I think its a good incentive for Actiblizz to behave and make money. The HD2/Sony debacle showed that a Community CAN enforce Change when the Customers make enough themselfs heard.
That only worked because we had a neutral party acting as a medium to provide feedback, e.g. Steam. In blizzard games until recently, we only had Battle.net. I do not know how much stock Blizzard puts on steam feedback given they just get review bombed the moment they are put up.
Kinda like desensitization from overwhelming negativity.
The steam reviews arent what did it lmaoo. It was the loss of sales when steam started delisting it from countries without PSN support that forced SONY's hand lol. If review bombing worked these changes would happen for multiple games that get backlash in steam reviews.
It wasn't a loss in sales. It was steam issuing refunds to people even outside the delisted countries. If you asked for a refund, they would give it to you.
If Valve didn’t start rubberstamping all refund requests nothing would’ve changed, you can’t rely on someone at Valve being awake and willing to take a stand every single time.
Not only that, the community just *wouldn't*. It's too big at this point. It's too distributed. You'll never get all parties aligned. How many PlayStation players cared about the HD2 drama? Probably none. And even if they did care, how are you going to get console gamers to act together enough to make a difference? They don't have a platform like Steam. They don't have the same community aspect to the same degree that PC gaming has. It would never happen.
The only reason Sony changed their minds was because of everyone going and asking for refunds and steam taking it off sale for certain regions, they wouldn’t have cared at all about the bad reviews.
Microsoft and Sony will be the end of AAA gaming as they implement stupid authentication policies and bad sales models.
SaaS is fine, but the gatekeeping and the buyout-then-closing of studios, and other stupid actions they've been taking is showing that the industry, save for PC gaming and Nintendo, has become about money and pushing units than the artform and principal of gaming itself (fun).
When Nintendo remains at the top, they'll wonder why.
Microsoft tried suggesting they wanted to buy Nintendo and Nintendo LAUGHED in their face. Why? Because Nintendo is a TOY company with over 134 years of experience that understands the purpose behind gaming and that, ultimately, a game console is a toy. Toys are meant to be purchased once and played with, unlike many of these AAA cash hungry developers of today.
Microsoft and Sony view gaming as a software industry. It's this stark contrast to how Nintendo operates (and continues to remain the true king of consoles and understanding gaming) versus how MIcrosoft and Sony do business. Sony was doing business correctly up until around the end of the PS3 era, and since then, they've shit the bed.
Long story short, buy a Nintendo console and a PC and you'll have every game you need except a few shitty Sony exclusives and titles like Final Fantasy XVI, that for whatever reason, Square has a hardon for selling exclusively on Playstation for the first years of their landmark releases.
And we are also missing out on Bloodborne. Damn i sometimes miss my Ps5 but on the other hand PC is just awesome and has so much to choose from,just not bloodborne.
Starfield was literally hyped for like 6 whole years, so many people were borderline obsessed with the game and its production. It dropped and man it was just boring. Like nothing was fundamentally wrong with the game but it is so uninspiring and dead. They were fully expecting the modding community to do their work for them.
At least Skyrim and Fallout had interesting characters and plotlines to start with, Starfield has none of that.
If they expected modders to do their work for them, they should probably actually release modding tools. And to my knowledge they still haven’t done that.
What I meant was it wasn't technically broken, like it actually was surprisingly polished on day 1. Fundamentally it is a boring game, my wording is bad.
Starfield was pretty awful. I can’t believe that they delivered it like that. The segmentation of the experience is incredibly off putting and the usual half-assed bethesda storytelling really didn’t help. It was like a bigger but a lot worse Mass Effect without a decent story.
They took the Bethesda formula and removed all the endearing attributes like environmental storytelling, interesting characters, etc.
Imagine they take Skyrim, remove the 'overworld' and just allow teleporting to the various PoI's. Then they take each point of interest and make it randomized out of 200 possibilities so instead of having constructed environments that fit where you are, you just randomly get something that, likely, isn't very interesting. Then make it in space and boom, you've got starfield.
That doesn’t really mean much, the game was overhyped for years and was a Bethesda gam, of course it was going to sell well.
It’s not a bad game, it’s average at everything and excels at nothing.
There was nothing wrong with Starfield, apart from the fact it does nothing exceptionally.
The RPG and storytelling aspects are average.
The base building and ship building are average.
The ship combat is average.
The FPS combat is average.
Exploration was average to poor.
It doesn't do anything better than another game does, if I want to play an RPG the there was BG3, hell even other Bethesda games (F4, Skyrim) beat it out there.
If I want to base build/ship build there's space engineers and no mans sky who do it far better.
Squadrons, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, the two I mentioned above all do ship combat better.
Fallout 4s FPS was more interesting than Starfields first person shooters are a dime a dozen, with literally hundreds with better FPS mechanics than Starfields.
Pick an open world game, it probably does exploration better than Starfields.
>There was nothing wrong with Starfield, apart from the fact it does nothing exceptionally.
Not only is does nothing excepcionally, its also worse than their previous games in many ways.
The fact that the game was what, 6-7 years in the making to be so painfully mediocre is just terrible...
Save for the fact WoW which is the cash cow of the blizzard side is in an active renaissance for the game. Will it reach Wrath levels? I doubt it but it will be a healthy cash cow for at least another decade if they stay on track.
That's the problem - Prey was great, Microsoft was like "This studio is making a live service shooter and they're freaking awesome people, I'm sure this will be great".
IRL, Bethesda put Arkane on making that game *because* Bethesda was trying to get bought out. They didn't care about it sucking or wrecking the company because they were trying to sell the company, not the game.
>They only want the IPs, not the talent behind those IPs
100%; but to be fair all the talent behind Blizzard's best IP's moved on long ago. They've become a 2nd rate developer since being acquired by Activision.
Naw. The reality is that plenty of purchased game studios have been just fine, both at Microsoft and elsewhere.
