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A comment on Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks for $7.5B. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks... by shrimp_emoji on Monday September 21, 2020 @03:52PM (#24547686)
Might be apocryphal, but legend has it Bethesda escaped bankruptcy by taking massive chances with Morrowind. They wanted to go out with a bang, and, creatively, the result was amazing.

That success and the fortune they now had to protect seemed to hemorrhage their creativity or vision or concern. After that, we got Oblivion and Skyrim. Nice but very safe and uninspired games. And the best Fallout was the one from Obsidian Entertainment, not Bethesda Game Studios.

Success kills? Money kills?

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Re:Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks... by kridsdale1 on Monday September 21, 2020 @04:18PM (#24547966)
Squaresoft did the same thing. Their big creative "here goes the company" game was to be their final project. Final Fantasy.
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Re:Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks... by psyc on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:14PM (#24548566)
Sixteen FF titles, a dozen spin offs, and two feature films later...
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Re:Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks... by m_mueller on Monday September 21, 2020 @11:26PM (#24550541)
Sounds like one of these word documents. Fantasy_v3_4\ shared\ final\ alpha\ no-really-this-time\ beta5.docx
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Re:Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks... by ethbr0 on Monday September 21, 2020 @04:11PM (#24547885)
With limited resources, bad ideas are ruthlessly trashed.

With limitless resources, all ideas are valid.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and Bethesda Softworks... by gowld on Monday September 21, 2020 @07:28PM (#24549481)
That's not it. When you have a profitable IP, the expected value is so high that variance offers you nothing, and hurts. When you have nothing, expected value is so low that high variance ideas are the best -- bankruptcy takes away the sting of negative income.
[ Parent | on HN ]