christocolus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,934
Bethesda just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about videogame culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in office software where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw gamers over, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the gaming public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Bethesda games for either system, nor will they purchase any of Bethesda's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Bethesda has alienated an entire market with this move.

Bethesda , publicly apologize and cancel the Microsoft acquisition or you can kiss your business goodbye.
lol
 

Philippo

Developer
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
7,963
Bethesda just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about videogame culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in office software where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw gamers over, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the gaming public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Bethesda games for either system, nor will they purchase any of Bethesda's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Bethesda has alienated an entire market with this move.

Bethesda , publicly apologize and cancel the Microsoft acquisition or you can kiss your business goodbye.

Never gets old.
 

aevanhoe

Slayer of the Eternal Voidslurper
Member
Aug 28, 2018
7,397
This is why MS have ALREADY generated enough studio capacity to, if timed properly, release a 1st party game almost every 4-6 weeks (with each game having 3+ years dev time).

I hope they let developers take their time to make great games and not push them to have a new one every month. I'm excited at the potential, but I hope they don't rush stuff.
 
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Kiru

Member
Oct 25, 2017
845
Is that a copypasta?
Original is like 12 years old. It's from FF XIII releasing on Xbox 360:
www.resetera.com

10 years ago today, Square shot themselves in the foot

10 years ago today, one of the most famous posts of all time was made by Muppet345 I've seen so many versions of this post reworked for most major news stories over the last decade, and it always makes me smile So, do we have any Japanese culture experts here? How did Squares shot to the foot...
 

Adrifi

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Jan 5, 2019
3,466
the Spanish Basque Country
Original is like 12 years old. It's from FF XIII releasing on Xbox 360:
www.resetera.com

10 years ago today, Square shot themselves in the foot

10 years ago today, one of the most famous posts of all time was made by Muppet345 I've seen so many versions of this post reworked for most major news stories over the last decade, and it always makes me smile So, do we have any Japanese culture experts here? How did Squares shot to the foot...
Oh thanks will read it
 
Jul 17, 2018
1,631
Bethesda just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about videogame culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in office software where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw gamers over, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the gaming public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Bethesda games for either system, nor will they purchase any of Bethesda's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Bethesda has alienated an entire market with this move.

Bethesda , publicly apologize and cancel the Microsoft acquisition or you can kiss your business goodbye.
lol....
 

a.wd

Member
Oct 26, 2017
564
UK
Bethesda just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about videogame culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in office software where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw gamers over, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the gaming public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Bethesda games for either system, nor will they purchase any of Bethesda's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Bethesda has alienated an entire market with this move.

Bethesda , publicly apologize and cancel the Microsoft acquisition or you can kiss your business goodbye.

Classic
 

Shirkelton

Member
Aug 20, 2020
6,188
My favourite thing about that is that if you back and find the original post from like, a decade or two ago about three posts down from that guy there's someone speculating about wether Final Fantasy 7 Remake is coming this year or next.
 

Golding

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,855
Bethesda just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about videogame culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in office software where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw gamers over, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the gaming public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Bethesda games for either system, nor will they purchase any of Bethesda's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Bethesda has alienated an entire market with this move.

Bethesda , publicly apologize and cancel the Microsoft acquisition or you can kiss your business goodbye.
8FxEa.gif
 

SofNascimento

cursed
Member
Oct 28, 2017
21,625
São Paulo - Brazil
Bethesda just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about videogame culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in office software where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw gamers over, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the gaming public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase Bethesda games for either system, nor will they purchase any of Bethesda's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Bethesda has alienated an entire market with this move.

Bethesda , publicly apologize and cancel the Microsoft acquisition or you can kiss your business goodbye.

Compared to the FULL PRICE IS ART this one was barely ok. 4/10.
 

Scottoest

Member
Feb 4, 2020
11,439
Aww man, I was really hoping that post was legit, lol.

