It was the shot heard 'round the gaming world. It was a move so big that people will be talking about it for weeks, and has already launched speculation like no tomorrow. The move in question? Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), just ahead of the next generation of console gaming, bought one of the biggest players in the console gaming market, ZeniMax Media.
Buy One, Get Several Free
By buying privately-traded company ZeniMax, Microsoft gets access to several different studios. It gets Arkane Studios, id Software, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, and of course, what may be the biggest plum in the whole batch, Bethesda Softworks, which includes Bethesda Game Studios.
With all these studios in hand, Microsoft also gets access to a range of popular intellectual properties, many of which gamers wait breathlessly for any new releases in their line. Tops on the list is the “Fallout” and “Elder Scrolls” franchises, but not far behind are the “Doom” series, the “Wolfenstein” series, the “Prey” series and the “Dishonored” series as well. This is, amazingly, just the start, and now that they're all part of Microsoft's umbrella now, some are expecting much more rapid development times on these hotly-anticipated titles.
Purchasing game studios to serve as internal developers isn't new ground for Microsoft; the company has already added a string of developers to its internal operations, including familiar—if only to gamers—names like Ninja Theory, Obsidian Games, Mojang Studios, Undead Labs, and a slate of others.
A String of Possibilities Emerges
Naturally, such a significant move has given rise to speculation, and this move has indeed provided the fodder for such speculation.
One of the biggest potential possibilities is that we'll start seeing new games in the various series a lot more quickly. With Microsoft resources backing the play, that's room for more programmers and more tools to work from home, so the pandemic can be successfully skirted. Zenimax games were known for substantial lag time between new releases; the Elder Scrolls series, for example, last released a game in 2011 with its release of “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.” The release of “Fallout: New Vegas 2”, long just a topic of gossip, is now a very real possibility since both of its developers—Obsidian Games, and now, Bethesda—are under the same roof.
The speculation only begins there; now, gamers are looking at Microsoft's subscription gaming service known as Xbox Game Pass. With plans starting at $19.99 a month and a string of titles available already, how much of Zenimax's incredible back catalog will now become part of the service? This makes an already impressive value even more compelling.
The possibilities in such a move aren't all positive, however. For instance, two of Zenimax's upcoming games, “Ghostwire: Tokyo” and “Deathloop”, were both slated to be Sony exclusives, if only for a while. These “timed exclusives” are a comparatively new part of the industry, as more publishers want access to the broader market of every console gamer, not just one particular walled garden. For now, Microsoft has agreed to honor the established timed exclusivity arrangements, but future titles may not have such a luxury. Indeed, in the future, Zenimax titles may be Microsoft exclusives period; Microsoft and Zenimax have a sufficient history to make this possible, as Zenimax's first blockbuster title, “The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind” was available only on the original Xbox.
Not Microsoft's First Big Buy
This isn't the first time Microsoft has shelled out big to gain access to certain properties. In fact, as big as the $7.5 billion deal is, that's how much Microsoft paid to get GitHub last year. Microsoft paid more than that to get Skype, and around three times that to get LinkedIn.
This move, however, represents a beneficial step forward all around. Microsoft gets access to a major publisher with tons of IP on its side, and now, all that IP will have plenty of budgetary firepower behind it to speed up release schedules that have been, in many cases, moribund for years. After spending the Xbox One console generation in second place to Sony (NYSE:SNE) and its PlayStation 4, this may be just what Microsoft needs to come from behind and make the Xbox Series X the new top of the heap.
Microsoft has made a coup here as gaming goes, make no mistake. With a new console generation poised to release this November, it's got a lot of new potential releases on its side. Now it just needs to fire up development as much as possible to get these titles in play and make Microsoft the leader in console gaming again.
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