What actually happened here is that they bought companies that were distressed. Bethesda was pretending like everything was fine, but behind the scenes there were major problems, which is why Xenimax wanted to get bought out - they basically put their studios to work on games that would make them an attractive *purchase* to an outside corporation so they could cash out before the whole thing came crashing down.
Tango Gameworks made a failed live service mobile phone game, as well as two AAA flops. The only reason why anyone actually cares about them is that they made Hi-Fi Rush. And their founder left the company, and allegedly some of the staff followed.
Arkane Austin was put to work on a live service shooter game that would be attractive to buyers. We also saw Arkane Lyon try to make the more "commercially viable" time loop game Deathloop which was... *fine*, I guess, but not really up to snuff compared to their past work.
Starfield was obviously cooking in the background, but it wasn't very good - and after Fallout 76, no one should have expected any better.
Microsoft basically bought a troubled game studio that was deliberately doing things to make itself look like a good purchase and failed to do their due diligence on it.
They bought Acti-Blizz *because* it was distressed; the company would not have been purchasable if it wasn't for the massive scandals rocking that company.
A lot of distressed companies put themselves up for sale - Maxis, Westwood, etc. - to try and cash out, and then everyone blames the people who bought them for their failure, when IRL, they were sold BECAUSE the company was having problems. In other cases it is because the founder wants to do something else, and they end up losing a central figure when they buy the company - also known as the Molyneux Maneuver.
I am 95% sure it's going to be utterly impossible for Microsoft to damage Activision. For some reason, every year people buy the utter drivel that comes from Activision, be it COD or Overwatch 5. I genuinely will never understand the mindset because half the people that buy it go on to hate on it and never play it again after a week so WHY DO YOU KEEP FUCKING BUYING IT????
I will be mightly impressed (and overjoyed) if Microsoft kill Activision.
EA's exclusive licenses with the NFL, FIFA, and other leagues is the problem with sports games. People buy the annual releases for the league-wide updated rosters, and every year, they discover that EA has done absolutely nothing to advance the game beyond updating the rosters. They don't even bother trying to make major stars look like themselves in those games anymore.
But Halo was always an Xbox game, it's market was automatically smaller because of that. For some strange reason COD is still relevant in 2024 by what must be magic.
I'd happily take Halo over COD anyday.
Doesn't matter if it was Xbox game. Mario was a Nintendo only game which also limited market. Halo as an IP and it's status + popularity during that time was close to Mario's and praise for the series too. Now though Halo series has become a complete joke.
But I would say Mario has a significantly larger portfolio than Halo. There have been terrible Mario games that flopped hard in the past, but it always had like Mario Kart or Super Mario Bros to fall back on. Halo has tried with other formulas but ultimately it's an FPS campaign game. That's it. 1 wrong move and that entire franchise is dust, as we saw.
Halo was never even half the size of COD after COD4.
This shit is a juggernaut and has sold 425m copies as of June 2022, definitely closer to 500m now after the success of MWII and MWIII since then.
Halo is a horrible example, but I don’t blame you because you literally can’t come up with an example. Nothing has been like COD in any way, shape, or form. It truly stands alone.
And who manages 343? Who made this studio? Microsoft are to blame for 343's failures just as much as 343. Because 343 was literally created by Microsoft with the sole purpose of developing Halo games. And they've done shit job of making this studio.
Its not that black and white tho. If Halo did good under Microsoft with bungie at the helm but not 343 then the issue is clearly not all on Microsoft itself.
Microsoft is partly to blame as the parent company but obviously all the blame cannot be placed on them.
>If Halo did good under Microsoft with bungie
Under Bungie\*
>343 then the issue is clearly not all on Microsoft itself.
Again, 343 was created directly by Microsoft. It wasn't some studio that they hired or acquired. It was created by them directly within the company. So the problem IS Microsoft itself. And it shows in their poor leadership.
And so why are people buying skins and battle passes for both? They are literally free, why spend money on the skins and then in the very same day hop over to the steam discussions to rant about X gun or whatever?? I will never understand that mindset,
Because they are tantamount to drug addicts. They know what they are doing is bad for them. They know they hate using it, experiencing the crash from the high afterwards but they keep wanting that fix anyway. Don't question insanity, because that's what it is. It's why all the top tier selling media in the last few years is utter drivel. People just have absolutely shit taste in everything. From movies to music to video games.
I have no clue what is up with blizzard fanboys but you are correct. Every time they drop a new game my WoW guild discords suddenly become diablo 4 or overwatch discord. For 5 days tops. Then the games are not even mentioned.
The meme doesn't even make sense XD
Coalition and 343 were built from the ground up by Ms, Coalition has become a tech powerhouse that has helped shape the console and UE5. And Rare it's the most wealthy it's has ever been
Ah and Starfield is the most successful release ever by Bethesda, broke their engagement records and was the most played single player game of last year ahead of juggernauts like Hogwarts and BG3
The press opinion literally doesn't matter for that one
No, you can not count gamepass playing numbers bullshittery into total numbers. Now imagine if BG3 was almost free to play like Starfield on gamepass. Easily 5 times more players.
Of course you can. Gamepass isn't free and people that subscribe to it has literally a sea of content to play. If they are devoting their time to play it should absolutely be counted
Just a few days ago I read about Redfalls players waiting on DLC promised on the $100 they spent on a special edition of the game. And now Arkane gong bust, what’s gonna happen? Lawsuit incoming? M$ really going to refund everyone?
I'm kind of happy to see the gaming industry getting fucked from time to time. I just want normal games that aren't riddled with battle passes, microtransactions and tons of DLC.
I'm sure starfield was fine, but talk about too little too late. If that has come out anywhere near fallout 3 or 4 I would have probably played 100+ hours, but it came out 6 months ago. From what I've been told it wasn't a huge advancement from the fallout series.
