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bluethief: This is insane!!

However something just came up in my mind: now that Microsoft owns both id and Raven, Wolfenstein 2009 and Heretic II can come back from publishing/licences hell.
And maybe Raven can become what it once was, and not a cod supportive studio.

Hopefully it's not wishfull thinking.
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FulVal: This will never happen...
Yeah, I'm not holding my breath for it.
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bluethief: This is insane!!

However something just came up in my mind: now that Microsoft owns both id and Raven, Wolfenstein 2009 and Heretic II can come back from publishing/licences hell.
And maybe Raven can become what it once was, and not a cod supportive studio.

Hopefully it's not wishfull thinking.
And the Activision MechWarrior games as well. But, I wouldn't expect anything until well after middle of 2023, when/if the deal is finalized.
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MysterD: This also puts under Microsoft umbrella - Arcanum IP.
Microsoft owns Obsidian, InXile, and Bethesda, so....can we get Arcanum 2?
Wishful thinking.
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bluethief: This is insane!!

However something just came up in my mind: now that Microsoft owns both id and Raven, Wolfenstein 2009 and Heretic II can come back from publishing/licences hell.
And maybe Raven can become what it once was, and not a cod supportive studio.

Hopefully it's not wishfull thinking.
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SCPM: And the Activision MechWarrior games as well. But, I wouldn't expect anything until well after middle of 2023, when/if the deal is finalized.
I'm more inclined to not expect anything at all, tbh. I feel that ever since Microsoft bought Bethesda, in March 2021, no more Bethesda games arrived on GOG. Might be a coincidence, but still...

So I'm inclined to believe that if something from Activision is to be released here, it'll happen before their official merge with Microsoft on 2023.
I hope they shut down Battle.net and give free transfers of owned games to Steam.
low rated
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MysterD: Things get more tricky if there's some files only server-side, Saves Cloud-side, and/or stuff of that sort. Probably would be a pain for hackers to reverse-engineer, to work offline.

Gamers are used to this treatment as they have all of these shiny features in their client-app on PC or on their console - Achievements, Online Co-Op/MP (if supported), Cloud Saves, etc etc.

Gamers often can't wait - and just buy stuff ASAP at $60-70. A lot of us here on GOG might not be of that club, but a majority of gamers do buy stuff on Pre-Order, Day 1, Week 1, or not too long after.

Dev's and pub's seem to be training gamers for the inevitable streaming-only gaming take-over, whenever that horrible inevitably comes.
So gross, man. People are rightfully appalled at the manipulative phenomenon of "grooming," yet don't realize a more benign version of that is happening to them when it comes to accessing media.

As for buying stuff day 1, I have no problem with that if it's DRM-free (actually DRM-free, not just advertised that way by GOG in between pushing their proprietary client Galaxy that Manages the Rights to your Digital media).

I do see where day 1 buying results in some of "early adopters are beta testers and the complete game doesn't come out in a working state for another year or two" mentality, but I think that's a separate issue beyond DRM.
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tyl0413: I hope they shut down Battle.net and give free transfers of owned games to Steam.
I would guess Microsoft would instead give gamers a Microsoft-version just for Xbox for PC client-app, to keep gamers into their Xbox for PC Client-app and its ecosystem.
Post edited January 18, 2022 by MysterD
So a megacorporation that did some good things many years ago but has since become rotten to the core and has an important part of the blame for what's wrong not just with software but even with computing as a whole acquires another megacorporation that did some good things many years ago but has since become rotten to the core and has an important part of the blame for what's wrong with computer gaming. Heh...
Monopoly, The Video Game Industry Edition
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MysterD: This also puts under Microsoft umbrella - Arcanum IP.
Microsoft owns Obsidian, InXile, and Bethesda, so....can we get Arcanum 2?
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Mafwek: Wishful thinking.
Hey, I can dream, right? ;)

In an ideal world - we'd get Arcanum 2 by either Obsidian or InXile, done w/ the combat-styling of Fallout 1 & 2 and Wasteland 2 and 3.

If a company was going to do a modern version w/ open-world RPG/FPS hybrid combo (think say Fallout 3 and 4; Fallout NV or The Outer Worlds here) - then you could say get Bethesda or better yet Obsidian to do Arcanum 2.
Post edited January 18, 2022 by MysterD
I've got a few takes on this...

1. I refuse to call it Microsoft-Activison-Blizzard.

2. They are going to make Blizzard games exclusives to Xbox

3. I had a third point, but forgot what it it was.
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tyl0413: I hope they shut down Battle.net and give free transfers of owned games to Steam.
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MysterD: I would guess Microsoft would instead give gamers a Microsoft-version just for Xbox for PC client-app, to keep gamers into their Xbox for PC Client-app and its ecosystem.
Would people be willing to trade Battle.net for Xbox app, though? I haven't used one or another, but from what I read, it seems to me people really dislike the Xbox app.
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NuffCatnip: Great, Microsoft swallows yet another company, just what the world needs. /s
Normally I'd agree. I certainly shared that concern over Bethesda going that way; but ActiBlizz is a shitshow. As popular as it might be, that doesn't detract from what it is.
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MysterD: I would guess Microsoft would instead give gamers a Microsoft-version just for Xbox for PC client-app, to keep gamers into their Xbox for PC Client-app and its ecosystem.
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bluethief: Would people be willing to trade Battle.net for Xbox app, though? I haven't used one or another, but from what I read, it seems to me people really dislike the Xbox app.
I could also see Microsoft pulling a Rockstar here - making games from Activision require both the original service for the game (Battle.Net) since it was properly built from the ground-up w/ that service (why re-work the features and spend $ on that?) AND also toss another service like Xbox PC App right on top of that.

EDIT - Actually, maybe since many newer Microsoft games on Steam require both Steam and Xbox for PC App (like Gears 5, Halo infinite, Halo MCC, Forza Horizon 5), so...a double client-DRM whammy would make sense from Microsoft.
Post edited January 18, 2022 by MysterD
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StingingVelvet: That really seems like too much money to me. Like ten times the Bethesda deal for a bunch of brands that are arguably fading from the spotlight and teams that are shadows of what they once were? Seems like banking a lot on CoD remaining dominant and Diablo 4 bringing people back. I'm not an analyst though, wtf do I know.

This doesn't effect me directly much, I don't even have Battle.net installed. Industry wise though it's an earthquake I suppose. They also announced GamePass has 25 million subscribers, so we're definitely headed toward the Netflix model for the gaming industry, for better or worse (worse).
That's the big concern for me. I just can't get on board with subscription game services of any kind. Even when I had Xbox Game Pass for 3 months I barely used it; and when I did it was more as if the games were demos than full products.

I can imagine that there'll be games that are subscription-exclusive before too long. It's a negative direction to be headed in and it's not the only negative direction the industry is heading in right now.