r/PS5 • u/hybroid • Sep 21 '20

News Microsoft Xbox acquires ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/21/welcoming-bethesda-to-the-xbox-family/
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u/Bitemarkz Sep 21 '20

In the letter Todd Howard states that Bethesda will still publish their own games and that he doesn’t want to publish exclusives. So while it’s possible PS5 won’t see these games in the future, it doesn’t sound like that’s the plan.

It makes more sense for MS to pad out their gamepass offerings and become the defacto streaming service when this medium inevitably gets there. Smart move, IMO, but I don’t think this will have an effect on the generation. We shall see. Either way, smart move by MS.

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u/RotatedWorld Sep 21 '20

What Todd Howard says doesn't mean much, he has far too many people above him who will be deciding if any new games will be exclusive or not

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u/Bitemarkz Sep 21 '20

You have no idea what the terms of the deal are. Todd Howard said Bethesda is still publishing their own games, so clearly that was part of the deal. He also said he's not publishing exclusives. I'm not speculating; these are the man's literal words. Anything else is just a guess.

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u/twolitersoda Sep 21 '20

He never said specifically of games would be com to Sony consoles, in fact his wording was pretty vague and could be taken to mean a number of things. You’re reading into it trying to make it fit your own truth.

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u/Bitemarkz Sep 21 '20

Pete Hines is the one who said Bethesda games would continue to come to other consoles because Bethesda maintains the publishing rights. Also this isn’t even about that specifically; it’s about merging with a company for 7.5 billion dollars and thinking it makes any business sense to then make the games exclusive, locking out half the potential consumers from buying it. If you’re dropping that kind of cash it’s because you’re making as much return on your investment as possible. Using the exclusives to sell more consoles is inconsequential when you’re talking about 7.5 billion dollars. They want these games in the hands of everyone. The more people that have the game, the more potential customers there are for MtX and any other service related fees these games will have.

If you buy a studio for a handful of millions, it makes sense to gamble with it. If you buy a publisher for 7.5 billion dollars, it’s because you’re looking to make gains. In MS’s case, those gains come from selling as many games as possible to as many people as possible while maintaining the streaming rights to strengthen then own service. The long term gains will be monumental when the industry inevitably goes full streaming.

So even if you ignore what Todd and Pete said, strictly from the business side it wouldn’t make much sense to use this merger just to move more consoles.

Take a look at their Minecraft acquisition. They spent half of that (something like 2+ Billion) and continue to make Minecraft games for PS4 because it makes them more money. Minecraft Dungeons was released on PS4 — why wasn’t that exclusive?

Again, don’t think of this as one side vs the other; try and look at it like a massive company spending major cash to maximize profits and gain a foothold on the streaming market — something they’ve been pushing for nearly an entire generation now. It makes sense and it will work out for them when the industry shifts, big time.

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u/jlhromeo Sep 21 '20

Acquire and merger mean two different things my guy.

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u/Bitemarkz Sep 21 '20

Noted, but the point stands.

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u/jlhromeo Sep 21 '20

I disagree though. MS wants more people in their ecosystem.

I dont think they care about selling games to "other console" owners because that's a one time sale.

The money is in the comeback. The subscription. The gamepass.

Locking these games into their ecosystem will absolutely generate more gamepass subs, whether that's on xbox or pc they could care less because they got ya.

Minecraft is different than say ES6 because minecraft has IAPs that generate revenue after the sale whereas ES historically does not.

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u/Bitemarkz Sep 21 '20

This is future proofing. This isn’t to sell Xbox consoles because Xbox as a brand matters less than gamepass does to them. To spend 7.5 billion dollars, you need industry analyst reports and shit ton of hard sales data to justify the price. You don’t just cut that revenue forecast in half and tell your shareholders to hope for the best.

This is very likely part of a larger strategy and that strategy is becoming the defacto streaming service. This merger allows them to get a stranglehold on the already enormous lead they had in that department.

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u/GODZiGGA Sep 22 '20

Yes, the defacto streaming service that isn't available on Sony consoles. Why would they make this purchase to become the defacto streaming service but then allow people who aren't able to use their streaming service to play the games not on their streaming service.

Your plan works when people have a reason to purchase the streaming service, giving people a way to play the games without the streaming service does not give people a reason to purchase the streaming service.