The "(I'm an expert)" is what elevates it to greatness.
 

Marano

Member
Mar 30, 2018
4,893
Rio de Janeiro
Is it now time for Apple to buy Microsoft...?

Of course it would and could never happen but it's fun (or scary) to think about
Would obviously never happen as you say, but if that were to happen, it wouldnt be an acquisition by either side, it would be a merger, both are top companies, with really high share prices and huge valuation, an acquisition just wouldnt be possible, it would have to be a merger...
 

Marano

Member
Mar 30, 2018
4,893
Rio de Janeiro
Lol MS just started a game, I don't think they are going to like. If Sony starts acquiring Capcom/Sega/etc., this is going to get ugly real quick.
Yeah in terms of acquisitions sure, but the last thing sony wants is to get into an arms race, spending war with MS, and potentially Google, Amazon and Apple, Tencent outbid them for Leyou, let alone MS, Google, Amazon and Apple...
 
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arsene_P5

Prophet of Regret
Member
Apr 17, 2020
15,438
Lol MS just started a game, I don't think they are going to like. If Sony starts acquiring Capcom/Sega/etc., this is going to get ugly real quick.
Sony, MS and other companies were already looking at different developers to purchase. Thus the purchase of Bethesda didn't start anything.

Capcom has a market cap of 6,2 billion and Sega 2,84 billion. And they aren't private companies like Bethesda, which makes a accusation more difficult. Even if Sony would be able to move for them, then they would need to invest at least 1/3 of their money in the piggy bank. Or to put it differently neither Microsoft, Apple or Google need to be afraid of a bidding war with Sony.
 

vivftp

Member
Oct 29, 2017
19,923
Yeah in terms of acquisitions sure, but the last thing sony wants is to get into an arms, spending war with MS, and potentially Google, Amazon and Apple, Tencent outbid them for Leyou, let alone MS, Google, Amazon and Apple...

I'm speculating Leyou may have less to do with a bidding war and more to do with Tencent throwing its weight around because they have a lot of pull in that particular region of the world.
 

gremlinz1982

Member
Aug 11, 2018
5,332
Yeah in terms of acquisitions sure, but the last thing sony wants is to get into an arms, spending war with MS, and potentially Google, Amazon and Apple, Tencent outbid them for Leyou, let alone MS, Google, Amazon and Apple...
Mergers and acquisitions have been part of gaming since before Microsoft got into consoles.

Both Sony and Microsoft were looking to expand through acquisition. The only reason Zenimax buyout is significant is the IP, tech and amount of development teams brought in.
 

Marano

Member
Mar 30, 2018
4,893
Rio de Janeiro
I'm speculating Leyou may have less to do with a bidding war and more to do with Tencent throwing its weight around because they have a lot of pull in that particular region of the world.
True its probably easier for them being chinese.

I would also want to add that sony corp (not just playstation), losing out on leyou, or MS getting zenimax, doesnt change their plans regarding expanding their online games and gaas with long term monetization one bit, theyve made that commitment to their shareholders publicily, plans towards that wouldve started before that, leyou was an option but I dont think it was the only one, they will work towards that goal one way or another, we might see that next year and in 2022.
 
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Lom1lo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,454
People really think that Sony is poor and have no chance to acquire big publishers? Is there any logic or just a wishful thinking? And i am asking seriously.
Wishful thinking. Sony could of course aquire a big publisher if they think it's worth the price asked. Obviously they don't have not the funds of ms, but they are far from poor.
 

Mifec

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,826
People really think that Sony is poor and have no chance to acquire big publishers? Is there any logic or just a wishful thinking? And i am asking seriously.
Sony has the capital to acquire a big publisher, they have the capital to acquire publishers more expensive than Zenimax, that said no one at Sony is gonna ok a 10b purchase for something like S-E.
 

nekkid

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
21,823
People really think that Sony is poor and have no chance to acquire big publishers? Is there any logic or just a wishful thinking? And i am asking seriously.
Poor? No. Cash rich enough to comfortably buy a publisher? Probably not.

