In one of the most unexpected moves in the video games industry this year, Microsoft has announced the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks which is itself renowned for video game franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM and Dishonored. Microsoft reportedly paid $7.5 billion in order to acquire Zenimax Media, which makes this the biggest video game purchase in history.

"[This merger] allows us to make even better games going forward," Pete Hines, VP of PR & Marketing at Bethesda, wrote in a blog post today. "Microsoft is an incredible partner and offers access to resources that will make us a better publisher and developer. We believe that means better games for you to play."

Now that Obsidian and Bethesda are part of the same family, it raises the possibility of a sequel to Fall Out New Vegas. Interestingly, Bethesda planned to release two of its new games, Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, as timed exclusives on the PS5, rather than on the Xbox Series X/S.

In any case, are there any new games you'd like to see from this new acquisition?

UPDATE:

Speaking to Bloomberg, Phil Spencer said that the timed console exclusivity on Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo will be maintained while future Bethesda titles will launch on Xbox, PC, and "other consoles on a case by case basis."

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[RedHunter]

you do know they have a tiny amount of xbox and xbox360 titles right? and i doubt they will ever have even 40% of the library of both consoles ever, since their backwards compatibility consists on the developer allowing microsoft to modify the isos so they run, and many developers from that time and age are dead by now and will never ask for the backwards compatibility thing since they gain nothing for it.

Still better than 0% with ps5 don't you think?

 

[ThatGamingAirman]

Wow that’s a slap to the face. Let’s hope sequels to Bethesda games stay relatively the same and not be a fully revamped and nothing like any predecessors. The only thing I want to come out of this is for Bethesda games to be less buggy now that’s Microsoft has bought them out and improved mod support.

 

[Teletron1]

you do know they have a tiny amount of xbox and xbox360 titles right? and i doubt they will ever have even 40% of the library of both consoles ever, since their backwards compatibility consists on the developer allowing microsoft to modify the isos so they run, and many developers from that time and age are dead by now and will never ask for the backwards compatibility thing since they gain nothing for it.

Or they can just unlock the 360 feature and not have to deal with anyone where you just need the disk since the system can do the work on its own to re image the game unlike previous models but that would only benefit the gamer as MS will see no money on software but I wouldn’t put it pass them to sway a chunk of gamers

 

[nikeymikey]

As much as i think sony both gave gaming the kick up the arse it needed with the original playstation and then slowly ruined it completely with every console since, Im still undecided which system to grab this time around. Yes... ill probably end up with both eventually but @ £449 each that certainly wont happen on launch day.... This news has pushed me further in to camp MS..

 

[AutumnWolf]

Well, rip Bethesda

I was never a fan of Skyrim or Fallout but rip regardless

 

[Qtis]

This is quite easy to explain with three words: Xbox Game Pass.

It is clear that Microsoft wants it available everywhere. Even if they bomb the whole Xbox Hardware starting tomorrow, $15 a month for some 10 million users is already $150 million in revenue per month. This gives Xbox, PC, Gold, Stream, and many more. Most won't even use it actively so it's even better for the company.

Now then let's make it 50 million users and we're already at $750 million monthly and thus $9 billion a year. That's nice Scrooge McDuck level of money and brings synergies to other Microsoft business areas such as Azure (servers) and even perhaps Office (business&pleasure!)

 

[kumikochan]

i doubt that was why nintendo ditched them, considering nintendo games signed with philips didnt even say nintendo anywhere on the cover lol only philips and the only time they say nintendo is on the disc on tiny letters licensed by nintendo lol.

That's because they had the license to use those characters. it's totally different and not the same whatsoever

 

[Silent_Gunner]

The song is so damn appropriate for what Microsoft has been doing to Sony for the past few weeks! Every time Sony thinks they've gained the upper hand, Microsoft whips out their blue eyes white dragon.

I don't know that Xbox has the upper hand per se atm. Sure, the better BC support is nice, and it's neat that they made a next-gen system as cheap as $300, but they're venturing into uncharted territory for a consult (*console, damn phone autocorrect) there, and the small SSD it's shipping with out of the box isn't going to last long at all.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

That's, um, wow. On one hand, I don't think this affects the Switch and we may get more Fallout spinoffs. On the other hand, I wish they would have just stayed independent

I wonder how much Obsidian and Bethesda will be working together beyond just Fallout.

Hopefully not at all given how bad The Outer Worlds was. Of course Bethesda wasn't involved in that, but it certainly shows that stuff made by Obsidian isn't necessarily going to be good.

 

[rdurbin]

sounds like xbox is gonna get some time exclusives and hopefully all these guys show up on gamepass

 

[FAST6191]

They should keep all their games exclusive to xbox, whats the point of making your own console and owning studios, if your games can be played everywhere?