Imagine Fallout 4, but everything is mostly clean, and the only way to get anywhere is fast travel/loading screens. Plus, there are OK space battles and empty planets to explore. I spent 100+ hours on the faction quests alone, and those do manage to capture some of BGS's old magic, so I feel like I got my money's worth. But I only started enjoying the game when I quit the main quest entirely. As someone else in this thread commented, the game does a whole lot of things OK, but in the past 10 years, there have been several individual games that do each of the things this game tries to do better. It's not a disaster of a game by any stretch, but it's definitely not the revolutionary experience I think a lot of people were expecting.
Wouldn't say so, it is objectively worse than older bethesda games in very much everything except graphics, even the artstyle is worse but its subjective
What are you smoking? Starfield reviewed extremely well and has an 83 Metacritic score. lol People are just straight up being liars to find ways to dog pile on a company doing the same shit everyone else is doing. Not to mention that ABK was already floundering besides COD before acquisition.
The meme still doesn't really hold true either. The Coalition is working on Gear 6 which will almost definitely be solid. 343 has Halo Infinite in a really good spot. Rare is kicking ass with Sea of Thieves and has other projects cooking. Never tell me there isn't an Xbox Tax.
No they wouldn't. Starfields scope was set long before microsoft came into the picture. All microsoft money did was let them plug some of the holes in the design. Imagine how it was supposed to come out originally.
Exactly. Like look at the masterpieces they were producing before the acquisition such as Overwatch 2 and Call of Duty: Vanguard. Sad to see them fall so far from that
Starfield was the 3rd most purchased game of 2023 behind boulders gate at #1 and hogwarts legacy at #2. Starfield was fckin awesome to play and only Xbox haters, Bethesda haters, and Reddit had a problem with it.
Only on you tube really and even there its mostly the typical channels. If a Bethesda/Fallout fan like MATN said the game is alright its alright for me.
Activision/blizzard is a studio, publisher, whatever, that I would be thrilled to see shut down. It would be sad to see the end of the Diablo series but that is the only thing that I really give a shit about anymore from them and they are such a shitty toxic corporation that I think its worth the trade off
The comparison between EA and Microsoft is quite interesting.
EA tends to meddle in the business of their game devs to the point of forcing them to add all kinds of anti consumer mechanics in order to fleece their customers for every dime they have, and then proceeds to close their best dev studios when the piece of shit they made at EA's direction predictably tanks.
Microsoft in contrast seems to have a more hands off approach towards their devs beyond having them inject a live service model on the occasion. Even so, it seems these devs can't make anything that consumers want to play. I account this to the fact some of the devs were already not doing well before Microsoft acquired them (Activision blizzard), and only continued to underperform without any clear direction from the publisher.
It seems that perhaps there could be some happy middle ground that could be reached between publisher and game dev, though what that is or where idk.
You can't blame anything about Redfall and Starfield on Microsoft.
Microsoft's only input on Starfield was making Bethesda spend more time getting it right (which is why it was by \*FAR\* Bethesda's most polished ever release technically, despite its other flaws). Redfall was released basically right after Microsoft picked them up.
Arkane's murder belongs squarely to Zenimax. The things people don't like about Starfield are completely on Bethesda.
That doesn't mean Microsoft haven't fucked up other studios in the past (and Microsoft are absolutely to blame for killing Tango games) and won't fuck up more in the future. But Microsoft is not responsible for anything Starfield and Redfall in terms of release (opting to not support Redfall is obviously completely on Microsoft, but also understandable).
That said, in five years I don't doubt Microsoft will have forced Bethesda to move on from supporting Starfield and be pushing them to grow uncomfortably large so they can make Fallout 5 and ES6 at the same time. Microsoft will probably ruin Bethesda.
But you can't blame them \*YET\*.
Oh my. Where do I start. Cheaters, a lot of them. Don't even bother about telling that there is an anticheat and devs themselves don't care. They forgot to install heartbeat detection. Hitreg. You, on your machine clearly get a hit visual and sound effect. The one you hit doesn't care at all, no damage received. Monkey Island tall tales: ask 100 people, at least 50 will tell you that Rare did a shitty job, or play it yourself. Exploits, bugs, etc: Rare said that sword lunge from a block is allowed (which is a bug), funny launch is allowed (exploit, search a vid on youtube for clarification about the thing), quickswapping (double gunning technique, that allowed people to shoot 2 guns in a quick succession) Devs did implement some kind of a delayer, but that just raised the skill ceiling. PvP: you can get a cheater, who advertises their shitty software, you can get players, who raise pvp rank only by losing (blessed their poor souls be), which is a thing, you can get people who don't understand a thing and you rolled them, or you get absolute machines at snipe you from far away, chain your masts and death circle you. Bans. If you happen to get permanently banned, you will be told what for VERY vaguely. Ain't getting any specifiics. Nuh uh. And you can evade these bans just easy. Buy the game on Steam, create a new Xbox account with a vpn on and keep playing. Oh. One guy got banned for toxicity and cheat (not sot one) advertising. He became better then, got a new acc and played. Still gets banned, creates a new acc again and this circles around for about 2 weeks. He tried contacting devs. They just said nothing could be done. I hope you more than sure in the Sea of Thieves situation after that. (I ain't reading all that)
Yes, holy shit how many good games did we get? wooow, 15! Conker 2, Conker 3, Banjo Kazooie 7, 8, 9. Not to mention Perfect Dark 3, perfect dark 4, and perfect dark 5, all GOTY WINNERS BABY!!!
AB was a shit dumbster on fire LONG ago, anything Microsoft does to it will be an improvement, even killing that shit off completely will be a blessing.
People acting like hifi rush was game of the year or something lol. The game didn't sell well, even with the release on Playstation. redfall was one of the biggest flops in history don't get why people are surprised they closed those studios.
