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Bethsda/Microsoft Merger

A bug free future ahead?

By Chris Wilkinson Sun 27 Sep, 2020 8:59 PM
There was exciting news announced this week courtesy of our friends at Microsoft and Bethesda/ZeniMax Media. Microsoft announced they will be buying Bethesda for a hefty 7.5 billion dollars.

Why is this important you may ask?

This represents one of the biggest deals in video game history and brings one of the worlds biggest publishers into the Microsoft Game Studios family. It also means a great deal for players as well, as it’s hard to find a gamer who hasn’t heard of, or played, a game from the Fallout or Elder Scrolls series amongst the rest of their IP’s such as Prey, Dishonoured or Wolfenstein. This deal will give Microsoft the ability to add these fine games to it's Game Pass offering it to players on a more permanent basis rather than the temporary basis that some games end up with.

This purchase will also increase the number of Studio Teams under the Microsoft umbrella from 15 to 23. This is an interesting fact to note as while these teams are based within Microsoft’s subsidiary’s, it means the experiences gained from each can be used to enhance the other’s games. Plus, we could also see other studios working on the main Bethesda franchises (Please let Obsidian make another West Coast fallout game, just saying).

The history between Microsoft and Bethesda is not a new one, as in recent years the Xbox was one of the first launch platforms to allow mods within Fallout 4 on Xbox One. This was a major turning point for the game as it reduced the gap slightly between the PC and console versions offering the console players the freedom to add more to their experience, just as their friends on PC.

It would not be just this shared developer experience, but consider back when they were developing Morrowind for the Xbox. Bethesda had to find a way to be able to cope with the size of the game on Microsoft's older console, and for this, the Microsoft team showed them how to restart the console, while keeping the game running so the user wouldn’tPete%20Hines3
Bethesda SVP, Global Marketing
and Communications Pete Hines
be aware. This new technique allowed them to be able to clear out the memory on the console to keep the game running; although to the player, it just felt like a long load sequence.

Both companies share some of the same principles as communicated with us by SVP, Global Marketing and Communications Pete Hines when they made THIS announcement about the merger on the Bethesda website.

Overall, none of us know what the future will hold for both Microsoft, Bethesda and us as players. Will we still see the stellar releases of games similar to Fallout 4? Will we keep getting new IP’s being developed which intrigue us like Prey and Starfield? I certainly hope so, as these are the things that make it enjoyable to watch what Bethesda and Zenimax do, especially as there are very few companies with as much experience in wide, open world RPG games as they have.

All I would ask, is please ensure we are continuing to be entertained by some of the strange quirks we see from Bethesda games. They always give us a laugh and can be as enjoyable as the unbuggy experience.

After all, is it really a Bethesda game if there is not at least one game breaking bug?

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

WRITTEN BY Chris Wilkinson
EDITED BY Silek
11 Comments
Mon 28 Sep, 2020 2:52 AM
Excellent Article, Can only Hope things get better, but we can only wait and see, though I wouldn't mind another fallout game made by Obsidian or one made by Inxile.
Tue 29 Sep, 2020 8:33 AM
Ohhh Todd you did it again you little scamp
Tue 29 Sep, 2020 12:34 PM
I heard that as recently as a few months ago Sony was trying to secure Starfield as an exclusive (don't know if it was full or timed) so I imagine they've been caught off guard just as much as the rest of the industry.
Tue 29 Sep, 2020 4:46 PM
Yeah hopefully we won't see exclusives or timed ones in Bethesdas library now this deal has gone down
Tue 29 Sep, 2020 8:34 PM
Thanks for posting this. I'm not sure how I feel about it honestly. I guess it depends on what MS will do with it if anything. It sounds like they won't touch it at least for now, but we'll see. Maybe they'll be able to help along development for future TES installments or something.

Btw, you might want to fix the title. Bethesda is missing its second e. Wink
Wed 30 Sep, 2020 12:16 AM
my biggest fear about this merger is that it may kill the modding scene, Skyrim's longevity is more or less due to the modding scene some of the things modders have done over the last 8 years have been mind blowing it would be a bitter blow to lose that ability in future Bethesda titles
Wed 30 Sep, 2020 3:45 PM
XBox has always seemed to support the mods more than most, and I can't imagine they would do anything to pull back on them on PC. Fingers crossed.
Wed 30 Sep, 2020 5:12 PM
I can only hope for better quality control under microsoft, after yesterdays kerfuffle with the new atom shop power armor skin missing its butt plate on fo76, I can only hope Bethesda either does better testing or just limit the number of atom shop only items and make them available as quest or achievement rewards instead.
Fri 02 Oct, 2020 12:49 AM
I have high hopes for the results of this merger. To this day my favourite game of all time is Morrowind on XBox, although, I never knew about the little trick they did, that does explain some epic loading screen waits now.

Well written article, Kudos!
Sat 10 Oct, 2020 2:15 AM
Good news
Sat 10 Oct, 2020 8:02 AM
Enjoyed the article. I look forward to seeing what becomes of Bethesda's lineup and imagine there will be some great improvements made as they become a part of Microsoft's gaming division.