Microsoft Plans To Merge ZeniMax Into A New Subsidiary Called 'Vault'

An EU Law document has revealed that Microsoft plans to merge ZeniMax into a new subsidiary called Vault.

[rlow1]

Does that translate to, "Vault of Money"???

[Godmars290]

More like "pit of money" if the best they do from now on is Fallout 76.

[MadLad]

Guess you forgot about every single release they made since Morrowind in 2002. Not to mention all of the other award winning devs they got in the acquisition.

[Atom666]

As well as Fallout 76 sold, it kind of was a pit (empty game) full of money.

But you can't ignore the revenue their big two generate. Before Cyberpunk, I believe Fallout 4 generated the most $$$ at launch than any game this gen. ESO actually has really high sub numbers. And games like Doom continue to do well.

Also, Days Gone did hit with a lot of bugs. It's why its score is way lower than it should be. Doesn't compare to a ES or Fallout, but let's not act like everyone is perfect except for those top few Sony titles.

Not sure how MS has a rep for bugs though? Online launch issues? Well that's been true of everyone (Sony included).

[S2Killinit]

I think its a fitting name for cannabilizing the industry by buying multiplatform developers, making them exclusive to one console, then putting their games behind the paywall.

Vault, yep, that’s pretty much accurate.

[Orchard]

"puts the future of Bethesda releases on PS5 still largely up in the air"

Realistically, why would anyone genuinely believe Microsoft spent 7.5bn on this to release the games on PlayStation? The value is clearly in exclusivity.

[Nyxus]

Because they can make more money that way. Same as they're doing with Minecraft. Not saying it's a guarantee, but it's not impossible either.

[Sonyslave3]

Dude xbox making money good money and plus ms already made enough cash to buy zenimax twice lol they dont need playstation or nintendo.

[Nyxus]

They may not need it but they want money right? Also, if they don't need the other platforms, why is Minecraft multiplatform?

Then there's also this: https://arstechnica.com/gam...

[gamer7804]

Minecraft was pre existing, I highly doubt new Bethesda games will come to PlayStation, maybe ESO will stay like Minecraft did

[Tedakin]

Sony can "make more money" if they put their games on PC and Xbox too. Sony only supports Sony. Xbox supports Xbox, Windows and Steam, and even android with gamepass. Their reach is over 80% of the gaming market.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

@Nyxus

You provided a good link. Bethesda's games being multiplatform would be the most ideal outcome, and their language indicates something close to this unless they're just all lying to make the acquisition easier to approve.

Microsoft's ultimate goal is for GamePass to be the Netflix of gaming and you need enough studios to create regular content for a service like that. That's the main reason they're buying Bethesda (loads of good studios and varied IPs, lots of good content). That's a vision that the higher ups were able to get behind, and that's why the Xbox division was given so much more money for this investment than the division currently justifies (they publicly stated in the past that Xbox was not a core MS business). Everything else is secondary unless it hinders GamesPass.

Bethesda's games all coming to GamePass and having their games be full price and/or come later on PlayStation incentivizes people to subscribe to GamePass and opt for an Xbox while allowing MS to make large profits from other audiences. It seems like a good predicament for MS.

[porkChop]

MS, Sony, and Nintendo could all make more money by releasing their games on rival platforms. That doesn't mean anything.

The Bethesda buyout was unprecedented. It was a power move, a major play. You don't spend that kind of money just to keep the games multiplatform, because that doesn't bolster your own platforms in any way.

[Notellin]

They make more money by luring people into the ecosystem. PC and Xbox will bring plenty of sales.

Why wouldn't Nintendo and Sony release their games on other platforms if it was all about games sold?

[DOMination-]

I always read this comment about making more money if it is released on competing consoles but if that was the case, why don't Microsoft and Sony make all their games multiplatform? I don't think it's this simplistic.

I don't know the answer, but I would speculate that there is great value in keeping products exclusive to your ecosystem. By the time any Bethesda games are released, the margin in the hardware sales should be there to make up some of the lost sales in software - and for the stubborn few who refuse to buy Xbox at any cost but will play on PC - many of them will end up subscribing to gamepass in some form to play it.

[Zeref]

Well they would make more money if Halo was on PS5 as well.
Why is God of War not on Xbox? They'd make more money as well.

🤦🏾‍♂️

[wiz7191]

I mean Minecraft was already multi platform before Microsoft purchased Mojang. It would of been a disaster if they removed Minecraft from other consoles it was already on.

[RazzerRedux]

"Minecraft was pre existing, "

Minecraft Dungeons wasn't.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

The same argument could be used for all exclusives.

[RazzerRedux]

"The same argument could be used for all exclusives."

Not all exclusives started out trying to justify a $7.5 billion price tag.

