Speaking of Microsoft, are there people in here not even considering getting like the entry level console at the very least? The Series S was a lock for me later on down the road. Zenimax acquisition just made it clear that the series X is the way to go+gamepass.
I mean, even if you're a Sony loyalist, are you really going to ignore so many important games? And the possibility to maybe spare money buying third party and just play through gamepass. God knows I've regretted some purchases over the years.
I want to know what other people who've had ps consoles almost exclusively (well, I have a 3ds and a switch) think about this. I was always able to ignore Microsoft, but not anymore.
Two questions: 1) Why would I buy the Series S if I'm going to invest in an Xbox at all? I'd rather get the Series X, thus getting the best version of the new generation console over a "stop gap" budget console. If I'm in, I'm going all in.
2) What if I'm not personally invested in Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Dishonored or Wolfenstein, or any of the Bethesda published IPs?
You'd think at this point gamers would understand that people's taste in games vary. Not everyone is into the same things, or the same genres. It's not a matter of the quality of those games, simply personal preference. For example, I'm not a Call of Duty fan, and I'm also not a huge fan of MP games like Overwatch or Fortnite. Doesn't mean that those games are bad, they just aren't for me.
I think Elder Scrolls and Fallout are cool games, but they aren't really sitting atop my personal list of "Best games ever." For some gamers, they are. And for those gamers, I imagine getting an Xbox Series X for those titles has become mandatory. For me, personally, I can live without them. Doesn't mean I'm not going to get an Xbox Series X at some point, just that those games aren't the reasons why I would (unless, somehow, they turn out so amazing that I might rethink giving those franchises another shot). I never got into Doom and Wolfenstein, and at most, I've only sunk a few dozen hours into each Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. I just always lost interest in them after a while, and never came back to them. It's not that the games weren't cool, just that I wasn't as absorbed into the world as others.
Not all gamers view every IP in the same way. I love Final Fantasy and Uncharted, and God of War, and Silent Hill, but some other gamer may have no interest in those IPs whatsoever, so even if, say, Final Fantasy became Sony exclusive, it wouldn't really budge the needle for them, even if they owned a PlayStation console.
Gran Turismo is one of the most popular racing IPs in the world, yet I have 0 interest in Gran Turismo. It's just not my thing. Sports games sell in the millions, but I've never purchased a sports game in my life, because I'm not interested in that genre. Looking at the sales of games like Wolfenstein, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls, it's clear to me that not every PlayStation or Xbox gamer has equal fascination with those IPs. If it was the case that every gamer loved the exact same games, well, every game would be selling 100 million+ units lifetime.
It's part of why all the doom and gloom seems so overblown.
The tl;dr is that gamers aren't a monolith. For some gamers, this acquisition will be problematic, because they will have to invest in another ecosystem to get access to those games from Zenimax that interest them. For other gamers, it doesn't matter, because those titles going to MS mean nothing to them and their specific gamer tastes. And for others still, it won't matter, because they are planning on owning both the PS5 and Xbox Series X anyway (or have a gaming PC), and will have the choice of playing whatever games interest them that release on those platforms.
