Since Bethesda is now under Microsoft's management. Is there a chance their games will be less buggy?

[Guest]

What I wouldn't give for a Fallout game that doesn't require me to reset quests via console to finish

[Spotty]

LOL, no

[Mateyyy]

...I don't think that's how it works.

[Master Disaster]

There's a chance sure, just like there's also a chance that Scam Citizen will be finished and released. It is very very unlikely however.

[Shimejii]

Microsoft cant even guarantee microsoft wont be buggy  

[Master Disaster]

Not being facetious for a second, its pretty much confirmed at this point that the reason Starfield is taking so long to release is because Bethesda are pretty much rebuilding the Creation Engine from scratch to bring it up to modern standards.

 

The majority of Bethesdas issues (at least before the Fallout 76 fiasco) were caused by them trying to keep an engine from 2011 running with duct tape and gorilla glue. Unfortunately though, this isn't the first time they've rebuilt their engine, they did it between Fallout 3 & Skyrim and the results were hardly groundbreaking (its actually hard to tell the difference between the 2) so honestly, who knows how it will fare for them.

 

Microsoft have also said that not much will change at any of the studios they acquired from Zenimax, obviously the studio bosses now have a different boss but the studios will remain semi independent and the projects will remain unaffected.

[WereCatf]

11 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

Microsoft cant even guarantee microsoft wont be buggy  

Well, games and their OS are kind of a different thing, though. I am not exactly an expect in Microsoft's first-party games, but the few that I've played have been really polished all the way from point-of-release and haven't needed much patching, if any.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, WereCatf said:

Well, games and their OS are kind of a different thing, though. I am not exactly an expect in Microsoft's first-party games, but the few that I've played have been really polished all the way from point-of-release and haven't needed much patching, if any.

You obviously haven't played much Flight Sim 2020 then

[WereCatf]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

You obviously haven't played much Flight Sim 2020 then

No, I'll admit that I have never tried any of Microsoft's flight-sims.

[JoostinOnline]

Well yes, but I don't think the odds have changed any compared to how they were before.  Bethesda has sold buggy games/remakes for years and made an enormous profit on them.  It's the market that demands improvements, not owners.  If you want a non-buggy game, just don't buy Fallout if it has bugs.

[Delicieuxz]

I think there's a good chance Bethesda games will be less buggy because now Microsoft will have to sign-off on the bar of quality and quality control Bethesda has to meet in order to release a game, and Microsoft is going to bring its own managerial perspective to that decision-making process. And, ignoring Windows updates, Microsoft is very unlikely to have as low standards as Bethesda.

 

Microsoft has a lot of greater developer talent on-hand than Bethesda Game Studios, so there's a lot of chance for feedback that will help raise the quality of BGS games. I think it's likely that Microsoft will expand the number of people working on BGS games and will have Obsidian or other teams work on parts of them, so that there are more frequent TES and Fallout releases. That would add a lot of experience and experience to BGS projects.

 

Phil Spencer already said in an interview with Todd and Pete from Bethesda that they don't always agree on everything. And now, concerning the things they don't agree on, Microsoft has the final say rather than, perhaps, Todd Howard. And, despite this feeling like a really strange thing to say given Microsoft's track-record, I think Microsoft cares more about their public image than Bethesda and isn't going to release a product they know is ridiculously buggy while just not caring because they assume people will buy it anyway.

[Praesi]

Beth. Bugs never bothered me that much. Until this pile of junk FO76. At least we have a chance on New Vegas two.

[Master Disaster]

1 hour ago, Praesi said:

Beth. Bugs never bothered me that much. Until this pile of junk FO76. At least we have a chance on New Vegas two.

New Vegas 2 already exists, its called The Outer Worlds.

[Master Disaster]

7 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

I think there's a good chance Bethesda games will be less buggy because now Microsoft will have to sign-off on the bar of quality and quality control Bethesda has to meet in order to release a game, and Microsoft is going to bring its own managerial perspective to that decision-making process. And, ignoring Windows updates, Microsoft is very unlikely to have as low standards as Bethesda.

 

Microsoft has a lot of greater developer talent on-hand than Bethesda Game Studios, so there's a lot of chance for feedback that will help raise the quality of BGS games. I think it's likely that Microsoft will expand the number of people working on BGS games and will have Obsidian or other teams work on parts of them, so that there are more frequent TES and Fallout releases. That would add a lot of experience and experience to BGS projects.

