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Topic: The everything Xbox thread

Posts 10,321 to 10,340 of 11,919

Octane

@NEStalgia In all fairness, I don't think anyone ever said ''Microsoft should buy Bethesda''. It's great for MS, but I've personally always thought that they should open more of their own studios instead of straight up buying them.

Octane

Banjo-

@NEStalgia It's absurd, indeed, because until now it was "Xbox has no games, just Forza, Halo, Gears". Sony don't buy more studios because they can't but they do moneyhatting in order to "steal" third-party games from Microsoft in 2020 and beyond when most people hate these dated dirty moves. Sony has forced Microsoft into getting more studios (competition is good) and improving their first-party offering (which was more varied than Sony's single-player semi-open-world linear quests, anyways).

Bethesda will probably get their QA time and Tango and Arkane may do their thing without fearing not selling enough copies (The Evil Within 2 is a brilliant game but who cares?). As you and @BruceCM said, it's not a horizontal expansion, it's vertical and, in this case, it seems that both parties are happy. I'd be worried if Sony, Google or Apple did something like this but Microsoft? Well, no other company gives players more choices than them: physical, digital, streaming, ownership, subscription, console, PC, mobile.

Edited on by Banjo-

Banjo-

Magonigal

@Octane
They've got Turn 10 and The Initiative but not sure about others. Sony has had a lot longer in the business to form and acquire studios that now look like original ones so Microsoft has to take shortcuts. It also makes more sense for Microsoft to acqure studios for Game Pass and Microsoft hasn't really got time to develop their own games, they need content for the service to grow it so it becomes a profitible business. Don't forget that they're losing money on it at the moment

Magonigal

Magonigal

@BlueOcean
I agree with you about Microsoft giving customers choices and Phil Spencer has said that Game Pass is not a replacement for ownership but an addition and adding to customers choices. Here's what he said about actually increasing sales :
"When you put a game like Forza Horizon 4 on Game Pass, you instantly have more players of the game, which is actually leading to more sales of the game," he said. "Some people have questioned that, but when State of Decay 2 launched, you saw if you looked in the US at the NPD you saw this game selling really well the month it launched on GamePass.

"You say, 'Well isn't everyone just going to subscribe for $10 and go play this thing?' But no, gamers find things to play based on what everybody else is playing. What's #1 on Mixer, what's #1 on Twitch, what's my friend's list [saying], what are people saying on Discord, they go everywhere to see. When these games hit something like GamePass with all these players, it instantly raises the awareness."

I really think Microsoft are being extremely consumer-friendly now, almost the direct opposite of them under Don Mattrick and the Xbox One debacle. Sony are now looking out of touch with raising the game prices, not communicating with customers (pre-order fiasco) and turning back on their promise of believing in generations when some of their biggest games are now coming to PS4. It's won me back over to Microsoft as I had the original console and the 360 until I got the Red Ring of Death and gave up on them with the Xbox One mess. I've had all the Playstation generations but would only get the PS5 near to the end to upgrade my library and have already pre-ordered my Series S.

Edited on by Magonigal

Magonigal

Banjo-

@Magonigal Exactly.

To add to your point, Sea of Thieves is one of the most successful Xbox One games (console sales and PC sales) but also one of the top Game Pass games. Forza Horizon 4 was on Game Pass at launch as well and it was (and still is) on the multiplatform charts. People play games on Game Pass but people also buy Game Pass games even when they're subscribed. The number of subscribers has increased 5 million in 6 months.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/gaming/xbox-game-pass...

I love Game Pass but I also like that I can buy whatever I want and not be forced into the subscription.

Banjo-

Grumblevolcano

@Magonigal Microsoft's 1st party problem wasn't a result of being in the gaming industry for a shorter time span, it was a result of Don Mattrick's leadership (a load of 1st party studios were closed in the late 360 era and early XB1 era).

Grumblevolcano

Switch Friend Code: SW-2595-6790-2897 | 3DS Friend Code: 3926-6300-7087 | Nintendo Network ID: GrumbleVolcano

Magonigal

@Grumblevolcano
Fair enough, I do know that Microsoft used to close a lot of studios. I still think that Sony had seven more years of being the number one console gaming company to build studios and Microsoft has tended to acquire them but not sure so you're probably right

Magonigal

NEStalgia

@Octane How do you build up new studios from scratch? They're doing that with some smaller indies like Double Fine and inExile they bought out. But you can't just create studios out of thin air. Most of Sony's were purchased as well. Only Nintendo stands out as the one that grew their in house teams. And Sega once did, but they rotted away. Microsoft didn't need studios ready to go by 2034. They need studios ready to go today. I know MS has a lengthy history of just buying technology they need.....but in this case, I don't really see a realistic alternative. "Just sit tight while we redo X1 and by the next xbox generation we'll definitely be able to give you some great exclusives mid-way through that gen, assuming studio building goes better than it did with 343!" isn't going to fly.

