Microsoft's Bethesda Bid One Step Closer to Completion as European Union Approves Acquisition

For the masses and mainstream surely something big. For me, and already before this happened the most useless deal ever because there literally is not one good Bethesda game. They're pretty much the worst studio ever.

Microsoft's financial power is terrifying.

Finally bored watching people arguing over it so hopefully the remaining questions are answered soon to shut them up

Interesting we’ll hopefully find out soon how MS intend to use Bethesda’s ip’s.

Either way Bethesda titles day one on Gamepass is going to be one hell of a good deal along with all of their other first party studio output.

I just bought a Subway salad. Cost just over £5.

@velio84 Starfield man. You’re thinking of that other game

I'm so happy Deathloop is still coming to PS5. This deal doesn't really bother me personally too much, I've been disappointed in most of Bethesda's output over the last generation, but Arkane's games have been fabulous and if they are taken off PlayStation platforms in future it'll be a real loss. If there is a Dishonoured 3, and it's an xbox exclusive, then I'm going to have to have some difficult conversations with the wife...

Meanwhile Sony over here downscaling Studios and not investing anything into buying new Studios

I don't think I'm interested in any of their studios' output outside of id and Machine Games but I'm just curious to see where this goes.

I'm genuinely surprised the EU okayed this. They've spent decades going after Microsoft for being too large in many sectors. I wonder if in 10 years or so we'll this come full circle with an EU anti trust case against MS's gaming division.

@ionmagus they don’t really need to. They have enough of their own studios which are superior in talent (imo). So long as they keep investing in them and green lighting them to make AAA titles then I wouldn’t be concerned by what Microsoft are doing

@velio84 nothing to be hyped over, nothing has been shown 🤣 I don’t blame you forgetting.

@Acid_Renzi I agree. It's not like there's a shortage of Playstation Studios games and most of them are of excellent quality. Also, while they downsized Japan Studios, they've clearly been expanding their operations in USA and Europe and have great relationships with some very talented 3rd party studios (Bluepoint, Housemarque, Sumo etc)

So Microsoft will have good first party games that can be classed as a system seller? Only took 4 generations lol

Tbh for me only the elder scrolls and fallout series interest me and the past games in both series have been buggy as hell

@Acid_Renzi Sony needs more Studios asap since 3 of their few ones only make small stuff or are Support only. Then there is Polyphony Digital who only make 1 Game every Generation and San Diego who...only make Baseball Games

@OrigamiCrane Yeah only Fanboys still act like Sony doesnt need an answer to that lol

its a bit worrying, Microsoft buying Studios left and right, while sony are closing down their own Studios at a whim.

@suikoden Its a running gag by now that all the SIE Money only goes into Sony Music and Pictures lol. Sony Pictures bought Crunchyroll late last year for 1 Billion+ meanwhile SIE....

@Salt_AU If they would stay multiplatform then they could have just made a Deal where every Bethesda Game will be on GP Day1, instead of spending all that money on buying them. This was clearly a move to keep their Games from PS consoles

@OrigamiCrane but that's the point tho, which a lot of people don't realise or care, I've never needed to buy a Microsoft console until now to play fallout or elder scrolls and I feel that I would be in the same situation with Nintendo, just buying the console for exclusives which is a pain, I didn't need to buy a Xbox one in the past but I'm forced to now because of this stupid exclusive deal, that is a insult to playstation gamers 🙄🙄

Bethesda not withstanding, this trend at the moment of conglomerates buying up all these studios is extremely concerning. With even companies like Mediatonic being snapped up by Epic and codemasfers being bought by EA, change is coming.

Its only a matter of time before another big studio folds to one of the bigger publishers - who that will be is anyones guess - but the gaming landscape will look drastically different in 5 years time than it does now.

Im not sure its something to be celebrated

@OrigamiCrane Nintendo actually makes good 3rd Party Deals with their IPs tho so they can effort it to only own like 6 Studios. Their timed exclusivity Deals also only lets those Games go to PC afterwards

@jack22 and extremely irritating 🤬🤬

@OrigamiCrane It's down to personal taste. I have no interest in those huge RPGs. I like Doom and Wolfenstein a lot but I'd still take most Sony adventure games over them.
That said - depending on how it turns out in the long run, this might become a reason to get a second console one day.

@huyi Phil 'we didnt do this deal to take away games from players on other platforms' Spencer. Lets see how serious he is about those ideals once the acquisition goes through.