It would have been tough before Bethesda, but this deal will shift the market significantly. This will look like a cheap buy in a year or two.
 

Marano

Member
Mar 30, 2018
4,893
Rio de Janeiro
People really think that Sony is poor and have no chance to acquire big publishers? Is there any logic or just a wishful thinking? And i am asking seriously.
I saw people ITT saying sony could acquire take 2 and activision/blizzard, those are not realistic at all, I doubt EA and ubisoft would be possible either, then there are the japanese pubs, but we all know the likelihood of those happenig...

Sure they could go for someone like devolver, but why would they? Mostly an indie publisher with no big IP, it would be cheaper but wouldnt be the same as zenimax obviously.
 

gremlinz1982

Member
Aug 11, 2018
5,332
Also the price few could match and the fact they can still spend more.
Absolutely. Content war was always coming with internet infrastructure getting better.

What surprises me is that today people behave as if mergers and acquisition are strange. I mean, Sony got into gaming and acquired a publisher, yet today some see it as taboo.
 

Marano

Member
Mar 30, 2018
4,893
Rio de Janeiro
Poor? No. Cash rich enough to comfortably buy a publisher? Probably not.

It would have been tough before Bethesda, but this deal will shift the market significantly. This will look like a cheap buy in a year or two.
I mean just look at the ips, tech, engines, dev teams, locations youre expanding to, 7.5 billion gets you, you cant hope to get anything of simmilar value for that price, especially since private companies are cheaper, it will look really cheap really soon yeah.
 

vivftp

Member
Oct 29, 2017
19,923
True its probably easier for them being chinese.

I would also want to add that sony corp (not just playstation), losing out on leyou, or MS getting zenimax, changes their plans regarding expanding their online games and gaas with long term monetization one bit, theyve made that commitment to their shareholders publicily, plans towards that wouldve started before that, leyou was an option but I dont think it was the only one, they will work towards that goal one way or another, we might see that next year and in 2022.

Indeed, any number of possibilities in the future, we can only speculate at this point. Sony was prepared to drop 1 to 1.5 billion on Leyou and Crunchyroll recently until those deals fell through, so if some other opportunity comes along they could re-allocate those funds towards something else.

We know all of these companies are planning to continue growing, and we know there are other big players on the field who could also decide to pick up other devs/publishers (Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google...) so it'll be interesting to see how things play out in the coming years.

I am a wee bit curious if Sony was in the running for Zenimax at some point since we had random rumors as far back as January of Sony looking to buy Zenimax. I doubt we'd ever get a reliable answer on that though, but it's just a small curiosity.
 

Adrifi

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Jan 5, 2019
3,466
the Spanish Basque Country
7.5 for Zenimax is super cheap already, Bungie was reportedly asking for 3 billion for one IP, Warner wanted 4B for WB Games with no IPs. Microsoft got Zenimax, all of their IP (just Fallout alone is huge) and 8 studios - mainly AAA studios - for 7,5B. Why the low price? Because Bethesda had been making flop after flop for the last 5 years: Wolfenstein 2 flopped, Youngblood flopped, Rage 2 flopped, Fallout 76 flopped, Doom Eternal has underperformed, Prey flopped, Dishonored 2 flopped, Dishonored DOTO flopped...

They probably saw that a huge game every 5 or 6 years (Fallout/TES/Starfield) would not save them in the long term if all their other games flopped.
 

arsene_P5

Prophet of Regret
Member
Apr 17, 2020
15,438
People really think that Sony is poor and have no chance to acquire big publishers? Is there any logic or just a wishful thinking? And i am asking seriously.
Sony is far away from being poor. Having said that the comment I quoted talk about MS starting a war and they are not going to like it. Neither Apple, Google and Microsoft need to be afraid of Sony purchasing power.
 
