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Yeah this is bullshit. They wanted the IP's and nothing more. Situations like this remind me of something that Marty O'Donnell said when that Bungie/Activision lawsuit happened. He said something along the lines of they have to own their IP's because it's the one thing a studio has that's holds value.
Fuck your business
Can’t have a healthy business without insane overcompensation of the c-suite and friends
Funny how they praise success these studios achieved before suddenly slamming the door shut and firing those people, but 343 has literally been fucking the corpse of Halo for 12 years now and you still funnel then millions of dollars to keep ruining everything.
Microsoft doesn't need those studios, just the IPs.
They could sell the studio without the IPs, bring in some revenue, but it's worth more to kill the studio than let it exist to compete.
She mispelled "investors will be happy next earning call"
Well, it literally says "business will be healthy" so yes that's what that means
I'm sure the studio employees feel the same way
What's healthy for the business long term isn't healthy for the customer. Remember that.
Nor the employees, only the capitalist benefits
Right, because a healthy business consists of a sort of zombie corpse leech, not a symbiosis.
The little diner down the street where everyone has a good time every day? That’s not a healthy business.
It is very important that we twist the definition of every word to ensure people understand how bad capitalism is. Language and the ability to think is secondary to the great Revolution Take 25!
I really hope these developers create new independent studios and if they ever get offered a big bag of money, they will remember what happened last time. Maybe they will be smart enough to create worker owned studios and not waste huge salaries on useless CEOs.
If I ever run a successful company, I am never taking it public, and I hope that I will never accept a sum of money that more than doubles our assets.
I’ve worked in the startup world and seen too many companies fail in all but name when they receive investment money. It really sucks the soul out of a company.
I wish more people would create worker owned cooperatives. They might be more resilient and might even be more productive. Of cause the downside is that they don’t make one person very rich.
I won't bet on that, neither for nor against.
Look at the guy that created Minecraft. He was passionate about his work, had a company that was doing great and with prospect of future growth.
One thousand millions later and the guy checks out a boat load of money and sell off the company: he already had his.
It was also his one game. Youd do the same if you were done with it and offered more money than you could spend in your life.
That's a very different scenario than a studio having released multiple games over a couple decades being bought out.
Don't know if I would. Never had such an offer, never will.
I'm not very invested in the game/game studio culture but boiled down it gets to either a private owner or a board of directors deciding if it is the right moment to cash out.
Right. So not the same situation as the Minecraft guy at all.
It's apples and oranges. You just took a name you heard and tried to shove into the wrong context.
I can't agree with you.
The major share holder of a game studio, with a major success on its portfolio, already working on other projects, decided he wanted to move away from it as the day to day work had become too demanding and made his part of the studio available for purchase, in fact cashing out on a very large sum of money.
I really can't see where that is "apples to oranges", concerning the current debate on studios being bought out and shut down on the turn of a dime.
Are game studios some separate entity that exist exempt of the at work business logic or human nature? Studios are companies created to generate profit for its founders, that will most likely take the opportunity to cash out when presented.
By contrast, independent authors/creators are becoming a growing force to be respected - which is very good - but will such authors be immune to selling their work for a high offer their work if such opportunity presents itself? Hopefully, they will, but I won't bet on it, neither for nor against.
The Minecraft guy was an independent author.
Yup, that’s what qyron is presupposing with his argument. Read it again if you misunderstood.
'"You know, we're a platform where you can play Grand Theft Auto but you can also play Palworld. Where you can play Call of Duty and can also play Pentiment. That doesn't change," she said.' - yeah but now I can't play HiFi Rush 2 :(
You will when Micropenis puts out the sequel full of AI gen slop.
You know what would be even better for the long term? A large variety of games with less bullshit. Suck it, Microsoft.
You see, our stock price goes up when we buy other companies and it goes up when we fire people. We're doing both at the same time, so our stock price will go up double. This is a sustainable business model and not at all a very dead canary in a very deadly coal mine.
Yes, the modern mindset. Murder the product, preserve the manager's paygap.
Limp dick anti trust agencies approved this shit...
Like wtf am I paying taxes for here? So rich people get more of my surplus labour?
Yes
Bias confirmed
Who's taking bets on when they'll buy the next studio?
After the fight they had to put up for Activision, it will likely be a while.
Activision wasn't just a studio, it was a huge publisher with several studios, that's why they needed approval from competition regulators. I doubt they will stop buying studios over this in the short-term.
We got one for not in a while.
Who's got anything sooner in mind?
They want to ensure their business is working well, so they shutdown the parts that were working well, and left those that are failing miserably. Logic checks out
they got the IP, that's all they wanted.
Don't forget removing competitors! Gotta remove those competitors. That's what healthy businesses do. /s
/s
Can't you buy the rights to an IP without the attached studio ?
You can try, but people won't be as thrilled for TES or Fallout without Bethesda, for example.
FO5 is going to be a FO76 tier disaster. With the show there has to be a ton of pressure to crank something out the door. Microsoft’s folks are probably beating down Todd’s door. Bethesda has never really understood the series anyways.
If TES6 comes out, it’ll have 3 skills and ignore all established lore to turn an interesting and nuanced character into Bad Guy who wants to destroy the world for no reason. Admittedly normies really like this version of the series, so maybe it’ll still be wildly successful.
I can understand that, yea. But I know I would be! It's high time something changes in that regard
I would be.