Microsoft Considering Buying EA or Valve And PUBG?

polonyc2 said:
they might fast track HL3 but I don't trust them to get the gameplay and story to Valve quality
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I don't trust VALVE to get the gameplay and story to Valve quality.

Compared to what valve was doing ten years ago, the company and the way things are going now is in complete disarray, as far as a game developer goes.
 
KazeoHin said:
You mean the guy who stopped making games the exact nanosecond he found a way to make swimming pools of money doing literally anything else wouldn't decide to sell his company for several billion dollars?
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I have a feeling he would of sold it by now if it was the case.
 
Sounds like total made up BS as far as VALVE goes, Gabe is on the record of criticizing everything microsoft has been trying to do with pc gaming for a while now to the point of even trying to expand steam to linux and as to have a escape plan from windows.
 
yourgrandma said:
Sounds like total made up BS as far as VALVE goes, Gabe is on the record of criticizing everything microsoft has been trying to do with pc gaming for a while now to the point of even trying to expand steam to linux and as to have a escape plan from windows.
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I think Microsoft is going more for content than a store so I don't think they'd be as interested in Valve as EA. As much as Gabe has criticized Microsoft, Windows is the platform that made him a billionaire. To date, Steam on OS X and Linux hasn't exactly been a big success, there really is no escape plan from Windows unless the escape plan is mobile gaming.
 
MS buying any game company would worry me. MS is evil enough in their own way. I hope they never get any kind of influence over Steam as well. Just my feelings anyway. I dont get a say in any event so what I think is rather moot.
 
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Fuck no, Ms buying valve means steam getting integrated into the windows store, or worse. Imagine all steam apps running under uwp.

And I don't particularly like origin but it's still infinitely better than the windows store, also separation of games and the platform is a good thing. As soon as they control both your steam login will serve as your windows login as well, tracking heaven for microsoft right there.

So no just no.
 
yourgrandma said:
Sounds like total made up BS as far as VALVE goes, Gabe is on the record of criticizing everything microsoft has been trying to do with pc gaming for a while now to the point of even trying to expand steam to linux and as to have a escape plan from windows.
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If he counted on Linux, he would not even be a millionaire.
 
redmasc said:
Hope they don't buy Valve. Valve is a good private company that's doing well and I don't think they're hurting with money.
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You have to be joking.

Valve hasn't done shit for a very long time. Even Steam client is an outdated piece of shit with a butt ugly UI.
95% of Valve is refund support, the rest 5% is Gabe because he just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
 
Skott said:
MS buying any game company would worry me. MS is evil enough in their own way. I hope they never get any kind of influence over Steam as well. Just my feelings anyway. I dont get a say in any event so what I think is rather moot.
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Can you imagine the sheer horror of them and EA in an alliance or either way merger or some sort?

May it never be.

The criticisms of Gabe on the previous page, sadly, are largely justified by now but seeing either of these entities absorb Valve would make some part of me die inside forever.

May it never be.
 
Nebell said:
You have to be joking.

Valve hasn't done shit for a very long time. Even Steam client is an outdated piece of shit with a butt ugly UI.
95% of Valve is refund support, the rest 5% is Gabe because he just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
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Valve as pretty much left the content development business. They have done some pretty good work with VR but even there things have kind of dragged a bit. Like where are those knuckle controllers? Linux fans give Valve praise for getting into Linux gaming and for Linux gaming that was a HUGE deal but that effort has dragged and sputtered. The true value of Valve is its distribution and revenue stream model which I'm sure Microsoft would mind having. But sure there is concern about how Microsoft would handle that, would it try to merge it all into the Microsoft Store and continue to support Windows 7/8.1, macOS and Linux?

The PR and other potential issues, perhaps some anti-trust claim, would make Valve an iffy buy for Microsoft. Regardless of what Gabe says or Microsoft getting away from Win32, Steam is an ENOURMOUS asset for Windows. Yes there is some support for macOS and Linux but Steam practically speaking is a game distribution system for Windows and only Windows as the support for macOS and Linux by comparison is poor. It might be in Microsoft's interests to leave good enough alone when it comes to Valve, at least for now.
 
Nebell said:
You have to be joking.

Valve hasn't done shit for a very long time. Even Steam client is an outdated piece of shit with a butt ugly UI.
95% of Valve is refund support, the rest 5% is Gabe because he just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
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Steam client works fine for me.i don't see a problem with the ui. just because it doesn't look like apple's app store doesn't mean it's bad or "butt ugly".
 
