You know what's even bigger than Tencent?...

...Microsoft. What if Microsoft bought Tencent? Huh? Huh?... :O

I for one welcome our Azure overlords. \o/

"

Exile009 wrote:

...Microsoft. What if Microsoft bought Tencent? Huh? Huh?... :O

I for one welcome our Azure overlords. \o/

The company being offered the buyout have the right to refuse. Moreover, China can blocked the sale of Chinese technology firm sale of oversea assets. Like in the case of TikTok.

PS: There might be restrictions on the foreign ownership of domestic companies in China. Need someone more knowledgable to comment on this.

considering that Tencent works closely with the Chinese government to comply with social and cultural policies and procedures in entertainment at home and abroad, this would never fly.

Microsoft picking up Mojang and (probably) Bethesda, that's a different animal.

Granted, there are EC conditions and restrictions on sale and transfer of digital goods eg through the minecraft app/skins store and the XBL marketplace, but these are mostly in line with what players want - simple consumer protections and rights. And for the most part MS is "game".

Bethesda is US-based, so while US consumer protection laws probably won't be getting in the way of moving a lot of previously fan-free mods and QoL improvements behind a paywall, there's little MS can or wants to do to socially engineer Bethesda products and content towards any ideological or security goal.

That may change, but for now you can still obtain free of charge reskins for all the dragons in the game as Nicolas Cage or Thomas the Tank Engine.

GGG should have been bought by Microsoft instead of China

Riot Games and all the other Tencent companies will suffer in the years ahead

I for one am happy that GGG is at Tencent and not Microsoft. China will surely come up with something to prevent the US from ruining their game companies. Look it this way: China is a communist country and one of the ways to "ecape" this system is to play online games where you can feel free. The government knows this. If the "percieved freedom" of people who chose this way to "escape" is threatened I am sure China will do omething about it, rather than risking rioting people on the streets against the regime.

So don't worry about Tencent and that US vs. China "shit" very much. I am confident that China can survive without the US market and that people who play Tencent games from the US are protected by consumer rights, so they can't be barred by the US government from playing PoE or any other Tencent owned game.

On MS buying Zenimax who owns Bethesda:

I doubt that MS could put free mods or QoL improvements behind a paywall. They are already out there, they are not online mods like the MTX you buy in PoE.

So even if MS ever tries to do it, it either will face with heavy opposition or people who will take their mods elsewhere (to provide it free) and say no thank you for Microsoft.

Alternatively if they succeed you will still be able to get the mods free trough other means, like torrents or from people who already have/own them.

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crunkatog wrote:

...
Bethesda is US-based, so while US consumer protection laws probably won't be getting in the way of moving a lot of previously fan-free mods and QoL improvements behind a paywall, there's little MS can or wants to do to socially engineer Bethesda products and content towards any ideological or security goal.

That may change, but for now you can still obtain free of charge reskins for all the dragons in the game as Nicolas Cage or Thomas the Tank Engine.

There is no need at all to move "mods" behind a paywall for any Bethesda product - There are an outrageous amount of opportunities to move content "up-front and behind" a paywall...

Zenimax already does this very effectively with Elder Scrolls Online. MS already does this with Minecraft. The amount of money that people are willing to spend, enthusiastically, is astounding...

It's twos-and-fews that really matter. It's those tiny, little, purchases that happens to be where the real money is. Games that take the "get their loose pocket change" are very profitable due to recurring expenditures. It's why PoE exists. It's also why PoE was purchased by Tencent. Pioneered and fully exploited by the most heartless developer this side of Hades, Zynga, the path was paved to a virtually unlimited supply of "easy money."

The amount of easy money that can be earned by someone who wholly owns Zenimax/Bethesda and the very high-profile "Elder Scrolls" franchise is similar in the acquisition mechanics used by Disney with Star Wars... A wealth of "wtfisthis___" will hit Microsoft's next-gen console with "Skyrim:The Movie" garbage games and "buy this online-store hat" vanity items.

Microsoft can now milk Elder Scrolls for a decade and earn cash at a steady pace. If they keep their own ownership "low profile" they can push a "Bethesda Game" pretty darn far on name-recognition alone.

PS: Whales matter, too. It's just that getting a huge title with lots of gamers eager to play it will net them a huge amount of "twos-and-fews" and not just a little word-of-mouth attention. That big net is what's used to catch all those juicy whales.