Microsoft acquired Bethesda in September of 2020, when it was finalized does not matter too much. The truth is, all these Bethesda games did not start after MS acquired them, they were in development for years already. Starfield was first announced at E3 2018 and was in development for years before that. ID released Doom Eternal since early 2020. Rumors of a Quake reboot was making the circles way before that, the last Wolfenstein was released since 2017 even further back from Doom Eternal. Fallout 4 was released in 2015, Fallout 76 in 2018........The next Skyrim has been in development for ages already.........
I have no issues with Bethesda's timeline per se, since these games are huge undertakings which can take time, especially for Skyrim, but you do realize from the time MS has taken over, Starfield has seen delay after delay thereafter. Starfield which started as multiplatform is now exclusive and MS will want it's direction to be in tune with their other ventures like gamepass, perhaps demands of MP being shoehorned and other inclusive political undertones to satisfy some high ranking MS executives, board members or shareholder....
Something is drastically affecting development at MS studios, a simple looking game like crackdown taking all this time, a simple looking game like Halo Infinite taking all this time for one Biome are just a few examples, including Forza 8, what happened to Fable, Perfect Dark etc...MS studios are losing lots of talent after the acquisitions and it also could be that the talent at MS studios are just not as good as the talent at Sony's studios, and that's fine, and this is mainly why we're here..... This is why MS is buying all these studios to compete, but if people are leaving because they don't appreciate MS changing their vision for the games they've been working on for years and relegating them to only one franchise devs for their whole career, where they may never work on a GOTY calibre awardee, I can expect that they would leave in droves and chase that dream (one life to live right), and of course the end-result is MS's numerous acquisitions and dev houses are left as shells. This is is one of MS's biggest problems right now and I've been saying that the last few months here and elsewhere, Willits left ID and many others too...Leading staff are leaving all over MS studios, that is what is causing all these delays, people just don't want to work for MS in their gaming studios, MS commands too much input in the dev process to push lower tier goals and to forward their gamepass and services goals, something which is stifling quality and ambition in the dev process.
You realize most games MS are pushing are indie level, stylized games with a high level of goofiness from the 90's. MS only slate of realistic looking games is now coming only through the acquisition of a major Multiplat Publisher or perhaps soon (2), none of these games.....Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6, Quake or Doom Next are MS's creation. I'm not sure MS as an entity can build a AAA hit franchise all on their own, not forgetting Gears was not their own, neither was Halo, they had to go buying those already deep in development.....
Lastly, Bethesda is just one purchase MS did. Do you realize that MS purchased several Indie studios before Bethesda/Zenimax? Where is their output? Smaller studios/acquisitions like Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, Inxile, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Double Fine and the list goes on and on. Where is the output from these studios from since mid 2018? None of them are developing a game as massive or as ambitious as Starfield, that much is sure, still from them, nothing to show. Any one of these indie studios could have stepped up and delivered something like Hifi, but instead of MS devs stepping up and showing something decent, they are simply sucking those MS dollars with zero output of worth just like the failed AAAA Initiative.....And again, all of these indies studios were working on games before MS purchased them, so you would think....Ok it gets easier guys, toss PS development focus all your efforts on your new overlord (XBOX) and so we can push more games at better quality right? Only in your dreams....
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