Oct 27, 2017
4,994
People really think that Sony is poor and have no chance to acquire big publishers? Is there any logic or just a wishful thinking? And i am asking seriously.
In cash? The other big players (MS, Google, Apple) have like 10X the amount of cash on hand. Even if a game publisher wants to be acquired for a price that is fair based on their history/IP/patents, Sony would have to be willing to risk half their money on a single purchase while those other big(ger) guys would be spending something like 5% of their cash reserves.

That's a crazy difference. Sony could do it, but it's a tremendous risk for a company their size if the acquisition doesn't produce enough new content to be worth it. You don't want to bet the company on a single decision.

I think the most logical thing for them is to continue to slowly build/acquire individual studios. That adds value to their console (and the attached console revenue streams) and if consoles go the way of the dodo bird in 10 years because everything is running in the cloud, then it lets them go full Sega and just become a software publisher.
 

vivftp

Member
Oct 29, 2017
19,923
Nintendo would really fight for it, same for all other big japanes pubs, they are going to acquire western devs, book it, start with housemarque, they are not going for a publisher.

lol, they were going for a small publisher just a couple months ago with Leyou Games. I don't see any sense in stating matter of factly whether Sony will or will not go for another publisher. None of us are the head of Sony and none of us know how they will choose to use their resources. We're just random people speculating on a forum.

All we can say is that we know Sony are looking to expand, they were very recently looking into a small publisher and we can look at their available resources.

Personally my guess is they will pick up Bluepoint, Housemarque and maybe a couple of other smaller studios that they've got a history with (KojiPro, Sumo Digital, Arrowhead...). They could make a play for Kadokawa to pick up both their anime/manga business and also From Soft (not to mention their other businesses, a lot of which align with Sony's existing businesses). Whether they make a play for a medium size publisher like Capcom, Ubisoft or Square Enix is anyone's guess, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

We just wait and see what happens :)
 

Marano

Member
Mar 30, 2018
4,893
Rio de Janeiro
Indeed, any number of possibilities in the future, we can only speculate at this point. Sony was prepared to drop 1 to 1.5 billion on Leyou and Crunchyroll recently until those deals fell through, so if some other opportunity comes along they could re-allocate those funds towards something else.

We know all of these companies are planning to continue growing, and we know there are other big players on the field who could also decide to pick up other devs/publishers (Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google...) so it'll be interesting to see how things play out in the coming years.

I am a wee bit curious if Sony was in the running for Zenimax at some point since we had random rumors as far back as January of Sony looking to buy Zenimax. I doubt we'd ever get a reliable answer on that though, but it's just a small curiosity.
I think so, they got 2 timed exclusives, they wanted starfield too, but if rumours are true Todd shot starfield exclusivity down himself (how would he have this power?), and the price was too high for them.

I can see the price being higher for sony (north of 10 billion), since they would have required full exclusivity, whereas with MS, they can release their games on xbox, pc and the cloud, that probably made it cheaper for MS (bethesda was always a PC first, xbox second publisher, they wouldnt abandon those audiences, the backlash from sony making all their games exclusive would be huge, unlike anything weve seen so far with MS acquiring them).
 

El-Pistolero

Banned
Jan 4, 2018
1,308
Sony is far away from being poor. Having said that the comment I quoted talk about MS starting a war and they are not going to like it. Neither Apple, Google and Microsoft need to be afraid of Sony purchasing power.

Not when it comes to acquiring a Japanese publisher: They are better positioned than MS, Apple and Google to do it, should the target be interested in being absorbed.
 

