The boss of Bethesda has told staff the company must now focus on its “strongest franchises” amid sweeping layoffs across Xbox.
  • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlEnglish
    6 hours

    Yeah let’s focus on our franchises like Doom and Quake – by firing half the staff at id.

    Sony is on fire, Microsoft is on fire, Nintendo seems to be doing fine by focusing on brands and profit-first hardware; Valve is doing its own thing…Where did everyone else go so wrong?

    • aksdb@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4 hours

      Looks like those that do badly are those that went on an acquisition spree over the last years.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4 hours

      I think Nintendo has moved to niche, their gaming selection is so bad.

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    4 hours

    Yeah… Todd and Emil… are gonna have to… actually make something good.

    For the first time in a decade.

    Right so like Asha’s statement said that no publically announced games have been cancelled.

    … Does Elder Scrolls 6 … actually count as publically announced?

    Its never had a release date or window, its only ever had one trailer, basically just a panning landscape shot…

    FallOut 5 certainly isn’t any kind of actually ‘publically announced’.

    Yeah I can see enough wiggle room there that Asha can basically be a fascist and just straight up tell Todd and Emil exactly what to do, and threaten to fire them if they don’t.

    Also just… as a former MSFT employee… I do not have enough lols to type in response to ‘we’re going to make sure there are no more than 5 layers of management, and also having a COO is probably a good idea’.

    Yeah. Yep. I … actually just straight up agree with that one, yep.

    Too bad expressing such sentiments a decade ago wasn’t exactly uh, well reviewed by my superiors at the time, oh well, cest la vie.

  • Abyssian@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10 hours

    Yes, it’s always a wonderful idea for creative game companies to stop being creative and trying to come up with cool new things and instead focus on things that have sold well in the past to please the shareholders.

    That always works out for everyone.

    • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 hours

      They could make a new Halo, that goes past even normal numbers. They don’t even have to settle for billions of gamers. They could call it…Halo Infinite.

    • kureta@lemmy.mlEnglish
      6 hours

      Well, so f as r it worked really well for Bethesda. They sold Skyrim 10 times to everyone.

  • Kn1ghtDigital@lemmy.zipEnglish
    20 hours

    NGL I don’t have a lot of faith in Bethesda to actually create quality anymore. The image for this is for Vegas, which was more obsidian’s work, and they did it in a fraction of time, I think?

    • DupaCycki@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8 hours

      Depends how you look at it. Obsidian was more like a modding team than a game development team for New Vegas. They had the engine and all mechanics ready to use. All they had to do was minor tweaks and new content. So essentially modding, not developing a game.

      Arguably, most of ‘game development’ these days is more akin to ‘modding’ from 10+ years ago, so the terms kind of lose their meaning. But New Vegas was made in 2008-2010, so I think it fits.

      As we can see years later, games made by Obsidian from scratch aren’t nearly as good. Perhaps what made New Vegas great was the mix of Bethesda and Obsidian. Or maybe Obsidian just lost their edge, like most studios, sadly.

    • iamthetot@piefed.caEnglish
      18 hours

      I’m a huge Elder Scrolls fan. I met my partner on Elder Scrolls Online. I have pretty much zero faith in Elder Scrolls VI being any good.

      • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15 hours

        I mean ESO was developed by ZeniMax. Perhaps it would be best to let them handle Bethesda‘s franchises directly and disband their subsidiary. I suspect Bethesda has suffered too much from toxic positivity.

  • Green Wizard@lemmy.zipEnglish
    11 hours

    Good luck Bethesda, even Obsidian has hit an 18 carat run of bad luck. I guess they’ll stay afloat due to casual players and the fact that its an elderschrolls game. But count me the fuck out on getting es6, that shit will need to be fucking amazing for me to pay the AAA price it will inevitability be, and I mean AMAZING cause after fallout 4 I’ve been disappointed with them. God I wanna be wrong Tod, PLEASE TOD PROVE ME WRONG 😭 <p>Edit: meant es6 not es7

  • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20 hours

    I’m not a CEO or anything but maybe they should try making an elder scrolls more than once every 20 years.