[Destiny1080]

losing 70% of your sales is not good for any company

but if there's one company that could do it, its microsoft

[gamer7804]

If they put the games day one in Xbox gamespass then It would be worth it for MS to get people to come to Xbox and subscribe to gamespass

[Neonridr]

the company won't care because they aren't funding development anymore.

[Orchard]

Microsoft just made two Bethesda’s in profit in 3 months. I don’t think they’re worried about cutting other platforms.

[CJQNSNYC]

70%? You think Xbox and PC only account for 30% of Bethesda's sales? I think you've grossly underestimated how popular Bethesda's games are on Steam and Xbox.

[Tedakin]

They release their games on Steam and Windows. MS's reach is over 80% of the gaming market. So more like 18%, but it will drive people to play on Xbox or PC, so they'll make up a lot of that.

[Sonyslave3]

I know right it going to be 99% xbox/pc smh. The only games i can see coming to switch or ps5 is the mmo's.

[Darkborn]

Yeah, Microsoft did, not Xbox. Xbox is basically a money pit.

[Sonyslave3]

No actually xbox is making good money did you read ms report xbox is making profits.

Here im going to let matty and a hardcore ps fan explain

Yongera
https://m.youtube.com/watch...

MrMattyPlays
https://m.youtube.com/watch...

[Darkborn]

So they made over the amount they just spent on zenimax? That would be profit. And I mean Xbox, not Microsoft that makes billions all the time.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

That's why Phil used MS and not Xbox division. MS spent 7.5b and made back 15b back.

[Darkborn]

Exactly, it's a money pit. I remember investors of Microsoft were wondering a few years ago where their return was with Xbox. They probably barely made their investment in mojang, and all the other recent studios back and now they go and spend way more before they get a return. The guys in suits might get pissed pretty soon unless they they get paid.

[Orchard]

@Darkborn irrelevant really. Xbox is profitable but Sony also make money from non-PlayStation products, just not as much as Microsoft overall.

So yes, Microsoft are a more successful corporation than Sony and can therefore afford things like Bethesda.

No one cares how Xbox or PlayStation are doing - they care how Microsoft and Sony are doing. You can’t buy Xbox or PlayStation stocks.

As for the “guys in suits getting annoyed”... I doubt they’re annoyed. Microsoft is now one of the most valuable companies, over 15x that of Sony and is trending towards 2 trillion dollars value.

[waverider]

Thats what they dont understand. Microsoft did. The Gaming division is another thing.

[Darkborn]

The thing you guys don't seem to understand is everytime the investors get reports, it's almost always negative for Xbox. Eventually they might just shut it down. Look at Google stadia. Google could go buy Sony and Microsoft right now in one day and they just shut down stadia gaming studios. Also, look at Amazon. Another huge company that could buy basically a bunch of huge publishers and it wouldn't even be what they pay in taxes (or don't). They are shutting down games and probably going quietly into the night.

[Orchard]

@Darkborn Almost always negative? Please link one. I went through earnings reports for the last two years and didn’t find any negative Xbox ones.

Also Google could go buy Microsoft? What? Microsoft are valued higher than Google right now - over 400bn higher.

Fanboys have claimed MS will kill Xbox for multiple generations now and yet here we are with new consoles and Microsoft investing more dollars in gaming than ever, and far more than Sony too. Maybe Sony will shut PlayStation down!?

[Darkborn]

Well this was last year. A report saying earnings went down is not positive. I will say it does say that the expansion of game pass is helping Microsoft out though and it's true. Offering free games for a cheap subscription is a good thing for consumers but a bad thing for productivity.

https://www.siliconrepublic...

[Orchard]

Right... so it made less money one of the last 8 quarters. But was still profitable. I’m sure investors would be fine with that - they would only care if it was in the red/negative.

[Fluttershy77]

Exclusives are great, but at the time Minecraft wouldn't have changed by itself the destiny of Xbox One... the game became super popular because it launched in every single platform... it's an all platform friendly game.
Look at the best fighting game of the last decade Killer Instinct... A master piece that is... dead, a commercial failure (the people that made that game were forced to vanish, they are working in Amazon Games or something. I think KI would have been way more popular if it launched on Playstation too, even the switch.
Also there are two ways of having exclusives:
1) Developing and taking risks with unknown IPs (it could be great or could be a failure)
2) Bulling your way around with money

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Exclusivity to boost console sales is definitely not the reason this purchase was approved. The numbers don't add up.

The PS4 was the most profitable console in gaming history ( https://www.gamesradar.com/... ) and the PS division still doesn't have the money to buy Bethesda. The PS division itself made $1.6 billion in profit in 2018, for example. Even if MS somehow won the console war with 100 million Xbox consoles sold, ***this $7.5 billion acquisition would eat beyond an entire console generation worth of profits by itself***.

