Microsoft buys Bethesda for 7.5 billion.

[Honored guest]

But as long as it still hits the PC for mod runs and tweaks, I'll be fine.

Oh boy, you're going to be in for a real unpleasant surprise when it comes out.

 

[The Doom Slayer]

Guess I'm a slave to Microsoft now.

 

[mr.moon1488]

I am trying to figure out if this is good or bad; On one hand Bethesda has been going downhill and Microsoft is definitely better when you consider the alternatives are entities like Activision and EA, but on the other hand it would only take a few critically retarded corporate decisions to finish off Bethesda.

Better than EA no doubt. They pretty much butchered Bioware.

Edit:
It also might be a good thing outside of development in a way, since Bethesda does publish games, and it would be nice to have a company which could publish on the same scale as EA.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Fuck.

Bethesda published it when they dipped their toes into publishing, they didn't develop it, it sat in hell for years before that, but I get your point.

 

[ConfederateIrishman]

I‘m sure we‘ll see some layoffs soon or people leaving the Studios. Hell, Microsoft might even pull the plug on Fallout 76.
Specially for the next Fallout game, this could mean an improvement. I‘ll still be careful about any optimism though, seeing how they treated Rare for the longest time and what they did to Halo.

Ironicly enough, how they treated Halo is the only reason I have any optimism in the first place. As bad as some of their demands were, like never stopping halo games, compared to Activision they treated Bungie much better and most importantly did not compromise their values like Activision did. Granted, its been over a decade since then, so maybe Microsoft has grown worse since then.

 

[anti SJW]

Announcement comes one day before Series X pre orders start.

 

[AsbestosFlaygon]

I heard Fallout 76 being a financial disaster prompted this sale.

You know all these companies think that making games as a service type shit's easy money. They don't ever seem to realize that mobile shit or things like TF2 are very much one in million. Sure if you can make something that sticks you can basically solely do that as long as it lasts. On the other hand for every success there's a monumental failure. I mean just look at EA, how many times have they tried to emulate what Madden & Fifa did and failed? You can only afford to try say a Anthem if you've already got other shit keeping you afloat, Bethesda might be big, but they aren't EA big by any means.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Guess I'm a slave to Microsoft now.

Now you're The Doom Slaver.

 

[thismanlies]

At this point, any direction for Bethesda is up.

 

[Robert James]

It's funny because we thought Tods mobile elders scrolls game and fallout 76 were peek examples of greed. Hopefully Microsoft does what Microsoft does and fucks their IP's so thoroughly into the dirt we can get a competent company to buy the rights to fallout.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

soon Microsoft, Sony, EA, activison and nintendo will be the only AAA developers left while the rest will be either Chinese knockoffs or INDIES that will later be bought up by the big five if its popular enough.

 

[Inflatable Julay]

It really is the apocalypse

 

[Jon Conroy]

Sony's theme right now. I think good can come of this. Somehow.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Guess I'm a slave to Microsoft now.

You know how in the trailer for the Eternal DLC, Samuel talks about the chance to serve the Old Gods again?

Yeah, he was talking about Microsoft.

 

[anti SJW]

Hopefully Microsoft does what Microsoft does and fucks their IP's so thoroughly into the dirt we can get a competent company to buy the rights to fallout.

Like Electronic Arts.

 

[Least Concern]

Seeing as how ironically more Microsoft games are ported to Mac than Bethesda games (zero), as a Mac fag I'm cautiously optimistic to hear this. More Fallout, please (I'm willing to pretend 76 didn't happen if you are).

 

[tehpope]

I heard Fallout 76 being a financial disaster prompted this sale.

 

[JongleJingle]

I wonder what becomes of Doom and Prey because of this...

Finally, a crossover between Doom and Halo might happen? Would be interesting and funny to see.

 

[XMassAllYearRound]

I heard Fallout 76 being a financial disaster prompted this sale.

I support this theory. There's a player here that I cannot find any information about in all of this: Providence Equity Partners; They're a private equity firm that owns roughly 25% of Zenimax, has been pumping millions into them since at least 2007 and has been trying to get rid of their stocks and sell the company since 2016.
Rumor goes Fallout 76 was their idea as a method to encite possible buyers with a Live-Service money-making machine.

I speculate that this didn't pan out like they thought it would and probably had to sell the company for less than they expected once the company stagnated and started costing them more money than they were producing with the development of ES6 and Starfield.

 

[MrTroll]

As long as Microsoft keeps releasing first-party games on PC, this is fine by me.