 

Phil Spencer already said in an interview with Todd and Pete from Bethesda that they don't always agree on everything. And now, concerning the things they don't agree on, Microsoft has the final say rather than, perhaps, Todd Howard. And, despite this feeling like a really strange thing to say given Microsoft's track-record, I think Microsoft cares more about their public image than Bethesda and isn't going to release a product they know is ridiculously buggy while just not caring because they assume people will buy it anyway.

Phil Spencer has also said MS have no interest in taking full control, be it managerial, financial or creative. Bethesda will continue to operate the same way and will still make the same games.

 

I'm also hearing rumours that Bethesda & MS are now discussing adding Bethesda's entire back catalogue to XB Game Pass.

[Praesi]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

New Vegas 2 already exists, its called The Outer Worlds.

Its a nice Game, but not New Vegas 2. 

[Delicieuxz]

6 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Phil Spencer has also said MS have no interest in taking full control, be it managerial, financial or creative. Bethesda will continue to operate the same way and will still make the same games.

 

I'm also hearing rumours that Bethesda & MS are now discussing adding Bethesda's entire back catalogue to XB Game Pass.

A lot of developer acquisitions have started with words similar to those, but over time become something else as executive control creeps over the studio one decision at a time. It happened to BioWare. I'm not immediately aware of a developer acquisition for which that didn't happen. Keeping developer culture alive is a nice thought, but executives are looking for profit. And when an executive changes, the new one isn't bound by the previous one's approach.

 

As Bethesda-founder, Christopher Weaver, said in a recent interview, "I have yet to meet an executive who does not want to accelerate the sale of a potential product. The trick is to keep those administrators at bay until a product is truly ready for prime time. Bethesda has been producing commercial software for a very long time. I have to believe Microsoft execs will be responsive to Bethesda's input". Being responsive to Bethesda's input means that the control over judgment is firstly held and exercised by Microsoft.

 

Of course, rushing a product out would lead to more bugs. If Bethesda can't both get a product out faster and also have it be in better shipping condition, then I predict that Microsoft will make reforms to how their games are made. I hope they would be positive reforms, like using Microsoft's own QA teams to bug-test, and having other Microsoft developers give input and work on Bethesda's games to refine them.

 

 

Microsoft don't need to take full control to have significant influence over how the studio does something. If Microsoft need to sign-off on the game getting published in a particular state, then that's a different mind giving a different evaluation process to what Bethesda is normally subject to, and it will come to its own conclusion.

 

I think that telling people that they won't take full control is a part of PR, so that there won't be negative backlash to the deal. But wherever Bethesda and Microsoft strongly disagree on something, Microsoft now gets to say 'it's going to be this way'.

[Delicieuxz]

Here are a few rumoured leaked screenshots of BGS' Starfield: https://imgur.com/a/GSWTkHn

 

If Starfield is still looking at these rumoured leaked images, then I strongly expect that Microsoft would step-in and say that's not good enough, and would impose changes to the development team if Bethesda didn't make the changes that Microsoft would be satisfied by.

 

But those images are rumoured to be from 2018, and Bethesda has reportedly given their Creation Engine its largest overhaul since Oblivion. So, I expect that Starfield would not still look like those images.

 

Still, people complained about Fallout 4's graphics when it released. But BGS acted naive to their underwhelming presentation. If BGS had been owned by Microsoft during Fallout 4's development, I don't think Microsoft would have allowed it to be released with those graphics.

 

So, that's one area which I do think that Microsoft will be holding BGS to a higher standard in. And I think they will also do similar regarding bug-testing and waiting for a more refined product before launching it. And I speculate that Microsoft will make those changes while also doing what needs to be done in order to have BGS release games sooner and more frequently - whether that's accomplished by hiring more people and expanding BGS, or by assigning multiple Microsoft development studios to work on BGS games.

 

 

I don't think that BGS will be left to their own devices and unaccountable anymore. And I think that the more BGS continue to be as they have been, the more Microsoft will step-in and change things.

[Ertman]

I am going to assume MS is going to be hands-off for most of the Day to Day stuff. They might assign specific studios to work on various projects, and I do think that they my provide direction if they want something done better. I think they know where the can help studios improve and where they will get in the way.

 

So, yes I do think their games will be less buggy, but don't expect miracles overnight.

[Delicieuxz]