@IonMagus Sony have always said they like to grow their studios organically. Most of the studios are making more than one game. They seem to have quite a lot in the pipeline that I'm looking forward to. It's obviously a different approach to MS, who from the start have just bought studios (bungie and halo) to help their system. Time will tell who has the right approach. But MS haven't launched a killer title in years (in my opinion) and with Gamepass they need to keep the content coming. Will be interesting to see the quality of the games their studios are making over the next few years. And I say this as an owner of both systems.

Just a point guys. Sony dont have a magic money tree where they can miraculously conjure up the finances to employ hundreds, if not thousands of extra staff, and all the employee benefits that come with that.

They need to be strategic in how they grow their business, and they do not have the financial pull that Microsoft have. That is exactly why they do 3rd party exclusivity deals rather than buy studios outright.

Given they nearly went bankrupt only a few short years ago, they cant just go buying studios left and right because gamers tell them they 'have to respond to Microsoft'. Truth is, Sony try to flex against M$ toe to toe, they and they will lose every single time. Microsoft simply dwarfs a company like Sony in size and financial clout. Sony just need to be smart and do things differently. Its not harmed them so far.

Haha. Glad to see this. I hated how Skyrim had limited mods because of Sony being idiots with the internal assets thing.

I wouldn't hold my breath!

I still expect MS to say the same thing - that they will look at it on a Game by Game basis. Of course Deathloop & Ghostwire Tokyo deals are being 'honoured' and games like Elder Scrolls Online will continue to be supported too but I doubt you will hear anything about ES6 or maybe games like the next Wolfenstein or Doom until much later.

Because they will assess each game and decide which platforms it releases on, I really do think its a case of wait and see. MS has stated they don't 'need' to release games on Playstation but that doesn't mean they definitely won't.

You can expect the 'lead' platform to be Series X, built more to its strengths and any 'bonuses' to come to Xbox - like Early Access/timed Exclusivity etc.

Anyway, I don't expect to hear anything 'definitive' - ie that ALL games will be Exclusive or not. I don't think we will hear about Elder Scrolls 6 if its that far off for example and even if they do say Starfield is 'Exclusive', that isn't necessarily indicative of all games going forward being exclusive either. If, as MS stated, that games will be assessed individually, then Playstation gamers will have to wait to hear what MS decide for each new release.

@OrigamiCrane OK, I see what you mean. This deal is definitely huge for gamers overall and there's no denying that (unless they decide to change nothing about which platforms the games come to, which seems unlikely) - just not necessarily that big for me personally.

@OrigamiCrane That’s how the Sony fanbase is. If something isn’t in their favor or in favor of PlayStation, they hate it.

@Serialsid The only Studio that is confirmed to have more than one Game im production is SSM. Everything else is just rumours and even then, Sony still has too few Studios that are big enough to produce console sellers. MS has like 20 now lol

@huyi I don’t get your arguement? You’re ok buying a PlayStation for exclusives but don’t want to buy an Xbox for the same reason? I understand you may be disappointed elder scrolls won’t make it to PlayStation but that’s just business. Sony money hat timed exclusivity all the time and Xbox fans suffer, but you ain’t bothered if it’s the other way around.

@IonMagus. I agree with you playa.sony need to Buy bluepoint already.wtf are they taking for.word up son

@Rob_230 I mean they have the money to buy CR for 1.1 Billion so them not investing into SIE is just arrogant and dumb

@IonMagus like I said, MS need to have a constant flow of games to get people signed up to gamepass and keep them there. Let's see what the quality is like. Doesn't matter if they have 20 or a 100 studios. Like someone else said, Sony just doesn't have MS's money, they need to be careful. At the moment they are leading MS, selling more consoles and in a good position. If that changes they they'll have to adapt, time will tell.

@Rob_230 You could argue that MS bought Zenimax to stop Sony keeping games away from Xbox. Sony have secured timed Exclusivity on Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo and there was 'rumours' they had tried to secure Starfield too so in buying Zenimax, Sony now will not be able to secure anymore games - timed or otherwise - to keep them away from Xbox gamers.

MS also said they want to make games available on 'all' platforms to give gamers a 'choice' on where they play. You could read into that to mean PS and Switch too. However, that could mean that MS games release on PC, Mobiles and Xbox Consoles so you have a 'choice' - but if you want to play on 'console', the 'choice' is Xbox.

