When I talk to other journalists and random bus stop strangers about the idea of divesting from Microsoft and Xbox - worth doing for many reasons besides the company’s dealings with the Israeli military - there is often an air of learned helplessness, a kind of deer-in-headlights mentality. Microsoft’s gaming biz is too huge to ignore. They own so much. They own a lot of the malarkey that gets eyeballs. Which I can confirm, based on day-to-day experience of traffic stats. Still, I would argue that they do not have any momentum with the things they own, and to be frank, a fair whack of their stuff does sod-all traffic for us. Microsoft today are institutionally incapable of being intriguing. As such, an extremely indulgent way of thinking about the BDS boycott is to treat it as positive encouragement to seek intrigue elsewhere.
Last week’s Xbox showcase was a banner day for advocates of the idea that Microsoft’s gaming business is a zombie, after thousands of layoffs in the face of a landscape transformed by fever dreams about productivity gains and the ‘democratisation of art’ under ChatGPT - a brave new world of acute component shortages in which the $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard starts to feel like buying up horse stables in 1908. Admittedly, a more basic reason for the show being so short of excitement is that Microsoft are keeping the powder dry for their next Xbox console, which isn’t far away from a proper reveal. But still, what a crock of diminishing returns.
I used to be a big fan of the Elder Scrolls games, but they haven’t released anything actually new in 15 years. That’s frankly impressive. Everyone wanted to make a game that could be “the next Skyrim,” except, apparently, Bethesda, who could literally do that.
And it’s only gotten worse since the Microsoft acquisition. I never played Starfield, because it didn’t look like they understand their own gameplay model. I didn’t play the Oblivion remaster, as they seem not to understand their own art direction either.
At this point I kinda doubt they’ll actually release TES 6, but if they do, I’ve not got much hope for it.
my understanding is that bethesda didn’t actually do anything on the oblivion remaster. it was a completely separate company that only did an unreal engine overlay of an almost unmodified base game, and yeah they didn’t understand the art of oblivion at all, which is why the remaster doesn’t even look like oblivion anymore.
I didn’t know that. I guess that gives me a little more confidence in Bethesda, but it still suggests a woeful mismanagement of TES under Microsoft.