Microsoft has bought Zenimax/Bethesda

Jesus! I woke up to this. Unless Microsoft replaces many of the talent in Bethesda's creative team I don't have much faith in Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Now if they allowed Obsidian to make a new Fallout and bring back many of the old talent behind the originals and New Vegas then I may have some new found faith in Fallout.
 
Well, Todd Howard and Mike have been business partners for awhile now so Xbox buying Bethesda kind of makes sense. It's like a long term couple who finally put a ring on it. But all modern marriages end in divorce, and the only reason I can think of why this happened is because they're counting on TES 6 to be a hit.

As far as the only thing we're worried about;
FALLOUT,
I don't know guys. Worst case scenario is we see more franchise milking than we already do with '76. Microsoft just pumping out garbage for the brand recognition.
Mr Fish said:
1. Will they be forced to change the engine
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We can only hope, man.
 
TES 6 copy.jpg


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Hopefully them coming under new management means less of the horrible nepotism that has kept Emil and Pete afloat despite both being objectively terrible at their work and terrible at representing the company (Emil isn't that bad on that front, being a clear moron when speaking isn't a fireable offence but Pete is off the chain with the audience contempt)
 
I suppose this was just the natural evolution of things. The Playstation ports of all of Bethesda's games have always been a second thought that ran terribly and were the last to get any DLC.
 
Norzan said:
They didn't even created the ones in bold. Why the fuck do people claim Bethesda created Fallout? And they don't even make Doom and Wolfenstein games, they just publish them.
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Hold on a sec, looking at that list makes me think of a more important question. If MS owns Zenimax, does that means they also acquired Arkane? What about Id?
 
I was quite surprised when I found out about this when it was mentioned on the Dutch news, well in the scrolling section under the televised news that Microsoft had bought a major game publisher studio.
I never expected that it would be Bethesda.

My thought were also "Hey Microsoft owns Inxile, Obsidian, and now Bethesda, that sounds like a situation in which we could perhaps get a Fallout game like FNV again."

But as people mentioned here, most of the people who worked on FNV have long since left Obsidian and I don't think they will be coming back.
I think it is even very unlikely that even Cain and Boyarsky perhaps get the chance to work on Fallout again unless Microsoft plans to merge all these studios into one.

The most likely future for the Fallout franchise doesn't change despite this new article. The Fallout franchise remains ruined.
 
Norzan said:
Apparently not given that their efforts for the last five years haven't been all that great.
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I don't get all the hate for Obsidian. I've played their games and I'd say they have a problem with knowing how to make something stand out. Art design or whatever. Like they don't pack a punch that makes them iconic. But writing? Choice and consequence? RPG design? They're not the best out there but I think they're good. It honestly just feels like it is the popular trend now, to just throw shit at Obsidian and I guess I must've missed it because I don't see how they're bad. Just stuck too much to fantasy stuff and aren't the best at iconography and are a bit overly cautious with balancing their games. But writing-wise? Quest choices? Choice and consequence? Dialogue? RPG design? I think they're good. :shrug:

[edit]

I should clarify, I don't expect FNV2 from them, not ever. That ship has long since sailed. But do I think the current iteration could produce a game with good writing (not amazing) and proper RPG mechanics and quest design? Yes, I do.
 
Microsoft bought Caligari Corp years ago (presumably just to own their trueSpace IP). The $800 application was then was then released for free with an added export plugin for Virtual Earth and support for V-Ray disabled—then the company was dissolved.
 
This came as a big surprise but I am cautiously optimistic. Having Bethesda under the same room as Obsidian must be better for Fallout? Could we have a New Vegas remaster by Obsidian?

I realise Fallout is a dead franchise for any fan of the cannon games but still...
 
Mr Fish said:
It will be interesting to see a number of things following this.

1. Will they be forced to change the engine or will Microsoft provide people that can update it to actually work the way it is supposed to for Bethesda's type of games?
2. Will they change upper management to get rid of those that are negatively affecting the titles (Emil is bad for writing, Pete doesn't even like dialogue and just wants to gun shit down and would be better suited to whisper in the ears of DOOM than Fallout or Elder Scrolls and Todd is, well, Todd).
3. Some have suggested that Zenimax has been the problem. That they were the ones who dictated the direction of games and only wanted profit so milk away as much as possible. Now that Zenimax is out of the picture and Microsoft (which have been surprisingly consumer-friendly as of late) owns them, will we see a change in game design?
4. With how many studios Microsoft has now acquired will we see cross-IP usage between them?

Either way, this deal just happened and games take an asslong time to develop and Bethesda themselves are busy with three project AFAIK so sadly I doubt we'll see the impact upon Fallout any time soon and I will not get my hopes up for anything like that. It will be interesting to see if they'll remaster Fallout New Vegas though since Bethesda could never be arsed to hire anyone to do it.
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1) The new Engine is likely to be the Engine designed for "The Outer Worlds". I really liked what they did with that game...it should be able to handle much bigger and more complex games.
2) Probably, but Microsoft has generally been good at keeping talented managers in place, and giving them plenty of room to make good games...they care less about control and more about content. GamePass certainly gives them the ability to make some more niche games without worrying about shipping a specific amount of copies.
3) We're likely to see less reuse of assets and stretching a game engine well past its sell-by date under MS. IMO The disaster that was Fallout 76 is what led to this acquisition...Zenimax could either go to their shareholders and admit that their profitability cratered or announce an acquisition by Microsoft.
4) Probably...It would make sense that they get amalgamated into Microsoft Games Studio and that they're put to work on broader game development. I wouldn't be surprised if we'd see a Shadowrun RPG being developed by the former Zenimax teams.

I'm cautiously optimistic...Although there is a ton of potential for this to be a disaster as well...but can it really be worse than Fallout '76?
 
I wonder if Microsoft will force Bethesda to change engines. It is about time they do as the Creation/Gamebyro engine is a bug filled mess that should have been shelved years ago.
 
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RangerBoo said:
God I hope so.
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Now I'm not calling for him to be fired, but isn't his position a little redundant now? also he was an asshole.
Moester said:
We're likely to see less reuse of assets and stretching a game engine well past its sell-by date under MS. IMO The disaster that was Fallout 76 is what led to this acquisition...Zenimax could either go to their shareholders and admit that their profitability cratered or announce an acquisition by Microsoft.
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As far as I'm aware Zenimax is/was a privately owned company. For all we know the person who owned it said fuck it and decided to retire to their own island in the Seychelles.
 
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