My thoughts on the recent @xbox Zenimax acquisition:

With the Monday surprise of it somewhat gone now, and having a clearer mind, I just want to give my two pence worth here. Just my own take on things, really. 1/14

For me, it doesn't get much bigger a powerhouse than everything Zenimax put out. The likes of Fallout, Doom, Elder Scrolls... These are not little games. These are not middle of the road games. These are huge sellers. Skyrim sits at 30,000,000 over all consoles, for example. 2/14

Fallout 4 sold 13.5 million, and yet its considered to be the worst mainline entry. Now, of course, these are multiplatform numbers, so they would be lower for a set platform (and Skyrim has been released 97 times now, too). But you can see these titles are huge sellers. 3/14

More importantly there are many of them too. Prey, Wolf series, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Dishonoured, Evil Within. Even Starfield when it comes. Plus more... These are all massively popular games, that sell really well. But its not just the existing IP that's important. 4/14

We mustn't forget the TALENT behind these games as this was the real reason for the acquisition IMO. Its good to have an existing set of IPs of course. But these are people that can pump out quality titles consistently and now, will be pumping out "xbox" titles consistently. 5/14

There is of course the elephant in the room and that is exclusivity. First of all, yes, contracts will be honoured. They have to be by law. So anything already existing and worked out, will be kept to the platforms specified. However, that is just for current deals. 6/14

Future titles will be on a "case by case" basis, and we can read this many ways. Many are assuming that this means they will be mostly multiplatform. My words to them are this: You don't buy a Lamborghini and let everybody else drive it. You show it off as your own. 7/14

I firmly believe future titles in the Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Wolf and Doom series will all be xbox exclusive. At the very least, playing best on xbox, and timed for a year. AT LEAST. That makes sense. Smaller titles may be multi, like Minecraft. 8/14

But you don't spend that sort of cash and let others in. Yes, Microsoft are a company that wants to make money. But they also want people to play on their systems over the competition (xbox/PC). So both sides of the coin have merit, and both are financially sound judgements. 9/14

You will note however, that a lot of the usual suspects are moaning about MS making a monopoly, just buying the competition. Absolute rubbish, IMO. Naughty Dog are seen by most as a AAAAAA developer. Bought. Insomniac? Bought. Guerrilla? Bought.. This is what happens. 10/14

But those same people didn't have a problem then, but do now. Funny.

I will say this. Buying talent, or existing IPs, does NOT mean you will have a sure fire hit on your hands. If these are managed poorly, you will be in sub 60 meta city again. 11/14

There is also talk of a cloud streaming tech they own, called "Orion". I won't lie, its the first I've heard of this, so I'll take a look. Apparently, it helps reduce bandwidth up to 40% and improves latency, too. A big deal maybe? 12/14

In closing, I think the whole deal is massive, and a great step forward for MS. Not so much Sony of course, but then its not like Sony haven't done this sort of move before (and will be again in the coming weeks. Mark it.) This is commonplace. 13/14

And who knows... Maybe MS have a few more sonic booms coming in the next week, that will leave these peoples ears ringing... I'm sure people will say
"thats no good" again, too.

Cheers for reading my ramblings. 14/14