I think our focus on the Bethesda $7.5 billion acquisition is far too narrow minded

Gaming
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I understand that we all love gaming and really we care about the Zenimax Media acquisition because it its connection to Bethesda, I think we are overestimating Bethesda’s importance to Microsoft. Currently Microsoft’s big money makes are Windows and Azure. Besides gaming, Zenimax media had two major divisions: VR and Orion Streaming. I’ve always thought MS justified the purchase of Zenimax on those two things alone. Any benefit that Orion can bring Azure would justify only $7.5 B plus MS has always said that they wanted to increase there VR division to a competitive level by 2023(when they originally planned the newest Windows OS to launch).

Bethesda was just icing on the cake to sell to the media and benefit Xbox but the purchase really already pays for itself.

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Orion and VR makes sense to microsoft a lot.

But i don’t think one reason is better then the other.

It’s the combination of all these things, games-vr-orion that made the deal worth $7.5 billion dollar.

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While it’s an overall combination of everything, for me personally, I care about the games. VR and streaming means nothing if you don’t have games in general since you wouldn’t have nothing to stream and VR is worthless if there’s no game support for it.

I care about Tango Gameworks, Arkane, Machine Games, Id and BGS to where I should get some amazing exclusive games this generation. Anything else is just a bonus.

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Bethesda basically handed MS the second largest IP this side of GTA (F2P stuff excluded)…and lots of other decent titles to launch on gamepass.

It’s highly amusing to see certain fanboys exault gamepass as “6/10, not AAA, death of single player” when we get Starfield, Elder Scrolls and Fallout with 200 hour campaigns on a $10 a month service vs. $70 for your 18 hour walking sim.

Oddly enough, The Elder Scrolls on Stadia and Luna would have been enough for both of them to get off the ground.

Denying them that was worthwhile, the purchase serves many purposes.

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VR is irrelevant and it will never be anything other than a niche market. The less resources go into that the better.

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I agree because I play games and that’s it. But I’m saying from MSs perspective I could imagine it’s the exact opposite and everyone talking about “how is Bethesda going to make up that money” doesn’t cross there mind cause that wasn’t why they bought it.

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VR tech would help wit WMR but that’s more for Hololens and business side of Microsoft. Orion will definitely help them as streaming has gaming but also business aspects to it.

Orion is a bigger get than the VR portion at this point in time but yes, Bethesda helps out the company in more than just gaming.

Also “our” and “we” are some people, I’ve had these thoughts for some time.

Nobody should be “worrying” about how MS is going to make up money but Microsoft and investors.

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I agree. Microsoft is a trillion dollar company and simply aren’t worried about making back the $7.5B spent on ZeniMax. Their July/August/September quarter was around $7B or something like that so they basically made back the money before they even spent it. lmao.

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For gaming? Maybe.

VR can be used for much more than gaming though.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Microsoft hit the jackpot with Zenimax, an absolute four leaf clover

  • Private company and not public so didn’t have to overspend for inflated shares
  • Top tier first party teams ei Bethesda, Arkane, Id, Machine games, even Zeni Online with one of the biggest MMO’s
  • Top tier system selling IP’s TES, Fallout
  • All of the tech including Id Tech, VR, Orion streaming etc

I would say its impossible for MS to acquire anyone else and get so much from the company as far as Xbox is concerned.

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