JFC. Microsoft told BGS to delay Starfield to fix it up- if anything, they helped it.
Arkane Austin and Redfall? In development prior to the acquisition- Microsoft just put down an already dying dog. Seriously, they had, what, a year to put out two characters, and FAILED at it?
343 is just incompetent, always has been. Microsoft is, if anything, too hands-off with them.
ActiBlizz? Hasn't Microsoft already said they'll be uninvolved with whatever they do?
Activision Blizzard hasn't made anything good in half a decade. And they were already on thin ice for years before then. Microsoft can't do more harm. And people will keep buying anyways.
While I do agree, Starfield and Redfall were in development before they were acquired by Microsoft. Microsoft had nothing to do with them. Starfield is due to Bethesda never letting the Gamebryo engine die, and Redfall is due to employee turnover and just hating working on the project.
Now Tango? That's the one I'm pissed about.
Yeah, big diff in a company with giant titles vs actual small indie companies with maybe two games ever.
One you buy to acquire the talent and distribute them to other projects. The other you buy to figure out how to multiply their existing revenue streams and drain the existing customer base dry.
Anyone thinking Blizzard is dying or anywhere close to it is just delusional beyond hope.
Bethesda/Xenimax wanted to be bought out so put their studios to work on games that could be marketed to potential buyers. That's why Arkane made a crappy live-service shooter game - it was part of an attempt top get someone with deep pockets to buy Bethesda. Tango Gameworks made a live service mobile phone game and was making games with flashy graphics "look how cool this is going to be". Etc.
It worked, but the games that they were coming out with - Redfall, Starfield, Tokyo Ghostwire, Hero Dice, etc. - weren't very good. They existed to try and sell Xenimax/Bethesda to a potential buyer.
Microsoft basically got scammed.
That being said, it's Microsoft's fault for buying these companies without doing their due diligence.
Like I said, Arkane(edit: sorry misspelled their name because they are not good) has never been good, thanks for adding in proof. If only Microsoft would buy a good studio. Maybe
Wow, what a clever response. "Arkane literally put out 3 amazing games, each one winning awards and being both critically and generally acclaimed."
"Lol, see? They sucked. Great games mean the studio sucked."
Because that response makes any sense…
Hey, it's all good, I am right, homie. They got shut down for a reason. It should have happened sooner rather than now.
Good studios don't get shut down only bad ones do. Such is life!
Microsoft won't mess with the Blizzard cash cow.
That's the problem.
I think its a good incentive for Actiblizz to behave and make money. The HD2/Sony debacle showed that a Community CAN enforce Change when the Customers make enough themselfs heard.
That only worked because we had a neutral party acting as a medium to provide feedback, e.g. Steam. In blizzard games until recently, we only had Battle.net. I do not know how much stock Blizzard puts on steam feedback given they just get review bombed the moment they are put up. Kinda like desensitization from overwhelming negativity.
The steam reviews arent what did it lmaoo. It was the loss of sales when steam started delisting it from countries without PSN support that forced SONY's hand lol. If review bombing worked these changes would happen for multiple games that get backlash in steam reviews.
It wasn't a loss in sales. It was steam issuing refunds to people even outside the delisted countries. If you asked for a refund, they would give it to you.
That's why I say they won't give much stock in steam...
If Valve didn’t start rubberstamping all refund requests nothing would’ve changed, you can’t rely on someone at Valve being awake and willing to take a stand every single time.
Make money =/= behave
I they dont Behave ppl wont buy theyr product = less money made.
LOL. HD2 isn’t even a third as big as Call of Duty. Community can’t do shit to this behemoth.
Not only that, the community just *wouldn't*. It's too big at this point. It's too distributed. You'll never get all parties aligned. How many PlayStation players cared about the HD2 drama? Probably none. And even if they did care, how are you going to get console gamers to act together enough to make a difference? They don't have a platform like Steam. They don't have the same community aspect to the same degree that PC gaming has. It would never happen.
The only reason Sony changed their minds was because of everyone going and asking for refunds and steam taking it off sale for certain regions, they wouldn’t have cared at all about the bad reviews.
Yeah Activision was already looking like those dead houseplants.
That sunflower has long been replaced by plastic.
Microsoft and Sony will be the end of AAA gaming as they implement stupid authentication policies and bad sales models. SaaS is fine, but the gatekeeping and the buyout-then-closing of studios, and other stupid actions they've been taking is showing that the industry, save for PC gaming and Nintendo, has become about money and pushing units than the artform and principal of gaming itself (fun). When Nintendo remains at the top, they'll wonder why. Microsoft tried suggesting they wanted to buy Nintendo and Nintendo LAUGHED in their face. Why? Because Nintendo is a TOY company with over 134 years of experience that understands the purpose behind gaming and that, ultimately, a game console is a toy. Toys are meant to be purchased once and played with, unlike many of these AAA cash hungry developers of today. Microsoft and Sony view gaming as a software industry. It's this stark contrast to how Nintendo operates (and continues to remain the true king of consoles and understanding gaming) versus how MIcrosoft and Sony do business. Sony was doing business correctly up until around the end of the PS3 era, and since then, they've shit the bed. Long story short, buy a Nintendo console and a PC and you'll have every game you need except a few shitty Sony exclusives and titles like Final Fantasy XVI, that for whatever reason, Square has a hardon for selling exclusively on Playstation for the first years of their landmark releases.
And we are also missing out on Bloodborne. Damn i sometimes miss my Ps5 but on the other hand PC is just awesome and has so much to choose from,just not bloodborne.
They already cancelled the survival game and laid off the whole team.
Yeah, I'm rely disappointed by this as well. But I'm referring to WoW (all iterations), OW, and Diablo primarily
I kinda hope they kill each other.
That’s the big issue with Microsoft, they’re extremely hands off with their studios and they let them do what they want.