Again, the ALL could mean 'ALL' gamers, or just ALL gamers in the MS family (those on PC, Console and/or Game Pass). In the past, MS focussed on Console gamers only and now all their games release on all (MS) platforms.

@UltimateOtaku91 MS had good first party and system sellers for the first two gens.

They were idiots and shuttered or sold their studios at the end of the 360 and screwed it all up.

This Sony vs Microsoft fanboying is not helpful to the future of gaming (customer perspective). Anything that leads to one becoming far more dominant will lead to a rather...different gaming landscape... I think we know by now the effect of corporate dominance on customer choice. But if anyone wants to enjoy little fanboy victories, by all means do so lol.

Who remembers that average game WET? The only Bethesda game I ever played. Under Microsoft's direction, you can expect a lot worst incoming, till they're done for.

@Zazzle101

just wow, what awful excuse for a human being, what a waste of carbon atoms

Very excited to see if Microsoft can have a positive influence on Bethesda - something needed to happen to get Bethesda back on the right track.

@johncalmc the more cynical might suspect they are being coy while they get the takeover approved. Announcing to the EU that you are planning you lock your main rival out would've been interesting.

What is funny (besides this being xbox news) is the journalists and fanatics from Windows Central and others flipflops are now begging for the games to be xbox exclusives. 🤪

We will see.
Microsoft wants money and releasing Bethesda games on ps5 also will make them loads more than as an Xbox exclusive.
But if they do make em exclusive, me personally won't be bothered.

@Ashkorsair I think they'll make nearly all of them exclusive, makes their ecosystem a stronger brand. But they might say "look at these games that come free with gamepass day one, or you can buy them for £70 on PlayStation". They win either way. But Sony will be fine either way I'm sure. Going to be an interesting few years for gamers.

At this point im glad i am not some salty fanboy when i own all consoles so exclusives mean jack crap to me. Then again the only sony exclusive i play are Spiderman, God Of War and Horzion Zero Dawn. The rest of sonys so called great exclusives dont matter to me.

@AdamNovice UK competition laws remained unchanged following Brexit. So clearly the UK sees something about the EU’s competition laws you don’t. If this had gone through in the UK, literally nothing would be different.

@deathaxe I'm kinda hoping they lose that battle. When a publisher releases a season pass "for all DLC" it should i clude all future DLC.

Having this legal battle lost would force publishers to be more open and honest about what their season passes include. Whether that means listing exactly what they plan to release and include, or stating outright that it's just a "year 1"season pass.

This transparency would really help customers be better informed of what exactly they are buying.

@AdamNovice

would you be saying the same thing if it was sony buying them, i doubt it.

@Rob_230 couldn't agree more, the "embracer group" have acquired a vast amount of ip of the past 18 months without anyone even really knowing who they are!

@Akurusu never a truer word.

@suikoden
#ItsOkWhenSonyDoesIt just like $70 exclusives

@Grimwood Doom?

@IonMagus Sony are investing into the studio's they already have

@IonMagus.... You sound like an Xbox troll or either have shares at Sony to be this hesterically paranoid about MS buying Zenimax...

You make it like Zenimax games have been burning up the charts in the last gen.

NAME 10 Zenimax games that have sold more than 15 miliion in the past generation.

Here is the list of games that consistently top the charts(i.e. People like them a lot hence buy them in droves) and these are the games that make huge physical and online sales money in gaming:
GtA
FiFA
CoD
FORTNIGHTE
and to a certain extent Witcher

Sony 1st part games have been 10million + sellers in the past generation bar a few exceptions.

No Zenimax games have sold half of the games sold by the games mentioned above. Their games are mostly 1 million sellers and most even don't struggle to reach 1million, at most if they are good they sell 5 million with 10 million being a stretch and none of them are masterpieces or system sellers. They are good to have if they are available otherwise they really don't matter much if only available to Xbox.

e.g. It would be nice to have Deus Ex or Thief or Dishonored, but it really does not feel like a loss to not have them. By the way I have not played those game this Gen and I don't feel like I missed out on anything special. People are not playing FALLOUT 4 or Skyrim v or Thief or Dishonored on their Ps5. They are playing COD, fifa and will all soon be re-buying GT5 again on PS5 and its the same on Xbox SX.

If these games were locked to MS then we would have a serious real problem on PS.

