Microsoft buys Zenimax/Bethesda for $7.5 Billion

[Syt]

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1308028385877204993

BREAKING: Microsoft is planning to buy Zenimax/Bethesda, an industry-shaking acquisition that will give Xbox ownership of Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and more. Story hitting Bloomberg shortly

Microsoft is paying $7.5 billion for Zenimax/Bethesda

[Grey Fox]

Money Money Cash Cash Money.

Good move by Microsoft, plays the same game than Sony while also limiting Stadia games.

[Iormlund]

Fallout and Obsidian are again under the same roof then ...

[celedhring]

Fallout and Obsidian are again under the same roof then ...

That was my first thought too... Is it realistic to expect them to work in Fallout again?

[Syt]

Dunno, MS seems overall pretty hands off. So if Zenithesda says they son't want Obsidian to work on their properties, then MS probably won't force them; and the Toddster doesn't appear to be a big fan of FO:NV.

[The Minsky Moment]

7.5 billion is a nice chunk of change; that comes after the Unity Software IPO with the company now valued at $18.8 billion despite negative earnings.  Very frothy valuations in gaming now.

[Syt]

MS seem to want to bolster their portfolio of companies for their game pass to become the premier games subscription service? That seems a better bet (and less antagonizing to the vocal minority) than Epic's way of buying exclusives. MS still throws their games on Steam which ensures goodwill, but with more and more games available on the their subscriptions, players will start wondering whether they should buy a new game or just sub to their service.

Remains the question if this can be profitable in the long run, and I suppose that depends on
- pricing
- post-release monetization (where Blizzard/Activision and especially EA are currently kings)

[viper37]

MS seem to want to bolster their portfolio of companies for their game pass to become the premier games subscription service? That seems a better bet (and less antagonizing to the vocal minority) than Epic's way of buying exclusives. MS still throws their games on Steam which ensures goodwill, but with more and more games available on the their subscriptions, players will start wondering whether they should buy a new game or just sub to their service.

Took them a little while to throw their games on Steam, though. For a while, it was only MS-Store.  I think they relented with Age of Empires HD after one year, realizing there weren't that many sales done on their store.

Remains the question if this can be profitable in the long run, and I suppose that depends on
- pricing
- post-release monetization (where Blizzard/Activision and especially EA are currently kings)

a) Pricing, all games are priced similarly at release.  What changes it how quickly and how often they go on a discount
b) MS does not seem to be that big with monetization so far, since gaming is not their core business (Office 365 and Azure are cash cows).  But maybe it was simply for the type of games they developed.  It's possible Age of Empires players are unwilling to pay 5$ for a new unit that varies only in colour from what was included in the game but Doom fans may be willing to for a new gun's skin.

In the long run, I think it will pay out, bolstering their own gaming-as-a-service platform with different titles, cutting the floor from under Google, etc.

[celedhring]

I'm skeptical that the gamepass will work financially. content-as-a-service barely works for music (and if you ask artists, it doesn't work for them), and it has lower costs and a much larger potential customer base than videogames. I guess MS can take the hit, I presume this is another attempt to create an ecosystem for themselves after failing repeteadly.

EDIT: I presume Netflix is a better comparison. They spent 12B in content last year and made out with 1.9B in net income on 20B revenue, but have 200 million subscribers. At the same time every year they are taking on more and more long term debt, though (currently at 15B).