140°

EA Almost Purchased Bethesda Parent Company at One Point

Electronic Arts almost purchased Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media at one point, according to Bloomberg.

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playstationlifestyle.net
RazzerRedux1347d ago

No doubt I'm glad MS got Zenimax instead of EA.

RightFootGames1347d ago

I'm not at least they would still be multiplatform.

RazzerRedux1347d ago

I'm not certain that won't continue to be multiplatform. EA would ruin them though. I'd rather have good games from Bethesda on PC than crap games on PS.

RightFootGames1346d ago

They won't continue to be multiplatform, you're kidding yourself, Microsoft isn't paying 2-3x the value of Bethesda to help Sony and Nintendo and anyone else Bethesda would have made games for. Microsoft wants to control gaming like they do Windows.

AuraAbjure1346d ago

You don't know that all games will be exclusive to Xbox. MS may want to make more money off of some games and allow them to be multiplatform.

Monster_Tard1346d ago

"Microsoft isn't paying 2-3x the value of Bethesda to help Sony and Nintendo"

As if they aren't doing that already with Minecraft and various other games on the Switch?

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1346d ago
jukins1346d ago

What studio has microsoft had thats turned into a world class developer though? Rare?. Ensemble? Bungie wanted to leave, lionhead? Could go on and on.

1346d ago
1346d ago Replies(1)
Games1st1347d ago

Yikes, chairman wanted to sell out.

jukins1346d ago

Yea there was a ton of turmoil. One of the execs resigned due to sexual harassment or assualt allegations. All the board members were financially invested but could care less about the actual company as long as they made money. Bunch of celebrities and athletes like cal ripken Jr. But they got over 2x their worth so I'm sure they're all happy

enkiduxiv1346d ago

Although I complain about Microsoft on here a lot, EA would have been a hundred times worse. I strongly suspect Microsoft will continue to monetize Bethesda titles, but hopefully they won’t be as lazy and entitled as EA when they do it. The last thing we need is an annual release of multiplayer Fallout with minor reskins.

C-H-E-F1346d ago

Alot of ya'll keep talking about "exclusivity", Microsoft stands to gain much more money leaving the games as multiplatform. Sure they may snatch some of the top tier games as exclusives or have them come out on their system first, but lets face it the Xbox doesn't sell well when compared to the other two systems. Microsoft is in this for the money so they will move accordingly. I don't expect games like Skyrim to be a console exclusive, sure a timed exclusive. Minecraft is a perfect example as to what they will be willing to do with companies they acquire that make third party games on both platforms.

1346d ago
Fist4achin1345d ago

Agreed. I think they will have some games exclusive, but since MS owns the studio, sales on other consoles is still money in their pocket.

160°

Why is Steam Blocked in Vietnam? Government Shares Reason

Finally, the Vietnamese government has officially responded to Steam being blocked in the country.

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spieltimes.com
blacktiger1d 14h ago

AMAZING! Thank You Gabe, stand for freedom of speech!!!!

PRIMORDUS1d 14h ago

VPN to buy games, fuck that if it's allowed or not, or just use a VPN and torrent what you can.

seanpitt231d 2h ago

I just cannot believe we haven't had a game from them this generation nearly 4 years in.. crazy!

Knightofelemia1d 7h ago

If the game is crap then yes there will always be negative feedback it comes with the territory. It's called word of mouth or welcome to the internet. Where the truth about a game comes out really fast whether the game is good or crap. If you can't handle the criticism because of a game then why publish the game. Why should people who never criticized or even played the game be punished? Vietnam has some really screwed up laws block Steam because they don't answer us rule. And going on a witch hunt with Steam please. Where's the proof, where's the evidence of this witch hunt. Somebody is butt hurt and has a Vietnamese Karen leading the witch hunt.

250°

Take-Two CEO Doesn’t Think AI Will Reduce Employment or Dev Costs; “Stupidest Thing” He’s Heard

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn't think AI will reduce employment or lower development costs, and calls it "stupidest thing" he's ever heard.

lodossrage2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

They already have AI trained to do coding.......

How he thinks it's stupid is beyond me, Especially since we see it happening in real time.

CS72d ago

Company A has 300 employees and lays of 200 to replace them with AI to release the same quality game.

Company B has 300 employees and keeps all 300 but instead uses AI to release a game with dramatically larger scale, scope, complexity, short dev cycle etc.