Now if people are looking for Sony's answer to the Zenimax deal(which was before the Zenimax deal) , then that company filling the gap/hole is non other than Square Enix, sure they will still release multiplaform games but they have more exclusive work being done with Sony.

@OrigamiCrane I’ve never heard any Nintendo fan say that but I wouldn’t put it past them.

@TrueAssassin86x good use of the # sir I approve.

@DnBSkillz Well doesnt seem like they make Games faster with that tho so it doesnt compensate for the lack of Studios

@R1spam People dont really care about them since their aquisition doesnt lock off a whole Playerbase from those Games

Exclusive or not, all Bethesda games being available on game pass is HUGE. It's a good thing Microsoft is stepping up after last generation's relative failure.

@Playstation
#ItsOkWhenSonyDoesIt

If you think all Bethesda games will be available day 1 on game pass you must dreaming. They would of had to convince investors that they could recoup the money they spent and more, not to mention the production costs of each and every game they make. how would they do that if they release them all day 1 on game pass? Microsoft may be a trillion dollar company but the xbox division still has to prove it can make money, they don’t frivolously Chuck around money “just ‘cause they can”...

@IonMagus during last gen when Sony we're very strong and sold 116 million ps4s I don't remember too many people saying Sony need to buy more studios, they just have so few of them!!!! MS needed this acquisition to make their brand stronger, to make gamepass stronger. Whether they turn out system seller after system seller remains to be seen. Sony will just keep doing what they're doing and people can vote with their wallets.

After fallout 4, fallout 76, and the recent doom atrocities, whoever buys Bethesda is meaningless to me. They are such a garbage studio.

The MS strategy doesn't really affect me as I have both consoles, but it does feel like a nasty way to do things. Sony games feel like they have evolved into great franchises which most Xbox owners have no interest in because they have no history with them, while MS are finding the best IP's they can go for and buying them, and in the process taking them away from PS owners.
I love the Wolfenstein games and if they became exclusive and I only had a PS then I would a right to be angry with MS for making me have to pay for another console while I can't complain that they make Halo or Gears so much because it always been an MS product really.

@Serialsid Mostly because PS4 had something Xbox or WiiU didnt: Strong exclusive Games. Now MS bought like 10 Studios in 2 years, has Gamepass and way better backwards comp and Switch is going stronger than ever after 4 years. PS5 has nothing to stand out against those two anymore + all their Games will come to PC after Release

@Rob_230........ It is concerning and it is right now one serious profit or return on investment war.

Because the DRM and Live Service projections are not going as per the predictions of speculators in the game industry, now the content creators/game developers/studios have become hot property. Hence they being bought right, left and center like slaves during the slave trades periods.

And all for one this, not to enhance game, not expanse and advance the medium or industry. All of this is just for profiteering.

I mean EA bought a lot of high profile and critically acclaimed studios over the last 15 years, yet the only studio that gets given way more than enough resources to continuously release a game for EA is EA Canada who develop FIFA. All of those studios EA bought have been reduced to shells with most if not all closed down.

So EA has not been able to make Need For Speed a cash cow just like FIFA and have been lazy and releasing bad Needs for Speed games, and the gamers responded accordingly by not buying them and playing other racing games, so what does EA do to solve this problem, they don't innovate or revive the series, they buy the competition. Codemasters are now dead along with about 5 racing type games including a formula 1 racing game. It must be a nightmare if you are Slightly Mad Studios to make an effort to run away from EA only to be back right inside the big firm.

Cause EA will not priotize any other racing game(s) over Need For Seed, so Code masters will be bogged down with trying to make need for speed profitable and closer to being like FIFA Ultimate Team.

They have not given Criterion permission or resource to make the Burnout games, so I don't see that changing with Code masters.

It's the same with Microsoft, they took are high profile Studio in RARE who had critically acclaimed IPs. Can you even call Rare a developer this days or it just a shell company of Microsoft Xbox division.

This is what scares me about these buyouts even from Sony, for example if they do buyout say Bluepoint, do you see them allowing them to make anything except Remaster?

The company that will really shift the gaming landscape is the company that will buy Rockstar and make GTA exclusive to them.

People will buy a gaming system only for GTA.

