Microsoft to Acquire Zenimax Media, Bethesda Softworks, and Studios/IPs

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Microsoft to Buy Bethesda for $7.5 Billion to Boost Xbox

Holy. Shit.

Quake. Doom. Dishonored. Wolfenstein. The Elder Scrolls. Fallout. Prey. The Evil Within. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Welp, I guess I'm never gonna let that Game Pass subscription lapse now.

Edited September 21, 2020 by DoctorEncore

[ZeldaFreak | 3,740]

Damn, that is definitely some big news. As long as the DOOM games retain their current quality, I'm perfectly OK with this.

[fox | 1,772]

Most of those series are in decline

Won't be long before Bethesda will be making Avatars and Kinect games

[Sumez | 3,165]

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

5 hours ago, fox said:

Most of those series are in decline

Won't be long before Bethesda will be making Avatars and Kinect games

Even if they never make another great game, just the addition of their back catalog gives Game Pass some serious heft. This is kind of like how Disney bought 20th Century Fox Television to bolster Disney+. It's a great strategy to fend off potential competitors (Stadia, PS Now).

[Reed Rothchild | 9,963]

7 hours ago, fox said:

Most of those series are in decline

Won't be long before Bethesda will be making Avatars and Kinect games

I'm sensing Fox is a "Sony guy" 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

2 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

This is kind of like how Disney bought 20th Century Fox Television to bolster Disney+. It's a great strategy to fend off potential competitors (Stadia, PS Now).

As part of the comparison with Disney acquisitions... Microsoft is paying $3B more for ZeniMax than what Disney paid for Lucasfilm.  Let that sink in   (granted, Microsoft has a history of paying big for studios, since they bought Minecraft for something like $2B)

[Code Monkey | 2,145]

Maybe Microsoft can get Panic Button to finally complete their port of a game that came out a year and a half ago.

[Aguy | 784]

2 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

As part of the comparison with Disney acquisitions... Microsoft is paying $3B more for ZeniMax than what Disney paid for Lucasfilm.  Let that sink in   (granted, Microsoft has a history of paying big for studios, since they bought Minecraft for something like $2B)

And since they bought Mojang, Minecraft has sold an additional 150 million copies, and had 126 million monthly players as of May 2020. Microsoft has a long LONG history of acquiring companies, and I think most of the purchases by their Xbox division have been very astute, especially in the long term.

While everyone agrees that buying the money printing machine that is Star Wars was a no-brainer, and Disney recouped their money after a few years, that doesn't mean they know what to do with it going forward. Their 3 mainline films have earn progressively less (TFA $2B, TLJ $1.3B, Ross $1B). So here's hoping Microsoft can get Bethesda to build a new proper engine for Fallout and ES.

 

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21262045/minecraft-sales-monthly-players-statistics-youtube/

Edited September 22, 2020 by Aguy

[erac | 80]

There was a leak about Disney, that they realized "get woke, go broke" had happened to them, and Star Wars is about to get a U-turn. Lucas being brought back even. Could be fake, though I'd love to see it happen.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

41 minutes ago, Aguy said:

And since they bought Mojang, Minecraft has sold an additional 150 million copies, and had 126 million monthly players. Microsoft has a long LONG history of acquiring companies, and I think most of the purchases by their Xbox division have been very astute, especially in the long term.

While everyone agrees that buying the money printing machine that is Star Wars was a no-brainer, and Disney recouped their money after a few years, that doesn't mean they know what to do with it going forward. Their 3 mainline films have earn progressively less (TFA $2B, TLJ $1.3B, Ross $1B). So here's hoping Microsoft can get Bethesda to build a new proper engine for Fallout and ES.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21262045/minecraft-sales-monthly-players-statistics-youtube/

Just pointing out that Microsoft has a history of paying a lot more than the market expects for some of these acquisitions, because they have deep pockets and can easily afford it.

Presumably their play with Zenimax is boosting exclusive content on Gamepass, since none of the franchises that company owns come anywhere close to the numbers that article quotes for Minecraft. (Skyrim has sold a full order of magnitude fewer copies than Minecraft, apparently, and most of the other Zenimax-owned games are a full order of magnitude fewer than that).

 

I think it is cool that Fallout is getting reunited with Obsidian.

And I certainly hope that Microsoft takes some of these properties in a better creative direction than they've had in the last couple of generations of games.

Will be interesting to see what their break-even horizon is on that size of acquisition.

Edited September 22, 2020 by arch_8ngel

[Aguy | 784]

2 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

I'm not saying they haven't made their money back on Mojang, just pointing out that Microsoft has a history of paying a lot more than the market expects for some of these acquisitions, because they have deep pockets and can easily afford it.

Presumably their play with Zenimax is boosting exclusive content on Gamepass, since none of the franchises that company owns come anywhere close to the numbers that article quotes for Minecraft. (Skyrim has sold a full order of magnitude fewer copies than Minecraft, apparently, and most of the other Zenimax-owned games are a full order of magnitude fewer than that).

 

I think it is cool that Fallout is getting reunited with Obsidian.

And I certainly hope that Microsoft takes some of these properties in a better creative direction than they've had in the last couple of generations of games.

But that doesn't diminish the purchase being a pretty eye-popping number compared to other major acquisitions out there. (and I definitely agree with your point that Disney did not make the best decisions they could have made regarding Star Wars)

True. Because this whole purchase was never leaked and seems out of the blue, I think Zenimax wasn't looking to sell but MS came at them with such a big number (which they have the money to do), it was probably hard to say no. And now that Netflix has seen success with The Witcher, maybe MS can license out ES (and maybe Fallout) for a proper film/tv adaptation. There are plenty of different ways to make money off IPs.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,043]

Minecraft is as strong as ever. Dungeons was a huge hit. I'm still impressed with how good of a Diablo 2 clone it is. And the demographic playing it has no idea what D2 even is. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

47 minutes ago, Aguy said:

And now that Netflix has seen success with The Witcher, maybe MS can license out ES (and maybe Fallout) for a proper film/tv adaptation. There are plenty of different ways to make money off IPs.

TV licensing is a drop in the bucket on an $7B+ acquisition, even if they successfully licensed every IP that Zenimax owns

Don't get me wrong -- I would love to see a well made show or movie using ES or Fallout.  But evidently even the most successful TV shows are "worth" around $3MM per episode, and that is presumably total value, where the licensing is likely a very small slice of the pie.

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by arch_8ngel

[Tekdrudge | 126]

As a Playstation guy, I died a little inside when I read this news. The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series are in my top five favorite game franchises of all time. It was nice playing those games, I sure will miss the sequels.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

4 hours ago, Tekdrudge said:

As a Playstation guy, I died a little inside when I read this news. The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series are in my top five favorite game franchises of all time. It was nice playing those games, I sure will miss the sequels.

Of all the games in the acquisition, those are definitely the most likely to still come to Playstation, so there's at least a glimmer of hope. I wouldn't hold my breath, but if that does happen, I assume it would be after a year of exclusivity or something like that. On the flip side, if you game on a PC, you should be able to pick them up there and never have to worry about buying an Xbox.

[Estil | 1,292]

Will you guys think I'm an idiot if I told you when I saw the title, I was like "who are these guys/places"?  As well as me not figuring MS was even looking for any kinds of acquisitions lately.  *shrugs* I guess I just figured they had long since bought out everyone they thought was worth buying out.