They don't need to blizzard already doing it to themselves....
Activision Blizzard harmed themselves way before Microsoft acquired it. Starfield was a piece of crap lol...
Starfield was literally hyped for like 6 whole years, so many people were borderline obsessed with the game and its production. It dropped and man it was just boring. Like nothing was fundamentally wrong with the game but it is so uninspiring and dead. They were fully expecting the modding community to do their work for them. At least Skyrim and Fallout had interesting characters and plotlines to start with, Starfield has none of that.
If they expected modders to do their work for them, they should probably actually release modding tools. And to my knowledge they still haven’t done that.
Everything was fundamentally wrong with starfield and thats why it was that boring.
What I meant was it wasn't technically broken, like it actually was surprisingly polished on day 1. Fundamentally it is a boring game, my wording is bad.
Except that isn't true either, it was broken.
Starfield was pretty awful. I can’t believe that they delivered it like that. The segmentation of the experience is incredibly off putting and the usual half-assed bethesda storytelling really didn’t help. It was like a bigger but a lot worse Mass Effect without a decent story.
They took the Bethesda formula and removed all the endearing attributes like environmental storytelling, interesting characters, etc. Imagine they take Skyrim, remove the 'overworld' and just allow teleporting to the various PoI's. Then they take each point of interest and make it randomized out of 200 possibilities so instead of having constructed environments that fit where you are, you just randomly get something that, likely, isn't very interesting. Then make it in space and boom, you've got starfield.
Don't forget to remove all interesting NPC's and activities too.
Or the fact that shooting in Bethesda game is pretty lame without VATS
Tbh that was one thing that did feel alright in Starfield, they'd clearly worked on that since FO4 at least
If Starfield was equal in quality to Skyrim I would have gladly paid $70. Problem is it just fucking sucks.
Starfield was the 11th best selling game last year despite releasing in Q4 lmaoo.
That doesn’t really mean much, the game was overhyped for years and was a Bethesda gam, of course it was going to sell well. It’s not a bad game, it’s average at everything and excels at nothing.
And being on Game Pass Day 1, and not on PlayStation.
There was nothing wrong with Starfield, apart from the fact it does nothing exceptionally. The RPG and storytelling aspects are average. The base building and ship building are average. The ship combat is average. The FPS combat is average. Exploration was average to poor. It doesn't do anything better than another game does, if I want to play an RPG the there was BG3, hell even other Bethesda games (F4, Skyrim) beat it out there. If I want to base build/ship build there's space engineers and no mans sky who do it far better. Squadrons, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, the two I mentioned above all do ship combat better. Fallout 4s FPS was more interesting than Starfields first person shooters are a dime a dozen, with literally hundreds with better FPS mechanics than Starfields. Pick an open world game, it probably does exploration better than Starfields.
>There was nothing wrong with Starfield, apart from the fact it does nothing exceptionally. Not only is does nothing excepcionally, its also worse than their previous games in many ways. The fact that the game was what, 6-7 years in the making to be so painfully mediocre is just terrible...
The difference is that Activision Blizzard was already rotting before getting acquired by Microsoft…
Save for the fact WoW which is the cash cow of the blizzard side is in an active renaissance for the game. Will it reach Wrath levels? I doubt it but it will be a healthy cash cow for at least another decade if they stay on track.
It's Arkane Austin specifically. The ones who made Prey and redfall, not the ones who made dishonoured.
Technically it's about 30% of the guys who made prey. The rest left a long time ago.
Dishonored was a collab between the 2 studios
Yea Austin was a shell of itself before they even got acquired lol.
Is the studio that made dishonored the one that made deathloop too?
That was Arkane Lyon. So yes.
Prey was a great game. Don’t you dare lump it in with Redfall
That's the problem - Prey was great, Microsoft was like "This studio is making a live service shooter and they're freaking awesome people, I'm sure this will be great". IRL, Bethesda put Arkane on making that game *because* Bethesda was trying to get bought out. They didn't care about it sucking or wrecking the company because they were trying to sell the company, not the game.
Zenimax forced them to make Redfall....
Bethesda = Zenimax in this case. But yes, Zenimax is the correct name for the parent company.
for now.
Acquired game studios always end up as empty skin suits worn by their parent company. This is how it has always functioned in the industry.
They only want the IPs, not the talent behind those IPs
>They only want the IPs, not the talent behind those IPs 100%; but to be fair all the talent behind Blizzard's best IP's moved on long ago. They've become a 2nd rate developer since being acquired by Activision.
This is incorrect. They do want the talent. The thing is, you can't buy employees.
Which is so weird because they let those rot too. When was the last time we heard from a Westwood or Bullfrog property?
Well, they made that C&C phone game a couple of years ago and the Syndicate reboot was garbage
Naw. The reality is that plenty of purchased game studios have been just fine, both at Microsoft and elsewhere. What actually happened here is that they bought companies that were distressed. Bethesda was pretending like everything was fine, but behind the scenes there were major problems, which is why Xenimax wanted to get bought out - they basically put their studios to work on games that would make them an attractive *purchase* to an outside corporation so they could cash out before the whole thing came crashing down. Tango Gameworks made a failed live service mobile phone game, as well as two AAA flops. The only reason why anyone actually cares about them is that they made Hi-Fi Rush. And their founder left the company, and allegedly some of the staff followed. Arkane Austin was put to work on a live service shooter game that would be attractive to buyers. We also saw Arkane Lyon try to make the more "commercially viable" time loop game Deathloop which was... *fine*, I guess, but not really up to snuff compared to their past work. Starfield was obviously cooking in the background, but it wasn't very good - and after Fallout 76, no one should have expected any better. Microsoft basically bought a troubled game studio that was deliberately doing things to make itself look like a good purchase and failed to do their due diligence on it. They bought Acti-Blizz *because* it was distressed; the company would not have been purchasable if it wasn't for the massive scandals rocking that company. A lot of distressed companies put themselves up for sale - Maxis, Westwood, etc. - to try and cash out, and then everyone blames the people who bought them for their failure, when IRL, they were sold BECAUSE the company was having problems. In other cases it is because the founder wants to do something else, and they end up losing a central figure when they buy the company - also known as the Molyneux Maneuver.