Company B would release a dramatically better product by using humans + AI and consumers would buy the better game.

I actually agree with this concept.

Huey_My_D_Long2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

This is key facet. Its how the AI is used. It's actually is impressive as is and really would make an amazing addition to alot of people in their jobs, not just tech. It also has the potential for businesses to use to lay off large amounts of people, as much as they could to save money on labor. I hope too many companies don't go with the latter. But since usually companies are worried about bottom line over people...we will see some try and hopefully fail. But yeah, if its to help workers like in your company B scenario I'm totally down...Just scared Company A may be too enticing to some ceos and businesses.

Darkegg2d ago

Value of AI and value of humans will both be increased with human-AI complex. Each, by themselves, will not be independently better than the other. Whether AI will ever be independent from humans is the fear question of humans, ironically because of our doing. At this stage, most of the doing is because of humans, not because of AI. AI is doing exactly that by our design, until we have failed ourselves with an AI development that went awry. The biggest take is that humans have only ourselves to blame when things become wrong, and we have to decide what is the ultimate goal with AI we want to accomplish. It would take a person with high morals and high ethics to make right of AI. I would not want businessman to decide what AI should do or what capabilities it can have. AI should be in the hands of people with high moral fiber, or those operating on love, kindness, and compassion.

BlackOni2d ago

AI is SUPPOSED to be used as a tool, not a replacement. It's designed to do two important things artists can take advantage of immediately.

- Make the ideation/reference imaging process much quicker and easier (basically using it as a google search)
- Make mundane and time consuming tasks faster and easier so more time is spent on creation.

Unfortunately, what many have done is used it as a way to replace rather than supplement.

Einhander19722d ago (Edited 2d ago )

CS7

In the ideal world yes.

In the real world where companies have shown little desire to innovate and spent every effort to maximize profits the end result will be the same quality games (if were lucky) made by less people and more AI.

Company Real World: Fires 200 people and makes the same game cheaper using AI and the executives get record bonuses.

Edit:

Lets look at history, specifically auto manufacturing.

In the 70's and 80's the auto unions tried to oppose automation of jobs (robots) stating that they would take peoples jobs. And the people in charge who wanted to make more money said the exact same types of things that are being said about AI. But we can look at history and see that countless types of jobs were in fact replaced by automation, that was of course even compounded upon by computers.

The net effect was that the rich got richer less jobs were needed so wages were forced down by competition for the jobs that were left.

hombreacabado1d 20h ago

that concept works in the initial beginning phase of AI but once AI learns and surpasses the knowledge and coding expertise of even the best human employee than this CEO will no longer need competent humans in that line of work.

Extermin8or3_1d 18h ago

@Hue_My£D_Long

Yes but that is a choice then by massively increased productivity and this greater income and wealth and stagnating with similar levels of productivity and output and not creating much wealth. Usually the option that creates wealth prevails because a rising tide raises all ships.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 1d 18h ago
Number1TailzFan2d ago

You can already make your own SFX with text prompts now as well, of course it will lower development cost and time

1Victor2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

WARNING WARNING ‼️ SARCASM AHEAD
Sure Strauss and robots didn’t take jobs from car factories.
Edit:Sad thing is he believes it and unfortunately he won’t be replaced for a long time by AI

senorfartcushion2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

He doesn't, he's just lying. These people lay people off so they can get bonuses. If AI takes jobs, their bonus goes bigger and the workforce goes smaller.

porkChop2d ago

Because he sees AI as a tool to aid development. He wants to use AI to help make bigger and better games in the same timeframe. Other CEOs want to replace devs with AI to cut costs and make lifeless games faster for a quick buck. Strauss has the right idea, this is how AI should be used. To extend and expand the capabilities of devs.

neutralgamer19921d 19h ago

There will be few companies who will go overboard and try to replace their employees with AI tech. The ones that will make the most money will be the ones that utilize ai, along with their employee talent, to make the best product possible

AI could handle some of the most time consuming processes. To expediate the development, so in return, costing the publisher's last money end time.

Extermin8or3_1d 18h ago

Not reliably they haven't. Coding done by ai is generally abysmal for all but the most generic tasks.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 1d 18h ago
jambola2d ago

Ceo says stupid thing
Part 5837384

Zeref2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

I think maybe sometimes we give people in these positions too much credit when it comes to intelligence.