    • alekwithak@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19 hours

      But making games costs money. Corporations are supposed to make money for their shareholders, not spend it!

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14 hours

      Here’s my uninspired lame advise that will never happen: ZeniMax should close down Bethesda. Then they should contract the Crimson Dessert guys and hire a good writer to make the next Elder Scrolls game. Sure it‘s more expensive than doing it in house and it would take years but I think it‘s what players would want.

      • BigBananaDealer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5 hours

        nobody wants that they want skyrim again with a new story and world. why did fallout 4 get mixed reactions? not skyrim enough. why did starfield get mixed reactions? not skyrim enough.

        and the people who dont want skyrim again just want morrowind again

      • ampersandrew@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9 hours

        Warhorse is working on a Lord of the Rings game. That’s probably more of what we want out of a new Elder Scrolls than the actual next Elder Scrolls.

  • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4 hours

    Who are they going to hire to make their games good if Obsidian goes under?

    *Games in their IP/franchises

    • BigBananaDealer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5 hours

      obsidian cant even make good games for themselves, i highly doubt theyd make good games for bethesda without credit

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4 hours

        without credit

        Not sure where this part came from, but Obsidian made FONV, a game in the Bethesda IP that was credited to them.

    • immutable@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2 hours

      Let me preface this with the fact that I like Bethesda games, fallout, Skyrim, starfield, I enjoy them all.

      Does anyone else feel like they are all kinda the same game.

      • elder scrolls: medieval Bethesda game
      • fallout: apocalypse Bethesda game
      • starfield: space Bethesda game

      They share like 90% of the game mechanics.

      I could see cutting back on these if they were all radically different, but they all few so similar to me, almost interchangeable.

      But I’m sure not innovating and pumping out cash grab sequel after cash grab sequel will work, that works really well right? In a few years we can all read the “how Bethesda got beat by {scrappy upstart that actually provided interesting new games}” articles that try to piece together the mystery.

    • ms.lane@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8 hours

      Skyrim > 4 years > Fallout 4 > 4 Years > Fallout 76 (yes, it was Todd’s team that made the map and original quests) > 4+1 years > Starfield

    • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
      22 hours

      Seriously, it isn’t like Bethesda has a long list of IP to work with here.

      Other than Elder Scrolls and Fallout (which they should already be assumed to be focusing on to begin with), the only other IPs that are still alive would be DOOM and maybe Wolfenstein,

      Dishonored is dead, Quake is dead, they shuttered Tango so no continuation of Hi-Fi Rush or Ghostwire, RAGE is dead.

      • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        18 hours

        Unfortunately, Bethesda decided to spend all their time working on Starfield. The only thing they had when they revealed the ES6 trailer, was the video. And that’s because they knew they’d get lynched if they didn’t annoubce ES6

        • BigBananaDealer@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5 hours

          its not unfortunate that bethesda tried something new, more companies should be doing that. i do not want another sports franchise, call of duty, or far cry just churning out games ASAP with lessening quality

      • cybervseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
        20 hours

        Thanks I suppose I forgot about Doom. So, he meant they shouldn’t focus on Doom lol.

      • VitoRobles@lemmy.todayEnglish
        21 hours

        Oh is it Bethesda and ID software now? I didn’t know they merged. I knew ID software helped with Starfield, but I thought they were still separate.

        • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
          20 hours

          The Bethesda-id software-ZeniMax shit is so confusing, especially since Microsoft acquired Zenimax, and by extension Bethesda and id, in 2021.

          They are “technically” separate but Bethesda is still the primary publisher of id software’s games, and thus they do fall under their umbrella.

          • addie@feddit.ukEnglish
            13 hours

            Asha Sharma had this statement, in amongst the rest of it. As per Ars Technica:

            Some decisions in the gaming division currently pass through “14 layers” of decision-makers, Sharma said, before promising that the new Xbox will be a “flatter organization” with “no more than 5, and where possible, 3” layers of management involved in any decision.