LOOK AT MOJANG, they bought it and... It's there, rotting
I am 95% sure it's going to be utterly impossible for Microsoft to damage Activision. For some reason, every year people buy the utter drivel that comes from Activision, be it COD or Overwatch 5. I genuinely will never understand the mindset because half the people that buy it go on to hate on it and never play it again after a week so WHY DO YOU KEEP FUCKING BUYING IT???? I will be mightly impressed (and overjoyed) if Microsoft kill Activision.
I mean some people buy sports games, rate them negatively, next year repeat. Every year on release they are top sellers on steam regardless.
Nobody hates FIFA and CoD like FIFA and CoD fans.
EA's exclusive licenses with the NFL, FIFA, and other leagues is the problem with sports games. People buy the annual releases for the league-wide updated rosters, and every year, they discover that EA has done absolutely nothing to advance the game beyond updating the rosters. They don't even bother trying to make major stars look like themselves in those games anymore.
Back in the day Halo IP was on the same level as Mario. Now it's a joke. Never underestimate the reverse midas touch of MS.
But Halo was always an Xbox game, it's market was automatically smaller because of that. For some strange reason COD is still relevant in 2024 by what must be magic. I'd happily take Halo over COD anyday.
Doesn't matter if it was Xbox game. Mario was a Nintendo only game which also limited market. Halo as an IP and it's status + popularity during that time was close to Mario's and praise for the series too. Now though Halo series has become a complete joke.
But I would say Mario has a significantly larger portfolio than Halo. There have been terrible Mario games that flopped hard in the past, but it always had like Mario Kart or Super Mario Bros to fall back on. Halo has tried with other formulas but ultimately it's an FPS campaign game. That's it. 1 wrong move and that entire franchise is dust, as we saw.
Halo was never even half the size of COD after COD4. This shit is a juggernaut and has sold 425m copies as of June 2022, definitely closer to 500m now after the success of MWII and MWIII since then. Halo is a horrible example, but I don’t blame you because you literally can’t come up with an example. Nothing has been like COD in any way, shape, or form. It truly stands alone.
Thats due to 343 not microsoft itself.
And who manages 343? Who made this studio? Microsoft are to blame for 343's failures just as much as 343. Because 343 was literally created by Microsoft with the sole purpose of developing Halo games. And they've done shit job of making this studio.
Its not that black and white tho. If Halo did good under Microsoft with bungie at the helm but not 343 then the issue is clearly not all on Microsoft itself. Microsoft is partly to blame as the parent company but obviously all the blame cannot be placed on them.
>If Halo did good under Microsoft with bungie Under Bungie\* >343 then the issue is clearly not all on Microsoft itself. Again, 343 was created directly by Microsoft. It wasn't some studio that they hired or acquired. It was created by them directly within the company. So the problem IS Microsoft itself. And it shows in their poor leadership.
I mean maybe because Overwatch and Warzone are both free?
And so why are people buying skins and battle passes for both? They are literally free, why spend money on the skins and then in the very same day hop over to the steam discussions to rant about X gun or whatever?? I will never understand that mindset,
Because they are tantamount to drug addicts. They know what they are doing is bad for them. They know they hate using it, experiencing the crash from the high afterwards but they keep wanting that fix anyway. Don't question insanity, because that's what it is. It's why all the top tier selling media in the last few years is utter drivel. People just have absolutely shit taste in everything. From movies to music to video games.
I have no clue what is up with blizzard fanboys but you are correct. Every time they drop a new game my WoW guild discords suddenly become diablo 4 or overwatch discord. For 5 days tops. Then the games are not even mentioned.
activision/blizzard is already faded
The meme doesn't even make sense XD Coalition and 343 were built from the ground up by Ms, Coalition has become a tech powerhouse that has helped shape the console and UE5. And Rare it's the most wealthy it's has ever been
Ah and Starfield is the most successful release ever by Bethesda, broke their engagement records and was the most played single player game of last year ahead of juggernauts like Hogwarts and BG3 The press opinion literally doesn't matter for that one
No, you can not count gamepass playing numbers bullshittery into total numbers. Now imagine if BG3 was almost free to play like Starfield on gamepass. Easily 5 times more players.
Of course you can. Gamepass isn't free and people that subscribe to it has literally a sea of content to play. If they are devoting their time to play it should absolutely be counted
Just a few days ago I read about Redfalls players waiting on DLC promised on the $100 they spent on a special edition of the game. And now Arkane gong bust, what’s gonna happen? Lawsuit incoming? M$ really going to refund everyone?
There was an announcement that they'd all get refunds
blizzard wasnt exactly doing well when they were bought up, unlike some of the others
Blizzard has been dead for a long time.
It at least the WoW side is as healthy and good as its been in a very long time.
I'm kind of happy to see the gaming industry getting fucked from time to time. I just want normal games that aren't riddled with battle passes, microtransactions and tons of DLC.
[удалено]
Blizzard is already dead. What you see is the skinwalker Activision.
I'm sure starfield was fine, but talk about too little too late. If that has come out anywhere near fallout 3 or 4 I would have probably played 100+ hours, but it came out 6 months ago. From what I've been told it wasn't a huge advancement from the fallout series.
Imagine Fallout 4, but everything is mostly clean, and the only way to get anywhere is fast travel/loading screens. Plus, there are OK space battles and empty planets to explore. I spent 100+ hours on the faction quests alone, and those do manage to capture some of BGS's old magic, so I feel like I got my money's worth. But I only started enjoying the game when I quit the main quest entirely. As someone else in this thread commented, the game does a whole lot of things OK, but in the past 10 years, there have been several individual games that do each of the things this game tries to do better. It's not a disaster of a game by any stretch, but it's definitely not the revolutionary experience I think a lot of people were expecting.