@gregorian I’m inclined to agree with most of what you said, apart from the potential blue point acquisition. Maybe I’m an optimist but I’d like to think that with the financial backing of Sony they would allow them to give them a chance to make their own ip.
I also highly doubt anyone would buy rockstar. From rockstars perspective, what would be the point? They make money hand over fist, why limit yourself to what platform you can release your games on. I suppose you could say the lure of the big payout for the shareholders might tempt them but I can’t see it myself

@IonMagus Switch came out 4 years ago and the ps4 carried on selling extremely well, Nintendos great exclusives didn't change that. And yes MS have bought lots of studios, but what have got to show for that? They are probably years away from any big releases, and they still have to show the quality when they do! And the back compat angle means nothing to me, I didn't buy a ps5 and series x to play old games, I want new experiences. The whole back compat line is smoke and mirrors from MS because they had no new games for the systems at launch. In the next year Sony have ratchet and clank, hzd2, GOW and gt7. Plus other great looking exclusives. If you really think they don't stand up against the others then maybe your on the wrong site. And I have a feeling psvr2 could be something special that the others don't offer.

@Grimwood Absolute nonsense. Even if they’re not your cup of tea, Doom and Wolfenstein are outstanding series’. Skyrim still holds up after 10 years. Take your Monday elsewhere pal.

Oh wait how could I be so stupid, I’ve been reading the comments thinking “are these people on crack?” Then remembered it’s a PlayStation site and it’s full of people who are absolutely livid they’re having Elder Scrolls taken away from them, just a collection of “they’ll never put them all on gamepass, what about the money” yes they will, the Microsoft strategy is clearly subscriptions, the execs will have green lit the deal on that basis.

The other absolutely ridiculous trend is apparently all of a sudden nobody EVER liked Bethesda, quite extraordinary when you consider the plethora of devs under their umbrella and the diversity of titles...and people don’t like a single one! Fascinating. I wonder if they’d be saying that if Sony bought the company.

@Serialsid Well with Hellblade II, Forza 5, Project Mara, Fable, Avowed, Starfield, TES 6, Halo Infinite theyve actually already showed more than all Sony Studios. After this year its really only GoW and GT7 coming out since Bend, ND, SP, Insomiac will take a long time for new Games. And Pixelopus + MM will continue to not do anything lol

If Arkane and Tango Gameworks never make another game for PlayStation after Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, I would consider it a massive loss.

It's a big blow to people like me that only wish to game through one platform. I loved Skyrim and had an interest in Starfield but so be it, those games are no longer on my radar.

I'd like to think Sony have plans to counter this move by MS but it seems their focus is more on porting existing games to PC and then working on patches and updates.

😒

@BloodNinja

You forgot to add
"NINJA DISAPPROVED"

@IonMagus most of those games have no dates or even years. And yes I'm looking forward to playing them when they do come out. But Sony will have more games coming too I'm sure. They know they need to keep the momentum up, PlayStation is their biggest cash cow. At the end of the day none of us know what the future holds, whether this deal changes things or not. I'm sure both billion dollar companies will be fine.

@Acid_Renzi Why would I come here to brag on a corporation’s behalf? I don’t care either way who has what, I’ve got all three consoles, makes no difference to me. When I see sad actual adults talking absolute bollocks about how they feel about the Bethesda thing it’s just embarrassing, it would be completely different in this comment section if the buy out was Sony’s. You’d be shouting about how great Rage was and all sorts.

Anyone who says Bethesda isn't a good studio must be very young or just have absolutely no taste. ALL of the Elder Scrolls single player games have been huge groundbreakers on release, and have had huge portions of their mechanics copied incompetently by other studios. (Ubisoft, this means you) They have admitted they were experimenting with online multiplayer this gen, and also admitted that they really didn't know what they were doing, and have looked at it as experimental.

I will bet a big fat 'I told you so' with anyone that Starfield will once again redefine what a single player role playing game can be. Bethesda is one of the greatest studios there ever was.

@Rob_230 action speaks louder than words and I wouldn't believe a word that Mr Phil says out of his mouth 🙄🙄

@Fenbops I didn't say that, I'm a exclusive PlayStation user having all their consoles (from ps1 to ps5) but I was trying to explain the similarities between buying Nintendo consoles for exclusives and buying a Microsoft console for just Bethesda games, it's the same situation which is unpleasant

The games will still release on PC so I'll just play Bethesda's releases there.

@LordSteev I would agree that Bethesda were one of the great studios, made brilliant games that other developers could only wish for. But personally apart from Doom, their output over the last few years has been very poor. Whether they can get back to their best with MS in charge remains to be seen, I hope they do. I think we'll know when Starfield drops.

