But that might not be the case.  MS mainly wants to make Gamepass worth it as a service. Which who knows how far MS wants to go to prove that.  Considering how the past ~20 years have gone, I doubt MS would be confident enough to start spending 10's of billions on tons of acquisitions.  I don't think we will see anything on this scale any time soon.  (Though who knows). The industry is paying attention to them.  And again, it all depends on what MS is hoping financially for GP.  But I think right now they've established that GP has value.  EA + MS + BGS all under one service.  I'm sure they'll push for more deals like EA play.  

Part of me expects that MS will try pushing GP on PlayStation.  Phil Spencer originally promised the service would come to every platform, and then even when he "backed" down from idea.  It wasn't a total rejection.  

"We know when somebody is playing one of our Xbox games there is an expectation that I've got my Xbox Live community, I have my achievements, Game Pass is an option for me, my first-party library is completely there," Spencer added. "And the other competitive platforms aren't really that interested in having a full Xbox experience on their hardware. But for us, we want to be where gamers want to be, and that's the path that we're on."

In this case, Bethesda is huge enough that Sony might need to start considering.  But who knows.  


I'm sure Sony is looking at ways to even things out again.  Could be a big acquisition, probably a few smaller acquisitions, or maybe they'll do a timed exclusive GTA or something big like that.  


Who knows.  Nothing on this scale has ever really happened before.  I don't think anyone really knows what will happen after this.  This whole story is just so out of left field, it's the kind of thing you dismiss as wild fanboy nonsense.  But here we are.  

[the-pi-guy]

[

The second-biggest news in Microsoft's announcement today was the massive leap in Xbox Game Pass subscribers, from 10m in April to 15m today. Microsoft didn't buy Zenimax to battle the PlayStation 5 -- Microsoft bought Zenimax to quadruple that number https://t.co/Fpau8Rg4pC

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) September 21, 2020