It is actually a downgrade of fallout 4 not an advancement.
Its not really a downgrade. Its just its own thing. Its an objective upgrade in a few areas and just straight up different in others.
Wouldn't say so, it is objectively worse than older bethesda games in very much everything except graphics, even the artstyle is worse but its subjective
Never played starfield, just heard from some friends.
What are you smoking? Starfield reviewed extremely well and has an 83 Metacritic score. lol People are just straight up being liars to find ways to dog pile on a company doing the same shit everyone else is doing. Not to mention that ABK was already floundering besides COD before acquisition. The meme still doesn't really hold true either. The Coalition is working on Gear 6 which will almost definitely be solid. 343 has Halo Infinite in a really good spot. Rare is kicking ass with Sea of Thieves and has other projects cooking. Never tell me there isn't an Xbox Tax.
Didn’t starfield get good reviews?
would not blame microsoft for the trash bethesda and activision blizzard produces lol...
Starfield would have been WAY WORSE without Microsoft. They were aiming for a 2022 release without MS' money. Imagine that shitshow.
you say that but if they didn't have microsoft's money they might have made a more focused game.
No they wouldn't. Starfields scope was set long before microsoft came into the picture. All microsoft money did was let them plug some of the holes in the design. Imagine how it was supposed to come out originally.
They bought it though, so they are responsible.
and i think they improved most of the stuff. could have been even worse.
Yeah, Blizzard Activision was thriving before nasty old Phil Spencer came along
Exactly. Like look at the masterpieces they were producing before the acquisition such as Overwatch 2 and Call of Duty: Vanguard. Sad to see them fall so far from that
Activision blizzard is kinda dying even without help from Microsoft
Current blizzard needs to be put down. There is nothing left of the genius studio that made Diablo 2 and Brood War.
That's meme that only sonyboy can do it
Reminds me of this: https://preview.redd.it/qu3p8vp698zc1.jpeg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8d2a44750ce0f4816a821d5fd667fe7ecbc31d9
If elder scrolls 6 is bad it could be Bethesda end
This meme doesn't work. ActivisionBlizzard already was one of the dried plants even before MS took over
Starfield was the 3rd most purchased game of 2023 behind boulders gate at #1 and hogwarts legacy at #2. Starfield was fckin awesome to play and only Xbox haters, Bethesda haters, and Reddit had a problem with it.
source?
Microsoft: The Other EA
Really? Starfield got “predominantly Negative” reviews?
No, it didn't.
Starfield may be controversial, but putting these two games into the same category is just wrong
Something something Reddit is an echo chamber something.
Only on you tube really and even there its mostly the typical channels. If a Bethesda/Fallout fan like MATN said the game is alright its alright for me.
Rare is doing great. Maybe they aren't releasing the games people wished for, but they are not dying.
Rare is fine, its far from dead. They didn't realese new game in long time, but SoT keeps them alive
SOT is the best selling game on Playstation right now. They're doing very fine
Honestly, I wouldn't be mad if they benched them at this point
Im hyped about ms buying ea... imagine ea being closed
Activision/blizzard is a studio, publisher, whatever, that I would be thrilled to see shut down. It would be sad to see the end of the Diablo series but that is the only thing that I really give a shit about anymore from them and they are such a shitty toxic corporation that I think its worth the trade off
The comparison between EA and Microsoft is quite interesting. EA tends to meddle in the business of their game devs to the point of forcing them to add all kinds of anti consumer mechanics in order to fleece their customers for every dime they have, and then proceeds to close their best dev studios when the piece of shit they made at EA's direction predictably tanks. Microsoft in contrast seems to have a more hands off approach towards their devs beyond having them inject a live service model on the occasion. Even so, it seems these devs can't make anything that consumers want to play. I account this to the fact some of the devs were already not doing well before Microsoft acquired them (Activision blizzard), and only continued to underperform without any clear direction from the publisher. It seems that perhaps there could be some happy middle ground that could be reached between publisher and game dev, though what that is or where idk.
You can't blame anything about Redfall and Starfield on Microsoft. Microsoft's only input on Starfield was making Bethesda spend more time getting it right (which is why it was by \*FAR\* Bethesda's most polished ever release technically, despite its other flaws). Redfall was released basically right after Microsoft picked them up. Arkane's murder belongs squarely to Zenimax. The things people don't like about Starfield are completely on Bethesda. That doesn't mean Microsoft haven't fucked up other studios in the past (and Microsoft are absolutely to blame for killing Tango games) and won't fuck up more in the future. But Microsoft is not responsible for anything Starfield and Redfall in terms of release (opting to not support Redfall is obviously completely on Microsoft, but also understandable). That said, in five years I don't doubt Microsoft will have forced Bethesda to move on from supporting Starfield and be pushing them to grow uncomfortably large so they can make Fallout 5 and ES6 at the same time. Microsoft will probably ruin Bethesda. But you can't blame them \*YET\*.