@Serialsid Like I said, they've been experimenting. On Fallout 4, a game I personally loved, but one that didn't really innovate much, they divided the team for the first time so some worked on that, others on Elder Scrolls Online. It's truly been over a decade since they've concentrated all their muscle on a single player game, and I hear that's what's happening with Starfield. Also, just to clear up a common misconception, Bethesda didn't make Doom. they just published it.

@huyi lol just buy an Xbox if you want to play an exclusive game not on the other consoles. I have all three so it doesn’t matter.

@LordSteev yes your correct on Doom, which shows that they themselves haven't made a great game in a while. I think fallout 76 showed which direction they wanted to head in but that back fired. Hopefully they do put all their talents into starfield and get back to where they were.

@Playstation this has got to be one of the most honest and intelligent comments I've seen here in a while.
Congrats on your intellectual honesty mate, even just calling yourself a fanboy shows a great deal of perspective on your part!

Btw I absolutely agree.
I never bought an XBox in my life but this gen I'm kinda tempted, even though I already have a PC so I certainly don't need one for at least a few years.
I think I'll buy a PS5 later down the line when more are available and more games are out, so that I can also play some PS4 games I've missed.

Whatever they announce next - it's gonna be a fun day on the interwebs

i do love the wolfenstein, doom and elder scrolls games so this is rather worrying for me. I can't imagine phil spencer allowing Bethesda to release the big hitters on the playstation consoles and i really don't want to shell out for another console.

@Serialsid

I'm with you on that. I read an article a few months back, and Todd H. said they learned a lesson with 76, and were going to get back to what made them great in the first place. Innovation in open world games has felt very scarce to me lately, so I'm super hopeful Bethesda can turn some heads once again. I mean really, how many years have they had to conceptualize and work on Starfield? I'd be very surprised and disappointed if it were to be a dud. I try not to get too hyped about anything, but if there's one thing that's going to get me jumping, it's new single play from Bethesda.

Isn't there a lawsuit involving Bethesda trying to block this acquisition? Something to do with Fallout DLC?

@zupertramp Not sure, but to my understanding, Bethesda went happily along with it, claiming they had worked closely with Microsoft in the past. If there is a lawsuit, I haven't heard of it. But I am by no means all-knowing.

@zupertramp

Nope, their is a lawsuit against Bethesda because of the fallout 4 season pass, but really it's seems like people jumping on the cyberpunk bandwagon, why wait all these years for lawsuit is what I want too know

@GREGORIAN
"e.g. It would be nice to have Deus Ex or Thief or Dishonored, but it really does not feel like a loss to not have them. By the way I have not played those game this Gen and I don't feel like I missed out on anything special."

Whatever floats your boat I guess. I'd rather have another Deus Ex or Dishonored than any of those live service games you listed before it.
Also, I just don't understand how people continue to be so dismissive about Zenimax game properties. True not all of their properties sell 10 + million. However, Skyrim has sold over 30 million. Fallout 3 and 4 have both sold over 10 million. Doom Eternal sold 3 million in a week. Elder Scrolls Online has 15 million subscribers. It's not nothing, but people try so hard to portray it in a negative light.

@Akimi Great points.

Since the Bethesda acquisition there has been several dozen acquisitions over the past almost year now. Idk what it is, must be something in the water.

@suikoden @LordSteev To my understanding this lawsuit goes back to 2019, claiming that the lifetime season pass was fraudulent because it didn't include later Creation Club content.

Also looking it up again, it does appear they are asking a judge to postpone the merger. Something to do with the preservation of assets, since Bethesda has a history of shifting things around to avoid paying out.

@Futureshark My disapproval was so strong I forgot LOL

FORGETFUL NINJA APPROVED

@jack22 buying things & Bethesda is the easy part making them profitable with great games is another!! they sold for a reason some studios were losing big money.

Fallout Doom & Elder pay for all the other games to be made so when they do bad it has a ripple effect on Bethesda.

@IonMagus you sound so naive 🤣🤣

Everyone over here arguing about games studio and games like that the only thing Microsoft is getting from this purchase. They now have access to some of the best game engines like id Tech, and software like ORION that can help boost xCloud.

@StonyKL I think with Microsoft behind them Bethesda won’t release so many bug filled games.

@Trajan Hell no.