Desodeset

Member
May 31, 2019
2,347
Sofia, Bulgaria
So far the general opinion is that:
- Sony has less money and is afraid of bigger companies;
- American tech giants will participate in every bid/takeover attempt by Sony;
- Sony won't buy publishers because they won't be allowed by Microsoft and others;
- it's too risky for Sony to buy a publisher, even a japanese one;
- No publisher wants to be bought by Sony.
 

christocolus

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,934
7.5 for Zenimax is super cheap already, Bungie was reportedly asking for 3 billion for one IP, Warner wanted 4B for WB Games with no IPs. Microsoft got Zenimax, all of their IP (just Fallout alone is huge) and 8 studios - mainly AAA studios - for 7,5B. Why the low price? Because Bethesda had been making flop after flop for the last 5 years: Wolfenstein 2 flopped, Youngblood flopped, Rage 2 flopped, Fallout 76 flopped, Doom Eternal has underperformed, Prey flopped, Dishonored 2 flopped, Dishonored DOTO flopped...

They probably saw that a huge game every 5 or 6 years (Fallout/TES/Starfield) would not save them in the long term if all their other games flopped.
they also got a major cloud tech and a number of high profile game engines from this acquisition. it is crazy.
 

vivftp

Member
Oct 29, 2017
19,923
I think so, they got 2 timed exclusives, they wanted starfield too, but if rumours are true Todd shot starfield exclusivity down himself (how would he have this power?), and the price was too high for them.

I can see the price being higher for sony (north of 10 billion), since they would have required full exclusivity, whereas with MS, they can release their games on xbox, pc and the cloud, that probably made it cheaper for MS (bethesda was always a PC first, xbox second publisher, they wouldnt abandon those audiences, the backlash from sony making all their games exclusive would be huge, unlike anything weve seen so far with MS acquiring them).

One user posted an interesting theory that Sony was well aware of the Zenimax acquisition in advance so they decided to negotiate these various exclusive deals so they could still get something out of the whole thing for the PS5 launch. It does make some sense considering how hard Sony apparently went with trying to secure exclusives under the Zenimax umbrella. Of course I'm just paraphrasing that users much more eloquent post, but I'd say it's possible.
 

arsene_P5

Prophet of Regret
Member
Apr 17, 2020
15,438
Not when it comes to acquiring a Japanese publisher: They are better positioned than MS, Apple and Google to do it, should the target be interested in being absorbed.
It's a bit more difficult for a company outside of japan to take over Capcom, Square and so on, but far from being impossible. There are rules to prevent hostile takeovers. However if Capcom for example agrees to being taken over by Google (for example) than Sony isn't in a better position really in the race to purchase them.
 

arsene_P5

Prophet of Regret
Member
Apr 17, 2020
15,438
So far the general opinion is that:
- Sony has less money and is afraid of bigger companies;
- American tech giants will participate in every bid/takeover attempt by Sony;
- Sony won't buy publishers because they won't be allowed by Microsoft and others;
- it's too risky for Sony to buy a publisher, even a japanese one;
- No publisher wants to be bought by Sony.
What are you even talking about? Nobody said Sony is afraid or that everyone will attempt to every bid Sony makes...you seem to be salty.
 

El-Pistolero

Banned
Jan 4, 2018
1,308
One user posted an interesting theory that Sony was well aware of the Zenimax acquisition in advance so they decided to negotiate these various exclusive deals so they could still get something out of the whole thing for the PS5 launch. It does make some sense considering how hard Sony apparently went with trying to secure exclusives under the Zenimax umbrella. Of course I'm just paraphrasing that users much more eloquent post, but I'd say it's possible.

Not impossible. The talks between MS and Zenimax started two years ago, so Sony must have heard the commotion..
 

darthpaxton

Member
Jun 20, 2018
1,697
Not when it comes to acquiring a Japanese publisher: They are better positioned than MS, Apple and Google to do it, should the target be interested in being absorbed.
Yeah, I definitely think Microsoft would be way more selective if Sony bid on a Japanese company. I could see them sending an army of lawyers to Japan if Sony was trying to nab Capcom, but I think Microsoft would simply let everyone else go if Sony bid. From being acquired by Sony would obviously be a blow, but I really don't think that's a war Microsoft could or would take on with Sony's inherent advantage.