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Forums - Microsoft - Xbox acquires Bethesda

LudicrousSpeed on 21 September 2020

This is incredible news for anyone who is a fan of single player games. I can't think of a western publisher that has done a better job of providing tons of high quality single player experiences across different genres than Bethesda Softworks. Prey, Dishonored, Wolfenstein, Doom, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Rage, Evil Within, etc all recently. And upcoming with Ghostwire and Deathloop. What a huge deal for Xbox.

Personally I see them releasing the mega big games on PS5 but most of the stuff being MS exclusive and all of it coming to GamePass day one. I doubt MS minds letting PS5 owners buy copies of Fallout 5 for $70 a pop while they sell GamePass subscriptions by putting the game on the service at no charge.

Also this makes New Vegas 2 a real possibility. Microsoft has the trifecta of western RPG power now with inXile, Bethesda, and Obsidian.



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Jranation on 21 September 2020
Intrinsic said:
Jranation said:

Imo Xbox Series + PC + Gamepass should be enough. 

If you have PC + Gamepas, why do you need the Xbox Series?

No I mean all 3 of them covers multiple patforms and audience despite Playstation not being include. I dont mean owning all 3. 



Pocky Lover Boy! 

AkimboCurly on 21 September 2020
KingofTrolls said:
AkimboCurly said:
Question: does it make sense to block games from getting to sony's platform?

In an emotional console war, sure it does. But in the name of profit? no. 

There is a 3rd way - strengtening your core business, and YEAH this would make helluva ton of sense to make them at least 1-year exclusive.

I meant the games they have already announced. New games they develop for sure - I don't see Senua's Sacrifice or Halo coming to PS5, but i mean Phil Spencer has said games will be evaluated on a “case-by-case basis.” 

But to push back a bit on your point... Game pass as a model has a much higher capacity to bring in cash than selling consoles. They actually don't care if you are on game pass for PC, or game pass for console, especially since these consoles require a big subsidy. To take it to its logical extreme, Microsoft would probably let game pass to go playstation, because that would mean that they effectively monetise all console games sales. Obviously Sony wouldn't let them.

But the thought experiment does show the principle that Microsoft consoles are a market of 60~million. Playstation has a larger market. PC market is even larger still. The mobile market is larger still and grows exponentially. Like Call of Duty Warzone is less than a quarter the size and population of Call of Duty:Mobile. I am personally interested in neither game, but this shows that Microsoft are only selling consoles as a means to an end. That end is to dominate an entire medium, and to monetise it a la netflix. 



PAOerfulone on 21 September 2020

Of all the things I was expecting to wake up to this morning, this was not one of them.



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sales2099 on 21 September 2020
goopy20 said:
Pemalite said:

You aren't looking at the bigger picture.

The Xbox gaming division isn't just about games.

You buy an Xbox... You will probably be using Internet explorer and bring in ad revenue, you might be using skype and leveraging that subscription.

I will for example upload a game video from my Xbox to One Drive and then access that game video on my PC or even Phone... And I pay a Microsoft office license for that.

Microsoft is trying to get you into an "ecosystem" where every service can lean into each other to accrue cumulative spending... This is why Microsoft is so good at what it does. And no. That spending isn't reflected in the Xbox gaming division.

This is bigger picture stuff.

MS is making a killing with Cloud revenue and that's obviously their end game when it comes to GP and Xcloud too. They're not going to spend 7.5B just to lock Bethesda behind their Xbox and try to push console sales. MS isn't playing that game anymore. Their whole new slogan is "if everybody plays we all win" and I'm 100% sure all of Bethesda's games will end up on ps5. Just look at Mojang, MS spend a fortune on it and Minecraft Dungeons still came out on ps4.

What they'll be looking to do is make GP available on as many devices as possible, including ps5, Switch, PC, Phones and Smart TV's, effectively making them the Netflix of gaming. Xcloud is already on Android and I'm willing to bet we'll get an announcement soon that it will come pre-installed on Samsung TVs.

People keep thinking I'm making up conspiracy theories here, but just look at this lol. 

Microsoft Blows Away Amazon in 2019 Cloud Revenue: 30% Bigger

https://cloudwars.co/microsoft/microsoft-cloud-revenue-blows-away-amazons-by-30-for-2019/

xCloud and Game Pass may be coming to Samsung TVs

https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/monitors/mustafa-mahmoud/xcloud-and-game-pass-may-be-coming-to-samsung-tvs/

There is no way Sony will allow Game Pass on their own console. Nintendo maybe eventually with how Ms keeps giving away their games to them. But not Sony. But to me that would be ideal. Make Xbox as wide appealing and reaching and create this industry bubble that only excludes PlayStation. 