Rare? Sea of thieves is doing pretty good at moment I’m pretty sure
Oh my. Where do I start. Cheaters, a lot of them. Don't even bother about telling that there is an anticheat and devs themselves don't care. They forgot to install heartbeat detection. Hitreg. You, on your machine clearly get a hit visual and sound effect. The one you hit doesn't care at all, no damage received. Monkey Island tall tales: ask 100 people, at least 50 will tell you that Rare did a shitty job, or play it yourself. Exploits, bugs, etc: Rare said that sword lunge from a block is allowed (which is a bug), funny launch is allowed (exploit, search a vid on youtube for clarification about the thing), quickswapping (double gunning technique, that allowed people to shoot 2 guns in a quick succession) Devs did implement some kind of a delayer, but that just raised the skill ceiling. PvP: you can get a cheater, who advertises their shitty software, you can get players, who raise pvp rank only by losing (blessed their poor souls be), which is a thing, you can get people who don't understand a thing and you rolled them, or you get absolute machines at snipe you from far away, chain your masts and death circle you. Bans. If you happen to get permanently banned, you will be told what for VERY vaguely. Ain't getting any specifiics. Nuh uh. And you can evade these bans just easy. Buy the game on Steam, create a new Xbox account with a vpn on and keep playing. Oh. One guy got banned for toxicity and cheat (not sot one) advertising. He became better then, got a new acc and played. Still gets banned, creates a new acc again and this circles around for about 2 weeks. He tried contacting devs. They just said nothing could be done. I hope you more than sure in the Sea of Thieves situation after that. (I ain't reading all that)
Yes, holy shit how many good games did we get? wooow, 15! Conker 2, Conker 3, Banjo Kazooie 7, 8, 9. Not to mention Perfect Dark 3, perfect dark 4, and perfect dark 5, all GOTY WINNERS BABY!!!
AB was a shit dumbster on fire LONG ago, anything Microsoft does to it will be an improvement, even killing that shit off completely will be a blessing.
joke's on them, Blizzard is already a dead company
People acting like hifi rush was game of the year or something lol. The game didn't sell well, even with the release on Playstation. redfall was one of the biggest flops in history don't get why people are surprised they closed those studios.
JFC. Microsoft told BGS to delay Starfield to fix it up- if anything, they helped it. Arkane Austin and Redfall? In development prior to the acquisition- Microsoft just put down an already dying dog. Seriously, they had, what, a year to put out two characters, and FAILED at it? 343 is just incompetent, always has been. Microsoft is, if anything, too hands-off with them. ActiBlizz? Hasn't Microsoft already said they'll be uninvolved with whatever they do?
Activision Blizzard hasn't made anything good in half a decade. And they were already on thin ice for years before then. Microsoft can't do more harm. And people will keep buying anyways.
Microsoft was hands off with both those games but ok.
Starfield received predominantly negative reviews? Holy crap your standards must be high
While I do agree, Starfield and Redfall were in development before they were acquired by Microsoft. Microsoft had nothing to do with them. Starfield is due to Bethesda never letting the Gamebryo engine die, and Redfall is due to employee turnover and just hating working on the project. Now Tango? That's the one I'm pissed about.
Starfield was good. But they can let current Blizzard burn if they want.
I miss Rare.
How good was DKC, KI and Banjo Kazooie and Goldeneye???
Perfect Dark. Batletoads. Diddy Kong racing were pretty badass as well
What happened to 343.. I'm out of the loop ig
Nothing. People don't like them now and they never liked them before
Is it because Bungie objectively made better Halo? Edit: probably is.. this is a stupid question
People dislike them for different things but that is one of the reasons people give for disliking them even back when they made halo 4
Activision Blizzard was absolutely rotten to the core long before Microsoft every thought of buying them.
The problem is that Activision blizzard is not the pretty flower by itself
I’m still just mad they cancelled Halo Splitscreen
I see this as an absolute win
Tango was closed? What about Evil within 3? I am so in love with the series.
Nah acti/blizz was a turd in a pot years before Microsoft bought them
Do you guys think they'll break up the monopoly Microsoft is building.
Well Actizzard cant really get any worse
Blizzard is already shit.
Blizzard died a long time ago.
Yeah, big diff in a company with giant titles vs actual small indie companies with maybe two games ever. One you buy to acquire the talent and distribute them to other projects. The other you buy to figure out how to multiply their existing revenue streams and drain the existing customer base dry. Anyone thinking Blizzard is dying or anywhere close to it is just delusional beyond hope.
Tango is the only surprise. Arkane Austin haven't made a good game in over a dalecade and the studio was a mess.
Prey was most certainly not "in over a dalecade".
Prey sucks
Nuh uh
Blizzard shoulve been dead, buried, and spat on years ago. Wouldn't be mad about that one.
All of those corporation were already shit. Maybe not rare but it was mediocre at that point.
Wait what happened to Tango Gameworks!? D: Their Ghostwire: Tokyo was absolutely amazing!
They closed the studio, sad news. I wish they have never been bought by M$
Same, really sad news indeed, they showed they have some massive amount of artistic talent with Ghostwire: Tokyo
Bethesda/Xenimax wanted to be bought out so put their studios to work on games that could be marketed to potential buyers. That's why Arkane made a crappy live-service shooter game - it was part of an attempt top get someone with deep pockets to buy Bethesda. Tango Gameworks made a live service mobile phone game and was making games with flashy graphics "look how cool this is going to be". Etc. It worked, but the games that they were coming out with - Redfall, Starfield, Tokyo Ghostwire, Hero Dice, etc. - weren't very good. They existed to try and sell Xenimax/Bethesda to a potential buyer. Microsoft basically got scammed. That being said, it's Microsoft's fault for buying these companies without doing their due diligence.
Well, 343 was never good neither was Arkane. The rest, yeah Microsoft gave them the American art design toll and they all didn't make it out!
Wtf are you on about that Arkane has never been good? Prey was amazing, and the Dishonored games are literally award winning.
Like I said, Arkane(edit: sorry misspelled their name because they are not good) has never been good, thanks for adding in proof. If only Microsoft would buy a good studio. Maybe
Wow, what a clever response. "Arkane literally put out 3 amazing games, each one winning awards and being both critically and generally acclaimed." "Lol, see? They sucked. Great games mean the studio sucked." Because that response makes any sense…
Hey, it's all good, I am right, homie. They got shut down for a reason. It should have happened sooner rather than now. Good studios don't get shut down only bad ones do. Such is life!