They did it because want high subscription numbers for GamePass (they want it to be the Netflix of gaming and to get a foothold), and they need studios to make content for the service. Their Bethesda games being full price on PlayStation and potentially first on Xbox would work out very well for them.

[DragonWarrior19]

Tell that to Minecraft

[PapaBop]

Not sure what the most updated statistics are but I can give you over 114m (PS4 consoles sold) reasons why

[waverider]

Hundreds of millions on PS consoles where all sell much more then on xbox consoles, because their marketshare is much much bigger.

[moomoo319]

They will strategically lock certain exclusives to xbox or gamepass, but definitely not every bethesda game they release.

[JL2930]

Because Sony need all the games they can get, they only produce interactive movies.

[S2Killinit]

MS is pretending that these developers may release on other consoles to prevent any possible backlash they may receive for cannibalizing the industry. Then they will also be able to announce the exclusivity as a “surprise” for the shock effect. You can mark my words here. The games will be MS exclusives. This is how MS behaves. Always has.

[BrainSyphoned]

Because it will just be a vault of games from when Bethesda was worth something.

[Sitdown]

Come on, you can do better than that.

[BrainSyphoned]

My thoughts exactly on the name. I'm sure someone tried to 76 it but was told "it just works"

[boing1]

https://youtu.be/841xaPgT8I...

[King_Noctis]

Didn’t Bethesda literally published Doom Eternal last year? Are you saying Doom Eternal worth nothing?

[Tedakin]

Doom Eternal was a Bethesda game, and one of the best games of the last several years.

[Vizigoth04]

Nothing hardly ever comes out of a vault anyway so that’s cool.

[fitofficial]

TES VI: Minecraft Edition Day One Starter Pack

[phoenixwing]

Wouldn't surprise me with how blocky the other elder scrolls have been

[TheColbertinator]

Hurry up and release ES6 on whatever system. Keep your trash gaas but give me the damn single player RPG where I can kill the Thalmor.

[FortWaba]

This means one of two things.

Either get ready for *a lot more* Bethesda games, especially Fallout....

Or get ready for Microsoft to continue sitting on IPs and not releasing anything, like Nintendo.

[King_Noctis]

How can you make that deduction base on a name?

[FortWaba]

I don't know why I have downvotes. Microsoft tends to do this with studios they acquire, just as EA. Rare still hurts. Lionhead. Ensemble (my God I miss those games). Twisted Pixel.

[Willelmus]

The article understands nothing about business.

The only reason for the creation of a new structure like this is to give Bethesda independance in regards to Microsoft as a whole. It was probably part of the deal: I let you buy our property but we can still do what we want with it.

With Vault in place, Bethesda staff will only have to report to higher ups within the company and not microsoft staff, meaning they'll only be responsible for development and won't have pressure to make tons of cash as that will be handle on a higher level.

I'm really hoping no one with a bit of brain is still expecting MS to publish big RPG's on playstation.

[potatoseal]

Yes, all you have to do is google 'What is a subsidiary'. I mean, but to me, this points to Bethesda releasing games on Playstation. I assure you I have "a bit of a brain".

Also that MS exec saying, "we want Bethesda games to be "first, better or best on Xbox". One way or another those games are coming to Playstation. But as always, we'll see won't we. No one knows yet

[Zeref]

This means that they'll keep the publishing arm of Zenimax, which is great news, otherwise a lot of people would lose their job.

[sourOG]

Vault-Tec would have been better

[boing1]

I believe GamePass will be available on Playstation and Switch one day. That is the obvious direction if they want to be 'Netflix' of gaming. To be on every possible platform that can support it. Can you imagine the future where GamePass is on every platform and games like Elder Scrolls or Starfiled are 'free' but playable only with active subscription? I think it's coming.

[purple101]

People put so much hope behind elder Scrolls and starfield, let me tell you... these are most time intensive games that are in existence, some would say, there super nerdy' too.

not mainstream.

Don't sell like GTA. Don't have advertising appeal like Spiderman. And will do very little to turn Xboxes fortunes around not to mention starfield has been stuck in development hell for 5 years.

What Microsoft needed . Was a good halo and a couple other games.

They failed on all fronts.

[anast]

They are going to suck for a long time.

[franwex]

So only fallout from now on. Godspeed guys.

[Father__Merrin]

They won't come under MGS but rather this subsidiary it might be in the deal to get past EU commission. The studio acquisitions especially Bethesda will still self publish

[Tedakin]

If you read the full statement, the Vault is just a temporary company they're creating to finish the transition, then the company will revert back to Zenimax.

[Tedakin]

It's funny how many people actually think Sony makes up "70% of the gaming market". MS actually releases their games on over 80%. Sony games are only available to around 17% of the overall gaming market.