DarXyde1d 23h ago

I think you mean candor, not intelligence.

If you take him to mean what he's saying at face value, sure.

I don't. And I think he's clearly lying.

romulus232d ago

As long as it doesn't effect his inflated executive salary or his ridiculous bonuses I'm sure he's fine with it.

RNTody2d ago

Hahaha yeah trust the CEO suit over the actual developers making the games. Good one.

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200°

Sony shares big new PS Plus stat, but not the one we want to see

PlayStation Plus has improved the split of PS4 and PS5 players on its priciest tiers, but Sony continues to hide total subscriber numbers.

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theloadout.com
mandf4d ago

lol acting like it’s equivalent to ms numbers

Mr Logic4d ago

Uh...They're definitely not equivalent.

"Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service now has 34 million subscribers."

"the total number of PS Plus subscribers across all tiers was 47.4 million"

darthv724d ago (Edited 4d ago )

That PSN number seems like it should be much higher... especially when you consider that PS4 alone has a sell through of over 117m. To not even be at least half that is rather interesting.

To the XB side, having 34m to an install base of roughly 50m (XBO sell through) or even 85m (360 sell through) is a greater percentage of unit to member ratio than PSN.

bloop4d ago

That's not the "gotcha" you think it is Darth.

darthv724d ago

^^it's not supposed to be bloop.... it's just an interesting observation.

Einhander19724d ago

darthv72

"That PSN number seems like it should be much higher... especially when you consider that PS4 alone has a sell through of over 117m. To not even be at least half that is rather interesting.

To the XB side, having 34m to an install base of roughly 50m (XBO sell through) or even 85m (360 sell through) is a greater percentage of unit to member ratio than PSN."

Have you ever heard of a PC before? I hear they are pretty popular.

fr0sty4d ago

MS started lumping gold subscribers in with those GP numbers... keep in mind.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4d ago
shinoff21834d ago (Edited 4d ago )

What. Definitely more os plus subscribers but that makes sense due to actual console sales

Darth the difference between the bases are huge your right but you gotta think. Ps players buy more games, where as the Xbox base relies on gamepass for their gaming. So it makes perfect sense

darthv724d ago (Edited 4d ago )

What makes perfect sense though? You say PS players buy more games... so then logically there should be more PS+ subscribers given the increased number of online multiplayer games in the PS4 generation alone. The PS4 was the first time that + was required for online play much like Gold was for 360 users.

Keep in mind we are talking subscribers, not simply XB/PS users. I assume you meant to say offline single player games, which is most likely true as well. That gen also saw a significant increase in games with an online component comparted to the previous gen.

victorMaje4d ago

I for one will be going back to essential at the next renewal. When I feel a game is good & right up my alley, I’ll check trusted reviews & just buy it.

jznrpg4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

I have the top tier until 2028 as they gave me a massive discount for all the years I had left but I’ll most likely go to essential as well. I buy my games but my kids do use the service occasionally. They do prefer to own their games as well since any game can leave the rental service at some point and they don’t like that idea. They mostly use it to demo games then ask me to buy games if they really like it.

RedDevils4d ago

For me, I will cancel it all together but unfortunately I still have it till 2030 lol

meganick4d ago

I would like to see Sony add a fourth tier of PS Plus for people who just want to be able to play games online without any of the perks like monthly games, store discounts, or anything like that, and it should cost $20 annually, $30 maximum. There’s no way I’m paying $80 just to play games online. Even the original $60 fee was too much, and I would often wait for sales to re-up my subscription.

P_Bomb4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

Essential is too expensive, I agree. We’ve got one Essential and one Premium sub. Dropping the Premium when it expires.

gamerz4d ago

Just let my subscription lapse for the first time since 2010. Will sub again every now and then for a month or so to access my old ps+ games but for me it's the end of an era.

DivineHand1254d ago

Let those numbers continue to drop because it is now too expensive. $80 per year just to play online. I noticed they didn't offer any discounts on the subscription or controllers during this year's days of play for the first time in many years and they will feel it when people choose not to renew.

My subscription will lapse next month and it will stay that way until further notice.

KevtheDuff4d ago

There were savings on subs and controllers here in the UK? I bought a controller yesterday in the sale..
It would be weird if those deals were not in other territories too?