Bethesda....now part of Microsoft

[Don Carlos]

https://bethesda.net/en/article/1iLtcvw ... =Community

Crikey...didn't see that coming

[MKJ]

thats pretty huge.
Also not necessarily a bad thing, if you look how MS is handling gaming nowadays.

inb4 mad ppl about Rare.

[Eraser]

Quake 5 an xbox exclusive!

[xer0s]

I’m not against this buy-out. Microsoft has been making some big moves. As long as we keep getting Fallout and Elder Scrolls, I’m good...

[Transient]

I wonder what we would have said about such a development 20 years ago....

[Don Carlos]

It's a big play for MS; I assume they will just add all the games onto Game Pass to play as day one, but not make them all exclusive so they get revenue for the PS5 sales to offset the costs of development and basically giving away the game via their subscription based service. That sub based service is not very profitable, so they need to do something in order to get some cash back.

Either that or they make them exclusives and pump them full of microtransactions to cover costs, which would be terrible.

[Eraser]

I wonder what we would have said about such a development 20 years ago....

Hate. And lots of it.

[TIFsenior]

so Doom Eternal is the last game and release to run with windows 7 :ducky:

[xer0s]

Hmmm...

[lvlshot]https://imgur.com/download/uWDvEjq/Carm[/lvlshot]

[Whiskey 7]

https://bethesda.net/en/article/1iLtcvwY6Nb1GeKADyDUEX/why-microsoft-is-the-perfect-fit?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Community

Crikey...didn't see that coming

Very interesting news. It just might be a positive move for PC gaming (and these new video cards) and the industry in general.

[Mat Linnett]

Woah, big news indeed. Hopefully that'll put paid to some of Bethesda / Zenimax's shadier business practices.

[MKJ]

It's a big play for MS; I assume they will just add all the games onto Game Pass to play as day one, but not make them all exclusive so they get revenue for the PS5 sales to offset the costs of development and basically giving away the game via their subscription based service. That sub based service is not very profitable, so they need to do something in order to get some cash back.

Either that or they make them exclusives and pump them full of microtransactions to cover costs, which would be terrible.

They bought a few of today's biggest IPs. Theyre not going to cut out two thirds of their potential customers by making these exclusive.
If anything MS has been opening up their games lately rather than making them exclusive, like Minecraft being released (with crossplay) on every platform out there.

Edit: they said they'd honour the exclusivity contracts Beth has with sony for Deathloop and Ghostwire.

[TIFsenior]

so Doom Eternal is the last game and release to run with windows 7 :ducky:

And Vulkan is dead, with M$ it will be DirectX12/Windows10 and nothing else.

[Denz]

I suppose if M$ buys up all the gaming developers there will be no competition and all of us will be a paying a monthly or yearly subscription to our games.

[Captain]

so Doom Eternal is the last game and release to run with windows 7 :ducky:

And Vulkan is dead, with M$ it will be DirectX12/Windows10 and nothing else.

Windows 7 works with DX12 on certain games and Cyberpunk 2077 will run on it so I'm not sure where you're getting that from. I have no love for Microsoft and had lots of issues with W10 initially, but they did a decent job of supporting an 11-yr old OS.

Now that the bugs are gone and you can turn off all the intrusive online checks and background shit, W10 is fine.

[seremtan]

i like windows 10. glad i waited until feb this year to adopt it though. heard a lot of horror stories about the initial release

[Κracus]

It's still kinda shit unless you're using a professionally managed system.

[seremtan]

how exactly?

[Transient]

I haven't had any problems with Windows 10, really. Maybe 1 BSOD ever, almost no lockups or forced restarts. :shrug:

Edit: OK 2 BSOD's, but the second one was because I accidentally disconnected the (C:) drive once. I pulled a tab before realizing it was a hard drive quick-release. "What's this do?" :dork:

[TIFsenior]

The European Commission gives the green light for the takeover of ZeniMax Media - and its many video game studios - by Microsoft.

Last September, Microsoft announced the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, which brings together many video game development studios. ZeniMax is indeed the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog and Roundhouse Studios.

For this buyout at 7.5 billion dollars, the European Commission gives its unconditional approval, considering that the concentration "does not raise serious doubts as to its compatibility with the common market." It is carried out via a merger within the framework of from which a Microsoft subsidiary called Vault will be merged with ZeniMax.

With the finalization of this costly transaction, the number of Microsoft video game creation studios will increase to 23.

source : https://www.generation-nt.com/microsoft ... 86080.html

[TIFsenior]

Phil Spencer, executive vice president, Gaming at Microsoft :

"With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams, gamers should know that Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games (Doom, Wolfenstein) including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players."

source : https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2021/03/09/ ... ox-family/

[xer0s]

I’m so ready for Starfield...

[MKJ]

MS wants to license out idTech.
https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/xbox-want ... evelopers/

[Eraser]

MS wants to license out idTech.
https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/xbox-want ... evelopers/

While these days I can't really get excited over any dev using any specific engine, I do feel that id Software really lost its position as technology pusher since Bethesda bought them out. Doom 3's idTech4 engine was arguably the last one that really pushed the technological frontier (albeit, really in tandem with Source 2 and partly UE3). Since then id Software hasn't released anything that really shows stuff we hadn't seen in other games as well.

Maybe if MS is really pushing for idTech to be used in more games, they can focus a bit more on building their engines as middleware that really pushed the envelope again.

[MKJ]

I don't think MS wants to create the next breakthrough engine.
It's either about adding choices for new devs - right now your options basically limited to UE, Unity or create your own. For MS to get in there they don't need to be the best, they just have to get by.
Or, their goal is to spread the idTech to any of their 23(!) in house developers and cut down on engine licensing or dev costs. For that, again, they only need to get by. And it's not like Doom Eternal's engine is anything to sneeze at, either.