@BlueOcean Don't forget the sheer genius of GP discounts on games that are on GP, too. So if you buy a game, you're getting a little return on that. Ironically even on $70 games that just yields a bigger discount bringing prices to $63 for any game that launches on GP, even if it's $70 MSRP. That invites purchases as well.

@GrumbleVolcano yeah and people miss how important leadership is. Iwatas Nintendo....is not current Nintendo at all. they've become Sony-like money grubbers recently, though I adore their creative output and hardware. Tretton, Hirai, Layden, Shu Yoshida, House's Sony is not Ken Yoshida & Ryan's Sony.They're making the Mattrick era mistakes. Not with studios, but with policy.

NEStalgia

Dezzy

@Magonigal

That's the same one. The UK price is just a bit lower for whatever reason. Maybe difference in taxes.

It's dangerous to go alone! Stay at home.

GilbertXI

Am I the only one who would want a remastered edition of Fallout New Vegas before a possible sequel? You know, to put it in a playable state?

Edited on by GilbertXI

GilbertXI

Dezzy

@GilbertXI

They could just add it to their "enhanced" backcompat games. Fallout 3 and Oblivion were already on there.

It's dangerous to go alone! Stay at home.

Magonigal

@GilbertXI
No, I would like a remastered version as well and then a proper sequel although it's true that it's much easier to just make it back-compat. For the first time it's actually possible. Xbox is the home of western style RPGs

Edited on by Magonigal

Magonigal

GilbertXI

@Dezzy That probably wouldn't fix the literal beehive of bugs in the game, at least I wouldn't think so. Also they had to cut a lot of content because development was rushed, it would be awesome if they added some in an official remaster.

GilbertXI

GilbertXI

@NEStalgia I don't think the Bethesda acquisition was bad. They were in a pretty rough patch(fallout 76 that's why), if they asked 5 years ago the price would have been much higher. It's the attitude of some people that worries me. I see it a lot in YouTube comment sections:

"Hmmm, what's next, they should buy [insert multi-million megacorp here] to do this and that." That's...not very good. I hope to heaven that they don't buy Sega, I really don't. I'm confident that Microsoft knows their boundaries anyways and they won't really be serious about it. Not to mention Sega would turn it down, they're rolling in dollars(or Yen's, whatever) right now. An exclusive deal for some game does make sense though, they could go that route.

GilbertXI

NEStalgia

@BlueOcean the new 980 pro nvme4 1tb (same tech as ps5) is 120 at newegg. Launched yesterday. XSeX nvme3 should be cheaper, otherwise Seagate is scalping, though ms could be using an upcharge to offset console subsidy.

Edited on by NEStalgia

NEStalgia

NEStalgia

@GilbertXI yeah i think Bethesda got too big for their real capacity after Skyrim and was in over their heads. I'm not sure how 76 went as bad as it did, but it's telling when teso, zenimax actual mmo is a far better single player game and far more faithful to the source material than Bethesda game studios own fallout game, and the fallout game has far more monetization than teso, the actual mmo. You can play teso without any in game currency and no subscription unless you're a crafting maven. The only things i even bought in game currency for were dlc expansion regions and 2 small qol addons. One was a popup store you can sell loot anywhere, and i forget the other. Other than that it's a complete solo massive tes game, quests and all. 76 otoh is pay to play and impossible to solo, after Todd declared it not an mmo.......

I think they were in way too deep and the injection of capital to be a first party is mostly going to keep them from falling on their faces. Even if they're slower than 343 in a bad year...

But yeah internet fans and the "they should buy x, y, or z"is dangerous. I'm sure they were really taking to wb, but that was a studio publicly on the auction block, so that's a different scenario. Sega is a silly one. Sammy has made no mention of wanting to divest Sega, and Microsoft has no use for a casino machine company. Ms has incredibly close ties to sega, and sega is deeply ingrained in Xbox, but i don't think they're for sale to begin with. And Japan blocks big foreign buyouts apparently. (Why doesn't every country do that???)

NEStalgia

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