This is the reason of Sony`s success and also of Nintendo; exclusivity

The reason for Sony's earlier success was much the same as the reason Sega was able to get a foot in the door. They were relatively open (no PC open or anything but compared to Nintendo of the NES and SNES with all the limited chips and censorship... night and day, pity they are going down that path themselves this last few years), made their own tech (Sony are an electronics company after all so don't have to pay a cut, or as much of one, to someone else) and had tech at the right time for it (CD games was probably just the right time for it, and we all know how well the cheapo DVD player did for that).

As far as exclusives in general. It is a way to play it. Not the only one though -- anybody (or essentially anybody) could make a CD, DVD or the like and ship it without the nod from on high. No reason games have to be console locked and instead say MS, Sony, LG, Panasonic, Amd, Intel, Nvidia and all the other vendors could not get together and agree upon a standard for a console much like they came together to agree upon VHS, CD, DVD, blu ray and all the rest.

On Nintendo. Since all the devs left them at the end of the SNES and DS have their consoles had all the games and not been struggling and game deserts after a year or two?

So then, whats the point ot Xbox? Whats the point of owning studios?

The point of the xbox is presumably to allow the consumer to have a device to play things on that is less hassle than a PC, and possibly act as a media player of sorts in the meantime.
Owning studios. Even if they are not planning to use something to play the exclusives bit on their rivals then same reason as anything else.
The games they make in turn make a lot of money, and can be used to make a lot more. You get a cut of that.
The people they hire presumably are good at their job. You might be paying a headhunter an awful lot of money for a single programmer of skill, this gets you however many hundred ready to roll immediately, all in an office, all in a team that knows each other with computers already.
They bought ID software with this which means they now have the ID engine at their disposal for free for any games they want, and that is just ID -- there are plenty of other devs with their own tools, engines, servers and more.
Your competitors do not buy them out from under you and make exclusives work against you.

Bethesda will make the new Halo.

Like you would not be down for an elder scrolls/fallout style game in the Halo universe but with good shooting mechanics.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

"[This merger] allows us to make even better games going forward,"
Yeah, that sure worked out great for Rare.

 

[deinonychus71]

Have them release Rare Replay on Switch, then I'll bother considering Bethesda's games.

 

[Jayro]

I'd be ecstatic if Nintendo were to buy Capcom. Especially if they let them keep doing their own thing, but bring more of their games to the switch *cough* Resident Evil 2, 3, and 7 *cough*

 

[Deleted User]

It's a real wonder that this didn't leak in the slightest

 

[pedro702]

Or they can just unlock the 360 feature and not have to deal with anyone where you just need the disk since the system can do the work on its own to re image the game unlike previous models but that would only benefit the gamer as MS will see no money on software but I wouldn’t put it pass them to sway a chunk of gamers

like i said they cant... there is a reason why you cant dump the 360 game disc and play it offline, the iso you download from the xboxlive service is not a 1:1 360 iso same for xbox ones, they need to recompile certain things on each game, becuase the emulator they wrote is not a 100% emulator, so each iso they need to modify certain files to make sure the game has no faults and glitches, so if they allowed you to just put in 360 discs and then play them without being moded, im sure most of the games would crash or have gfx glitches left and right.

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Still better than 0% with ps5 don't you think?

they have ps2 classics titles to choose from afew of them, but sony wants you to subscribe to ps now to play ps1,ps2 and ps3 games, that is why they dont want to invest in developing backwards compat.

 

[Xzi]

Both id and Arkane are some good studios to own, but IMO Microsoft got saddled with a turd where Bethesda themselves are concerned. They've already re-released Skyrim roughly 6,000 times, so that cash cow has been milked dry, and FO76 is just hot garbage. I don't think Bethesda is going to be able to compete very well in this next generation unless they build a whole new engine, and Microsoft is gonna be saddled with the cost of developing that. Who knows though, maybe that was factored in to the purchase price (if MS was smart about it).

 

[Something whatever]

How is this a bad thing? Bethseda is a shit company with bad business practices. If Microsoft can sort that out, thats a great thing. Things like getting rid of that god dang bethseda launcher and registering on their website to play their games. Who knows, obsidian is owned by microsoft too. Maybe they will get the greenlight to work on the next Fallout

 

[pedro702]

Both id and Arkane are some good studios to own, but IMO Microsoft got saddled with a turd where Bethesda themselves are concerned. They've already re-released Skyrim roughly 6,000 times, so that cash cow has been milked dry, and FO76 is just hot garbage. I don't think Bethesda is going to be able to compete very well in this next generation unless they build a whole new engine, and Microsoft is gonna be saddled with the cost of developing that. Who knows though, maybe that was factored in to the purchase price (if MS was smart about it).

oh cmon they had good games this gen ...
dishonored, doom, doom eternal, wolfenstein new colossus , fallout 4 and even evil within was preety decent.

i wonder why people only talk about the bad games when they had alot of great games this gen.

 

[sarkwalvein]

I hope Microsoft buys Konami next and pulls their assess out of the pachinko game.