https://kotaku.com/xbox-activision-blizzard-bethesda-deal-every-franchise-1850925890
From Call of Duty to Fallout and beyond, Microsoft has swallowed up a lot of popular and successful video game franchises
Gonna get automatically re-installed with every single Winfows update for all of eternity.
Name a good game by a Microsoft studio from the last 5 years that isn't by Obsidian or someone who used to work at Obsidian
Ori and the Will of the Wisps(Great)
Sunset Overdrive(Good)
Battletoads(Good, at least I enjoyed it)
Forza Horizon 4 and 5(both are good, but definitely feeling a little repetitive and overly done now for me)
Flight Simulator
That is all I got though. and technically Forza Horizon 4 is 5 years and 12 days.
Sunset Overdrive(Good)
Released in 2014, so while good, doesn't quite fit the "from the last 5 years" criteria (unless you're specifically talking about the PC port, which just squeaks in by a month, but I'm not sure that's quite in the spirit of the discussion).
I didnt actually realise the PC version was a year later(it was the PC release date I was looking at). Well... shit.
Point of Forza, driving cars around in circles will get repetitive after some point tho. I played Horizon 4 much more than 5 because 4 has a ranked system. I'm definitely going to play more Horizon 5 if they have a ranked system.
3D Ultra Pinball
Come on, how can they list that and not the masterpiece that is 3D Ultra Minigolf?
Seriously though, they're at least missing quite a bit of Sierra stuff there. Like Impressions Games city builders, or The Incredible Machine.
Wonderful news, I sure did want all those franchises that I loved to be turned to shit before being shelved for eternity.
Blizzard has already been doing that for a while. Also failing with new franchises, not investing in their core games, half assing releases. I hope they actually turn things around for games like Starcraft, Diablo, HotS etc
Blizzard would never have done that if Activision hadn't been allowed to buy them. The new conglomerate will be worse than we anticipate in the same way Activion-Blizzard was.
Why would they be worse? We have a bunch of good games out of Microsoft. I don't see how they could fuck it up
Blizzard had pretty much only made amazing games before Activision bought them. Activision also made a lot of good games back then. People couldn't see how the merger would fick it up back then, yet it still did.
I expect Bethesda to get infected with the worst that Activion-Blizzard has to offer more so than the opposite.
"If there are fewer and fewer games coming out that are more and more exclusive people will just have to buy an Xbox!" --an MBA, probably
Most of those are already shit (Fallout, Diablo, Overwatch, call of duty) or shelved 25+ years ago (Commander Keen, Hexen, Phantasmagoria...). Microsoft's own games are rather good compared to Activision Blizzar or even Bethesda.
Imagine all the money stupidly left on the table. All because they refuse to accept long term investment over short term gains.
So much money these franchises could have made - if they were given an honest chance
Look at them including perfect dark in the list as if they'd have the balls to make another sequel after they botched the last one after essentially using it as a launch exclusive title for the 360... such a shame. Perfect dark 64 was a masterpiece.
Ultimately the problem with Perfect Dark as a franchise is that everyone who made it great went off and formed Free Radical and made the TimeSplitters games.
There was a glimpse of prototype in that trailer and I can only dream of a new version of that game
It's probably because so many of them are mediocre or don't really exist as modern games. It's kinda sad that out of that list, there are so few 10/10 series there.
I liked its mechanical innovations, especially in how power armor works, but....
And I'm assuming we're just not talking about 76?
Yes they improved a lot of the gameplay in FO4, but Bethesda sucks at writing a good story. Just look at Starfield.
And yes, FO76 is worse. I was careful with my wording in the other comment.
There was a project to port the story from FNV into FO4, but I haven't checked on the progress in a year or so.
I remember buying a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro joystick that came bundled with Interstate '76... Hey MS, up for a revival?
I kid you not, that joystick and MS Flight Simulator 2004 got me through flight school and several ratings.
In the meantime, check out Amid Evil for an absolutely fantastic Heretic/Hexen like game.
I have more screenshots saved on steam in one playthrough of that game than any other game I've played.
My friend recommended Amogus Evil and it’s SOOOO GOOD.
It’s very faithful to Heretic and extremely well done.
Imagine leaving Lost Odyssey off of this list.
(Although I suppose maybe you need more than one game to be considered a "franchise" 😢)
Microsoft at least owns the trademark on it. Not being a lawyer, I don't know if that's at all decoupled from "the IP" or not, but I suspect they'd be tied fairly close together.
It would also be weird if Mistwalker signed a contract giving MS ownership of Blue Dragon (which is on the list, but has multiple games from different publishers) but not Lost Odyssey. I guess maybe the solution would be to remove Blue Dragon from the list rather than adding Lost Odyssey. 🤷♂️