The EU are full of **** :-/ Glad the UK are out of it now(& I was a supporter of us staying in it) How is this a deal good for everyone!?!? Luckily I don't like Bethesda games anyway + hopefully if Microsoft try to buy big next time someone will have the balls to stop them(the EU won't) because how can it be good for consumers if Microsoft own everything??? Hmm.

@Akurusu possibly but didn’t a halo game release in an utter mess? Not sure if I’m remembering wrong but the halo collection or something was a disaster I thought.
Btw I don’t think you meant this comment for me but just wanted to reply anyway. I don’t really believe MS buying Bethesda will stop the crazy number of bugs their games release with. It’ll likely just be the nature of their games and having a big bad boss ordering less bugs probably won’t help unless they release half the number of games and take twice as long to produce them.

@Rash WET was made by Behaviour Interactive (at the time Artificial Mind & Movement), not Bethesda or a Zenimax company.

Both Starfield and the new Elder Scrolls are years away and we haven't seen a single screenshot from either let alone any actual gameplay.

I reckon one of them at least will be a live service game but dressed up as a co-op title like the upcoming Suicide Squad and Gotham Knights.

Sony will be fine but if they could get one of their world class studios to make a proper fantasy RPG that will be great for PS owners.....and members of the PCMR.

😉

@Milktastrophe Just looked at the front and back of my PS3 copy. Says Bethesda and Zenimax. Idk

@Rash They published it, they didn't make it.

@OrigamiCrane Gamepass or it's price will have to break eventually. By being so affordable and cheap it at a point will only bring in what the biggest games bring in on their own. I promise that's not gonna be so appealing forever because what purpose does any non-big game serve is they would make that money on their own? Economically speaking, they are deadweight, those smaller games. That doesn't change that Bethesda has some great games though. A sad direction to see the industry go though. Sony built up it's studios. It's obviously cultivated them to release games like God of War, so we as gamers have gained from it. Bethesda being bought up only takes away instead of adds. Throwing money at studios for exclusives instead of building up like Sony has doesn't get us anything new or improved.
In fact, MS as publisher leaves me unconvinced after last-gen, but I'm hoping there's no negative effect on the exclusives from studios they've bought out.

What has the EU got to do with Microsoft. A. We've left the EU so it's a UK deal they are irrelevant and B. America isn't even in Europe.

@NemesisSam30 Reported this comment for presenting political fiction as fact - No EU memberstate is currently preparing a membership referendum.

Please leave political falsehoods on Facebook and in the tabloids where they belong. This is a gaming site. We talk about games.

@Shepherd_Tallon
I quickly went through the comments but they don't seem that bad. There s always a trend to push ones point of view or sort of agenda since any forum or comment section on the Internet is now used as a platform. We are all humans and a bit guilty of it. Then again I read your very balanced comment and its difficult to be similarly balanced and ignore ones biases.
Personally I'm not particularly fan of their games so I'm kinda 'meh whatever.'
Ultimately its hard to predict and we don't really know everything. As in is this a good thing for that studio survival and remaining competitive enough to develop good games and keep the business going?
I know Ms objective is to add value to gamepass subscription. That's their big vision (and includes I think their delusion of 2 billion gamers they revised a few months later as 7 billion gamers).
I do believe in the value of exclusives for the customers. You are on a platform and want the company to focus on their customers rather than use your money to make more easy money on other platforms. Exclusives focus also means higher quality standard. I believe games take many years though and most of this generation is already locked on multiplarform development for the studio.

Not sure where to put this and off topic but keep your eyes open on Amazon UK this morning.

I’m hoping that, with MS money, Bethesda can finally make games that aren’t broken bug ridden messes. I can always have fun with their games, but they’ve always lacked that final polish. If MS investment means they can reach that next level then I’m all for the takeover. Especially as I strongly suspect any exclusivity for Xbox will be timed and/or related to subscription services only (I.e. they’d release on PS and PC a couple of years down the line as full price games, but release first on Xbox and “free” on Gamepass).

@Grimwood
So you say sony must be bloody stupid to make two exclusive deals with the 'worst studio ever' /s

I'd honestly take a new Elder Scrolls, Fallout or Dishonored over most PS4 exclusives.

Microsoft will not publish the big hitters like fallout and elder scrolls only on pc and xbox for one simple reason,money.

Since we are in the Microsoft news here, I just found out I think Spencer tease about Kojima Studio was about the new browser which allows to stream Death Stranding from a PC to an xbox. That's hilarious if true, with the crazy speculations.😄