Microsoft buys Bethesda

[Y-llian]

You're right, I didn't catch that MS is independently producing the next Fable game. But it looks like Lionhead imploded and had little to do with MS. If anything it appears the consensus around Lionhead was they felt like MS purchasing them benefited them greatly and Lionhead actually expanded their operations after the purchase. They had some staff walkouts in 2012 and their director or CEO or whoever he was seemed like a bit of a nut case and ended up leaving too after he snapped at his staff. That was pretty much the beginning of the end for them at that point.

These things are always complicated and rarely the fault of one person. But in the end, MS owned the studio and they could've chosen to resolve the issues rather than just close the studio.

[pjknibbs]

These things are always complicated and rarely the fault of one person. But in the end, MS owned the studio and they could've chosen to resolve the issues rather than just close the studio.

There comes a point where the money it would take to "resolve the issues" becomes not worth the effort. If Microsoft hadn't bought Lionhead in 2006 then the developer would have gone to the wall back then, so you ought to be grateful that they gave the company an extra 10 years of life, not criticising them for closing it down.

[Vertigo 7]

Here's something else to consider. Not too long ago, MS bought Minecraft... just 1 game, for 2.5 billion. Seems like all of the IP they gain with buying Zenimax is a bit more frugal even if you just stick to the AAA titles like TES, Fallout, and Doom with 2 other potentially big new titles dropping soon.

[Cpt.Jericho]

There goes my hope for Skyrim and FO4 ever to appear on GoG.
I bet any new Beth games will be MS-Store exclusive titles. Well, that's what the internet calls a free market these days.

[felter]

Personally I don't think Microsoft will make a lot of those future games xbox/pc exclusives, they may be timed exclusives but I do think they will release a lot of them on multi platforms. Also Microsoft may have bought Zenimax but the deal does not go through until June 31st 2021, so they have limited say on what happens till then.

Also Minecraft is the perfect example on how they will probably treat the deal, as they have basically left Mojang to get on with it and minecraft is also a multi platform game, they have never tried to make it exclusive, too much money to be made and they have $7.5 billion to make for this deal to work.

[Mightysword]

I'm not saying there isn't one, but I can't really think about a game that was published by Microsoft that was bad from top of my head. They all have decent qualities and never feel rushed, and they don't have the reputation of gutting franchise. If there is one thing I have to complain about them is they just seem to get ... bored with certain franchise after a while? The "Age of ___" series were big, up there with Starcraft, even even these day Age of Empire II is still a popular classic, but MS never invested in it the same way Blizz did with Starcraft. The mech-commander and mech-warrior franchise had their golden age under Microsoft, all the more modern games of those two franchise PALE in comparision. It's just that despite the success MS never seem to stick with a franchise for long. Halo is probably the first and only one, but it's the flagship for Xbox.

[Vertigo 7]

Personally I don't think Microsoft will make a lot of those future games xbox/pc exclusives, they may be timed exclusives but I do think they will release a lot of them on multi platforms. Also Microsoft may have bought Zenimax but the deal does not go through until June 31st 2021, so they have limited say on what happens till then.

Also Minecraft is the perfect example on how they will probably treat the deal, as they have basically left Mojang to get on with it and minecraft is also a multi platform game, they have never tried to make it exclusive, too much money to be made and they have $7.5 billion to make for this deal to work.

Their head of Xbox said exclusives would be a case by case basis. But with their whole X cloud gaming thing they're kicking off, eventually having a console or a PC may be moot as their ultimate goal is to have "play on demand" games streamed over the web. It's slated to be similar to Sony's stab at their PS Now service but a whole lot more inclusive with every title they can license going back to Gen 1 Xbox. They're even planning on smart TV and media streaming device apps to accomplish this.

They just kicked off the service to allow you to stream directly from your console to Android devices. All that you need is a Bluetooth controller paired to your device (which the Xbox One controllers released with the Xbox One S and on are) but it doesn't have to specifically be an Xbox controller. You could already stream from your console over your network to any Windows PC/laptop and that actually worked really well.

It's little known, but you can also stream in reverse from your PC to an XBox via casting and use the Xbox controller to play games or directly interact with the PC desktop. However, you have to have a supported WiFi NIC in your PC for this to work. I think most built within the last year or two should be supported but any old N or AC certified NIC may not fit the bill.