It's good to see that, despite its acquisition by Microsoft a few
years ago, Bethesda hasn't changed. It's still milking its old IPs for
every penny it can get.

Case in point, the recently announced "Fallout SPECIAL Anthology",*
which ships a bunch of old "Fallout" games (1,2,3,4, New Vegas,
Tactics, '76) in a box designed to look like an atom-bomb. Or rather,
it ships with a bunch of game-codes, since actually shipping the games
- even old ones like these - on media is just too old hat, I guess.

And, look, there's really nothing wrong with this sort of compilation,
although it hardly seems necessary. The Fallout games have all been
given away for free so often that I can't imagine there are many
gamers interested in the franchise who HAVEN'T acquired a copy yet.
But, fine, some people like 'special editions' like that, and if the
plastic tat (Bethesda assures us the 'atom bomb' box has been safely
disarmed, har har har!) that comes with this version is of value to
them, then more power to those gamers.

I just wish these sort of re-re-re-releases didn't seemingly form the
bulk of Bethesda's income. Or that there was more value to the
offerings (oh wait, it also comes with seven trading cards. I stand
corrected about the value thing. ;-). Or didn't suspect that these new
'SPECIAL Edition' re-releases are a Trojan horse for Bethesda to
squeeze in a new version that breaks compatibility with old mods (and
conveniently adds a market for paid mods).

Bethesda games were always flawed, but it used to be that you could at
least count on their releases giving you value for money. But recently
it seems the games are only valuable to Bethesda for how much money
they can squeeze out of their players...

* Bethesda announced it here:
https://bethesda.net/en/article/1eZA5DWbSdyp9JZt9Bi00H/fallout-special-anthology-pre-orders-available

On 2/21/24 09:42, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
> It's good to see that, despite its acquisition by Microsoft a few
> years ago, Bethesda hasn't changed. It's still milking its old IPs for
> every penny it can get.
>
> Case in point, the recently announced "Fallout SPECIAL Anthology",*
> which ships a bunch of old "Fallout" games (1,2,3,4, New Vegas,
> Tactics, '76) in a box designed to look like an atom-bomb. Or rather,
> it ships with a bunch of game-codes, since actually shipping the games
> - even old ones like these - on media is just too old hat, I guess.
>
> And, look, there's really nothing wrong with this sort of compilation,
> although it hardly seems necessary. The Fallout games have all been
> given away for free so often that I can't imagine there are many
> gamers interested in the franchise who HAVEN'T acquired a copy yet.
> But, fine, some people like 'special editions' like that, and if the
> plastic tat (Bethesda assures us the 'atom bomb' box has been safely
> disarmed, har har har!) that comes with this version is of value to
> them, then more power to those gamers.
>
> I just wish these sort of re-re-re-releases didn't seemingly form the
> bulk of Bethesda's income. Or that there was more value to the
> offerings (oh wait, it also comes with seven trading cards. I stand
> corrected about the value thing. ;-). Or didn't suspect that these new
> 'SPECIAL Edition' re-releases are a Trojan horse for Bethesda to
> squeeze in a new version that breaks compatibility with old mods (and
> conveniently adds a market for paid mods).
>
> Bethesda games were always flawed, but it used to be that you could at
> least count on their releases giving you value for money. But recently
> it seems the games are only valuable to Bethesda for how much money
> they can squeeze out of their players...
>
>
>
>
>
> * Bethesda announced it here:
> https://bethesda.net/en/article/1eZA5DWbSdyp9JZt9Bi00H/fallout-special-anthology-pre-orders-available

The Skyrim effect?
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 2/21/2024 7:42 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
> It's good to see that, despite its acquisition by Microsoft a few
> years ago, Bethesda hasn't changed. It's still milking its old IPs for
> every penny it can get.
>
You say that like it wasn't the point of the acquisition.... (Why would
MS need to buy another company to produce new and original games?)

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On Wed, 21 Feb 2024 08:11:40 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

>On 2/21/2024 7:42 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>
>> It's good to see that, despite its acquisition by Microsoft a few
>> years ago, Bethesda hasn't changed. It's still milking its old IPs for
>> every penny it can get.

>You say that like it wasn't the point of the acquisition.... (Why would
>MS need to buy another company to produce new and original games?)

Well, one reason might be so they could deny Sony those new games by
making them exclusive to Microsoft's own console. If Doom 6,
Wolfenstein 7, Prey 2, Dishonored 3, Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5
were all going to be only on the XBox, it makes the Playstation look a
lot less attractive.

Alternately, it could have been a pre-emptive purchase to ensure that
Sony was going to use the same tactics on Microsoft.

Microsoft is also betting heavily on its online subscription service
(GamePass) so they'll want a lot of exclusive games there to make
their product more attractive than its competitors.

Honestly, the Zenimax acquisition was a very good deal for Microsoft;
they got Bethesda, Id and Arkane for a relatively cheap $7.5 billion
(the Activision deal cost them ten times that, in comparison). This
was companies with experience making big, successful games for both PC
and XBox. While I'm not crazy that they DID buy Bethesda (we need more
medium-sized publishers, not less), it seems a better fit for
Microsoft than the ActiBlizzard acquisition (although the latter was
mostly made to capture its mobile division than for its PC/console
games).

Not that Microsoft has been doing so well out of the deal. "Redfall"
was something of a flop, "Starfield" is underperforming, and
Bethesda's reputation is tanking. Its "Fallout SPECIAL edition" isn't
helping. Whether these shenanigans are due to Microsoft's meddling or
problems with Bethesda, I've no idea.

But, like I said, Bethesda had a reputation for milking its franchises
long before they got bought out by Microsoft, so I have my suspicions
where the blame really lies...