            You’d have to think that it’s this shit that she’s pointing at. Massively excessive management certainly helps with all the design-by-committee cookie-cutter crap that’s filled with monetisation. Alas, they’ve just got rid of the really interesting studios that I’d like to see spread their wings a little.

            • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
              6 hours

              Yea, bit of a double edged sword and doubly so with who is swinging it.

              Glad they see it’s a problem of structure that’s getting in the way of creation but their methods of trimming the excess has sadly closed a lot of my favorite studios.

              I will never get a Prey 2 no matter what iteration it seems.

          • The_Decryptor@aussie.zoneEnglish
            11 hours

            It’s similar to Google and Alphabet, the “child” company created the “parent”.

            Bethesda created ZeniMax, ZeniMax own Bethesda (And ID, and Arkane), and then Microsoft bought ZeniMax and all the child companies.

            • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
              6 hours

              It’s all corporate capitalist “I own a piece of paper that says I own you and everything you worked to create” bullshit and tax fuckery to me.

        • formergijoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
          19 hours

          Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP got acquired by Krafton, who is known for publishing PUBG.

                • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
                  6 hours

                  Tango is still Tango, even if they now have to shoulder the yoke that is Krafton. I’m still excited for more Hi-Fi Rush.

                  Krafton did lose massively in that attempt and the original Subnautica creators are getting everything they are owed plus some.

                  Subnautica 2 is definitively a Subnautica game, going back to what made the game great in the original instead of the flop that was Below Zero. So, I’m pretty confident Hi-Fi 2 will be good and maintain the vision of the first game.

                  Still, whether or not I’m paying for it depends on how much Krafton wants fuck around.

      • cybervseas@lemmy.worldEnglish
        20 hours

        I was wondering which franchises other than their “strongest franchises”. I think it’s starfield and doom.

      • edgemaster72@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21 hours

        id develops Doom, Bethesda is the publisher, both of which are owned by ZeniMax, itself owned by Micro$lop under the Xbox division

      • Err(()).unwrap()@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21 hours

        Also don’t Bethesda handle Doom, now?

        No, id Software is the developer company, which is owned by the publisher and published by Bethesda Softworks, both of which are owned by ZeniMax. The “Bethesda” that does actual game development is called Bethesda Game Studios; they handle franchises like Fallout and TES.

        • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.socialEnglish
          21 hours

          Which one is talking in the article though? I am not sure who Jill Braff is; boss of the game development studio, or the larger publishing part of “Bethesda?” I thought Todd was the main person in charge of the game dev studio part, so I assume this is coming from the publishing part of Bethesda.

          • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21 hours

            Bethesda is hit particularly hard by the layoffs, IGN understands, with staff across its many development studios

            It’s talking about the publisher.

    • P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19 hours

      Mostly ports. Because the switch 2 really needed a fallout 4 port.

  • Tixo@lemmy.zipEnglish
    15 hours

    If they focus on ESO… Put some effort, no bs, you will profit, the game is great, but the direction is scattered all over the place. Put some advertisment too ffs.

    Skyrim still makes shit ton of money, creation club mods and enhanced versions and all that. Keep doing that the game is still epic as is, I play it to this day and support it.

    Simple money making. Fuck that new gen bs. Nobody will have money for the machines that they will need to run those beasts by the time they come out.

    • DupaCycki@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8 hours

      ESO is developed by an entirely different company - Bethesda’s parent company, Zenimax. The only input from Bethesda is lore-related. They also use a completely different engine, and not Bethesda’s creation engine.

      • Tixo@lemmy.zipEnglish
        8 hours

        Yes, absolutely. But the game is still amazing, its very much lore friendly, and even expands on it massively :) Its a good game :)

    • Caducous@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15 hours

      I mean, you can make a next gen game that can also run on last gen hardware. We used to have ultra low settings but I guess no company wants to implement that anymore.

      • Tixo@lemmy.zipEnglish
        15 hours

        Yup. Company’s these days are different from what it used to be. In the past it was a group of people with a slot of passion and desire to create a specific game or to make games. Now its corporations for proffit with soulless developers.