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

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Stellar_Fungk on 21 September 2020

•_•



I am a Nintendo fanatic.

NobleTeam360 on 21 September 2020
vonny said:
Love how everyone think in just the term console wars, Microsoft would need to sell 110 million games at full price to break even on the 7.5 billion, that's without the cost of development and advertising. Clearly there's a bigger plan than just selling a few more consoles.

Yep, it's called Gamepass. 



chakkra on 21 September 2020
goopy20 said:
LudicrousSpeed said:
LOL so now we are saying that when Sony strikes these deals, money isn’t involved. They are just “leveraging their user base advantage”. No way.

Anyways, I still don’t believe this is true. What a massive deal.

Me: man Deathloop looks great, wonder how long Sony paid to keep it off of Xbox

Papa Phil: hold my beer

This goes beyond moneyhatting a couple of timed exclusives lol. Like I've been saying for months, Xcloud isn't just some cool optional bonus, it's MS's endgame. This just shows how serious they are about it.

Put on your tinfoil hat and bear with me for a second. At the moment GP has 15m subscribers. I'm guessing most of those subscribers are cheap ass bastards like me, who sign up for a month, play Gears 4/5 and cancel until some new noteworthy games get released. This is why GP is already bleeding money, let alone after a 7.5B acquisition like this.

15m Subscribers is peanuts in the grand scheme of things and I'm sure MS knows they are not going to get a big enough installbase of Series X/S to carry the GP platform. The only way GP can turn profitable is if they can tap into the billions of mobile gamers and massively expand their audience. This is one helluva gamble if you ask me. Are the bulk of the mobile gamers - who never even owned a console - really going to buy and walk around with a Xbox controller and play core games on their phones? Will the total number of gamers really grow exponentially if we don't need to buy consoles anymore and we can all stream games from an app on our TV's? I just don't see that happening at all. What MS seems to be missing is that not everybody with a phone or a TV is a gamer and gamers don't care about Cloud gaming. 

We'll see how this plays out but I honestly see MS releasing GP on ps5/ Switch later on. It would be a win-win for everybody when you think about it, especially for MS shareholders.

Hmmm.. that's an interesting theory. One quick question though; what exactly would Sony and Nintendo gain from having Game Pass in their consoles?



LudicrousSpeed on 21 September 2020
chakkra said:
goopy20 said:

This goes beyond moneyhatting a couple of timed exclusives lol. Like I've been saying for months, Xcloud isn't just some cool optional bonus, it's MS's endgame. This just shows how serious they are about it.

Put on your tinfoil hat and bear with me for a second. At the moment GP has 15m subscribers. I'm guessing most of those subscribers are cheap ass bastards like me, who sign up for a month, play Gears 4/5 and cancel until some new noteworthy games get released. This is why GP is already bleeding money, let alone after a 7.5B acquisition like this.

15m Subscribers is peanuts in the grand scheme of things and I'm sure MS knows they are not going to get a big enough installbase of Series X/S to carry the GP platform. The only way GP can turn profitable is if they can tap into the billions of mobile gamers and massively expand their audience. This is one helluva gamble if you ask me. Are the bulk of the mobile gamers - who never even owned a console - really going to buy and walk around with a Xbox controller and play core games on their phones? Will the total number of gamers really grow exponentially if we don't need to buy consoles anymore and we can all stream games from an app on our TV's? I just don't see that happening at all. What MS seems to be missing is that not everybody with a phone or a TV is a gamer and gamers don't care about Cloud gaming. 

We'll see how this plays out but I honestly see MS releasing GP on ps5/ Switch later on. It would be a win-win for everybody when you think about it, especially for MS shareholders.

Hmmm.. that's an interesting theory. One quick question though; what exactly would Sony and Nintendo gain from having Game Pass in their consoles?

Exactly, Sony has no reason at all to allow GamePass in their ecosystem. Nintendo would probably allow it, but without xCloud it would lose a lot of value since it wouldn't support most games.

But Sony fought hard against EA Access which is a good value but nowhere near GamePass. They would never go for it.



HollyGamer on 21 September 2020
jason1637 said:
HollyGamer said:
Guys , after clearing my mind and cooling my brain. I get the big picture. This acquisition might not bad after all and not bad for Sony at all. Microsoft are not trying to win console competition they trying to win subscription.

Buying Bethesda for 7 billion for winning console war is not good for shareholders, but buying them for subscription is good for shareholders. So i am sure all games will be available on PS console or Switch as well. Xbox still has small subscription compared to putting games on other platform.

So i can see some establish franchise will still be available on the future for other platform including PS platform.

Gotta sell consoles to get subscribers. Not everyone has a gaming capable PC.

But that's Xcloud for