Does this foretell the end of Modding with Skyrim and Fallout Games?

[bluepigeon]

https://www.polygon.com/2020/9/21/21448884/microsoft-buys-bethesda-zenimax-xbox-game-studios-starfield-fallout-doom

 

Microsoft acquires Bethesda Softworks in $7.5B deal

ZeniMax Media acquisition brings Doom, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and more to Xbox

By Nicole Carpenter@sweetpotatoes Sep 21, 2020, 9:11am EDT

Image: id Software/Bethesda Softworks

Microsoft has acquired ZeniMax Media and publisher Bethesda Softworks, the company announced Monday. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, published a letter on Xbox Wire, welcoming the The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Doom, Dishonored, and Quake franchises, as well as Starfield and more, to Microsoft.

Spencer said the acquisition is a “landmark step” for Microsoft. In a news release, Microsoft said it now has 23 “creative studio teams” — up from 15 — making games for Xbox and PC. Microsoft will add Bethesda’s games to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC, too. Microsoft also intends to add future Bethesda games to Xbox Game Pass “the

same day they launch on Xbox or PC,” specifically calling out Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield.

Bethesda’s games have always had a special place on Xbox and in the hearts of millions of gamers around the world. Our teams have a close and storied history working together, from the amazing first DOOM, and its id Tech engine, innovating games on PCs to Bethesda bringing their first console game to the original Xbox, the groundbreaking The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Over the years I’ve had many deep conversations with the creative leaders at Bethesda on the future of gaming and we’ve long shared similar visions for the opportunities for creators and their games to reach more players in more ways.

Just as they took the bold first steps to bring The Elder Scrolls franchise to the original Xbox, Bethesda were early supporters of Xbox Game Pass, bringing their games to new audiences across devices and have been actively investing in new gaming technology like cloud streaming of games. We will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios.

“One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios,” Spencer wrote.

Pete Hines, senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Bethesda, posted a separate letter on the developer’s website, outlining why Microsoft is a good fit for the company. Hines said the company has a “long history of working with Microsoft,” and will continue to make games as it always has.

“But the key point is we’re still Bethesda,” Hines wrote. “We’re still working on the same games we were yesterday, made by the same studios we’ve worked with for years, and those games will be published by us.”

Hines added that the Microsoft acquisition will allow Bethesda more resources “to innovate” and “to grow.”

Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks unites the Fallout publisher and Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment under the same company. Also of interest: Bethesda has two games slated as timed exclusives for Microsoft’s competitor, Sony. Published by Bethesda, Arkane Studios’ Deathloop and Tango Gameworks’ GhostWire: Tokyo are expected to be timed exclusives when they’re released on PlayStation 5 next year. Polygon has reached out to Microsoft for clarification.

Microsoft’s next-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, will be released on Nov. 10. Pre-orders for the new Xbox consoles open Tuesday, Sept. 22.

[brown66]

Sorry my English. It's not my native language.

 

I received the news form a friend a couple minutes ago. And that are my fears - what will hapen to the mod comunity? If Minecraft it's a example of the Microsoft politics reguarding mods, then I think that these are not good news.

Edited September 21, 2020 by brown66

[greyday01]

It's terrible news. Microsoft keeps wanted rented software not owned. They keep trying to get me to buy Office 365 for a monthly fee. No way, I will only use the version you can still buy. Even their solitaire that used to be free in every windows you have to rent it or put up with annoying ads ( I tolerate the ads and make a point of never buying anything the ads show just to spite them). Just wait. The next Elderscrolls will be rented and only paid mods. Bet they try to squash things like Skywind that people have been working on. They are very big on copyright infringement.

[OMNAMI]

Skyrim's success in maintaining popularity even today is due to mods. If anything, Microsoft will probably want to figure out how to profit out of that in the next ES game much to our dismay...

[ptolemy9]

Who will want to mod for a paid subscription,...the lazy gits that run xboxes? Modding has been doomed by this venture.

[Saggaris]

It's terrible news. Microsoft keeps wanted rented software not owned. They keep trying to get me to buy Office 365 for a monthly fee. No way, I will only use the version you can still buy. Even their solitaire that used to be free in every windows you have to rent it or put up with annoying ads ( I tolerate the ads and make a point of never buying anything the ads show just to spite them). Just wait. The next Elderscrolls will be rented and only paid mods. Bet they try to squash things like Skywind that people have been working on. They are very big on copyright infringement.

This is one of my biggest worries, that large community projects and even smaller mods might be lost or restricted because of corporate policy, I guess/hope that another publisher will see the turf and allow us to play in their field, there's a thing about a good deed.. it brings return business and generates loyalty.

 

And What the hell are Sony gonna do now?

[gnarly1]

The next Elderscrolls will be rented and only paid mods.

You know how many times in the last dozen or so years I've seen people make ridiculous predictions about the demise of free modding? So many that I've lost count. And they were all wrong. Just like you're wrong.

Bet they try to squash things like Skywind that people have been working on.

OK. If you're so convinced, how much are you willing to wager on it? Put your money where your mouth is.

Edited September 25, 2020 by gnarly1

[diosoth]

My hopes for Betehsda's modding community were already low to begin with- seeing SE backpedal on LE mod compatibility, seeing all Creation Club mods declared "official lore", it looked like they- if the game was ever due to be finished- would probably only allow "approved" CC mods to be used. FO76 has also been a huge joke(not that Bethesda's Fallout series seems to be much related to the Interplay games- they got the brand license in a buyout and were content to use a familiar name) and I can't stand a single thing about the trash NuDoom games or the dev team behind them. Wolfenstein got internally destroyed because the Wolf dev team apparently doesn't mix well with the views of anyone else in the company. MS probably won't be any friendlier to the modding community than Bethesda has been turning to and the retail experience will be a hassle. The only positive I see is maybe Carmack coming back to Doom and tossing those new games into the trash can where they belong but that's going to be a minor concession.

 

I'll say it straight out- I had no high hopes for TES6 even ignoring what I expected them to do to the modding community. If they canonize one side of the civil war it's going to tick off 50% of the player base either way, and between Skyrim's initial development nearly not even having an Imperial option and the marketing that Doom Eternal got, they'd side with the Stormcloaks. It's also been almost 9 years and we have seen nothing solid to indicate any real work is happening. At most now with MS in charge it'll be a total Duke Nukem Forever situation where they force the game under that title to be made just to say it got made but it won't be that good because of the obvious rush job.

 

I have also stuck with Win7 because everything I hear about Win10 is an insult to the people who use it. They'll force decisions on the user and will override your settings if they feel like it. I doubt any of their upcoming Bethesda games will even be Win7 compatible... didn't they already "officially" end support for the OS?

[HeyYou]

I think the next fallout, and elder scrolls games, will be just like what we are used to, simply because they are likely already in the pipeline. After that, its anyones guess....

 

MS is all about making money.... and user made content contributes mightily to the longevity of beth games. MS knows that, so, hopefully, they will continue on in that vein.

 

I run win 10 because I have to. No drivers for win 7 for newer hardware.... (I upgraded back in October 2019, old machined died.) I run win 10 pro, and all my privacy settings are exactly the same as they were when I set up windows at install. Yes, I still get forced windows updates, but, NOT drivers, or pretty much anything else. (security and feature updates are pretty much standard) MS has finally stopped installing software I don't want on my machine... I suspect that may be a product of telling windows I am on a metered connection, so, it simply does not do certain updates, until I tell it to. I have no issues running my games on win 10.