Microsoft broke the internet with the announcement they acquired ZeniMax which holds some heavy hitting studios such as Bethesda, id Software and Arkane. This produced a butterfly effect which could have interesting consequences in the gaming world.
Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax was the breaking news the moment it was announced any now the internet is filled with articles writing about it. With large acquisition come many consequences and this one produced an amusing ripple effect. These are the six that immediately caught our attention.
Void left by Bungie might finally be filled by id Software
After Bungie departed Microsoft, they left Halo behind but the franchise was never the same, despite great effort from 343 Industries to deliver a worthy game to the fans. They have had ups and downs but the fans of the series always come back to the original trilogy when praises come to mind.
By acquiring id Software, Microsoft now has the option to throw the franchise into the lap of FPS veterans or simply have them assist 343 with future development. Input and help from the folks who gave us DOOM can be beneficial in many ways but we will probably not see results of this potential cooperation in Halo Infinite since the game was too deep into development before the acquisition.
Fallout: New Vegas 2 is back in the realm of possibility
Bethesda worked hard to separate their own work from Fallout: New Vegas, which they pretty much outsourced to Obsidian, and the possibility of having a sequel to one of the most beloved titles in the franchise was next to impossible. The infamous Metacritic bonus did not help the matter.
However, Bethesda and Obsidian are now sister studios, with the latter actually having practised their Fallout-like game creation with The Outer Worlds. It seems the studio already enjoys memeing about possibilities.
Fallout and heart of Interplay are now reunited
Interplay were the ones who kicked off Fallout series and then delivered another feast for RPG fans with Fallout 2. These titles were made by teams that included an all-star crew of Brian Fargo, Feargus Urquhart, Leonard Boyarsky, Tim Cain and Chris Avellone. Four out of five of those figures are now practically under one roof, ever since Microsoft acquired Obsidian and inXile Entertainment.
With the acquisition of ZeniMax, and therefore Bethesda, Fallout IP is now back in their backyard. Folks from Obsidian already worked on the aforementioned New Vegas, which is all the more reason for this reunion to be noteworthy. Then again, with Fargo's recent work on Wasteland 3, it's not impossible we could actually have an isometric turn-based Fallout game in the future. A fan can hope.
Bethesda could potentially step away from Creation Engine
This is something every fan of Bethesda's games is hoping for. It did the job in Skyrim, cracks were showing up with Fallout 4 and then it took part in the disastrous performance of Fallout 76. You will be hard-pressed to find someone outside of Bethesda who wouldn't want them to upgrade to something else and with the resources from Microsoft we could just see this.
Update: Close enough .
Sony
Microsoft will be handling two of PS5 timed exclusives
Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo were originally meant to be released on PlayStation 5 and PC. Microsoft now owns Bethesda, Tango Gameworks and Arkane Studios. In short, they acquired everything connected to these games. It remains to be seen when the Xbox Series X version of them will pop up but PlayStation 5 will get the games first. There is some irony in that.
Future Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Doom games may not come to PlayStation 5
PlayStation fans who also like these franchises are probably worried right now, and for a good reason. Sony's big selling point is the weight carried by PS5 exclusives but Microsoft now has potential heavy hitters on their hands that may be coming only to Xbox Series X, as far as the realm of consoles goes.
The Elder Scrolls VI is still in early development and it's hard to make predictions at this point but it's also hard to imagine Microsoft having such an advantage over Sony only to give it away. On the bright side, we're likely to have TES VI on Game Pass whether it's on PC or XSX.
Possibility of things like Fallout 76 happening again is much lower now
Fallout 76 launch is probably best described as a trainwreck that was propelled by some force of nature for the sole purpose of crashing further. There are many theories on what went wrong here and why Bethesda made something that was clearly not going to win any polish, gameplay or storytelling awards.
One among the theories is that the company was grasping for a cash injection and a GaaS title set in Fallout was the way to go. This could severely impact the quality of the game and now that they are under Microsoft's roof, at least the possibility of financial trouble is going out the window(s?).