Geforcepat said:
Steam client works fine for me.i don't see a problem with the ui. just because it doesn't look like apple's app store doesn't mean it's bad or "but ugly".
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The Steam client has it's problems. It doesn't scale very well on high DPI screens which doesn't effect most Steam gamers but in the age of 4k gaming needs to be addressed.
 
DPI said:
You forgot the /s.

Can anyone name a single consumer focused company, service, hardware or software product that got better after MS acquired it? No, no you can't. Because everything Microsoft touches .. dies.
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Umm, I think you mean EA or Activision. Microsoft actually does a good job as a publisher with development companies under them. They let them do their own thing.
 
heatlesssun said:
The true value of Valve is its distribution and revenue stream model which I'm sure Microsoft would mind having. But sure there is concern about how Microsoft would handle that, would it try to merge it all into the Microsoft Store and continue to support Windows 7/8.1, macOS and Linux?
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Not that I support MS buying Valve, but if Minecraft is any harbringer.

Minecraft runs on more platforms now than when it was just Majong, and is (arguably) better supported across those platforms. That multiplatform support was actually one of Satya's major points about Windows gaming in their recent quarterly report (although I think that was aimed more as a dig to Sony who is restricting cross platform play than it was really any indication of direction of Microsoft)

I don't think MS would necessarily pull the plug on a Linux/Mac version of Steam - at least not outright in the beginning. But I would not expect MS to subsidize them as platforms the way that I suspect Gabe has absolutely no problem doing. If a platform isn't showing profitability versus the development and support cost - I would fully expect MS to pull the plug on it eventually, whereas I suspect Gabe would continue to fund it just to spite MS and keep a measure of (veiled) independence from Windows.

That being said, I absolutely expect that MS would somehow merge Steam into Windows Store (probably games-section only of the current WS renamed XBox store at that point, with it's own launcher). And we'd see that model migrate over to the other platforms as well. I'd also expect the game library/managment/streaming all to be merged over as well into the current XBox functionality. The (somewhat questionable) social media aspect of Steam, that would be about the only thing I don't know would change appreciably.

That being said, I would be very surprised if MS did a deal with Valve, if that deal would include Steam. I would expect it to be more centered around Source and game development, which Valve has pretty much shelved since ... Portal 2 (which was mostly developed by an outside team who were hired just for the project), and Source (which saw it's last major update around 4 years ago - Source 2, which was the major cross-platform push with a lot of Vulkan support).

Steam is to parallel with current Windows initiatives, and the typical MS model is to continue to iterate and support their in-house version, and push it as baked into the OS as they can, in order to eventually beat out the competition. They can do that with a distribution platform, as they already have multiple distribution platforms of their own (for some questionable reason). But what they can't really perform that business model with are game studios, since that's more of a Developer/Publisher model. MS acting as a Publisher (as they have in the past, also to somewhat questionable capacity) they would just look to wrap up Developers in order to produce exclusive content. That's what Lionhead, Rare, Bungie, Remedy, etc are/were. Microsoft does have MS Studios, but that acts more as a managing entity for other development studios rather than creating a lot of it's own content (to date, mostly exciting titles like Windows 10 Solitaire, Minesweeper, etc).

The typical development studio model for MS has been to pick up a studio when it's hot, and hope it gets on a streak. That's what they did with Bungie, most recently Majong, and a handful of other studios with some big titles. It hasn't always worked out for them, but it was what let them kickstart Xbox in the first place. I'd not realistically expect any deal with Valve, but I would not be surprised at all with PUBG/Bluehole deal - its right in line with past Microsoft motives, and they already have a deal with PUBG on console. I would expect something would be able to move forward with Epic before Valve, and even that is a long shot.

As a new thought, I wouldn't be surprised if the "EA" portion of the rumor has more to do with Visceral studios, who just very publicly had that major Star Wars game cancelled by EA. Wouldn't put it past MS to revive the game (maybe not with Star Wars IP) and cherry pick some studios out from underneath EA.
 
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yourgrandma said:
Sounds like total made up BS as far as VALVE goes, Gabe is on the record of criticizing everything microsoft has been trying to do with pc gaming for a while now to the point of even trying to expand steam to linux and as to have a escape plan from windows.
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Look, if I drop off wheel-barrels of money to you, you will change your tune also.
 
Brian_B said:
Not that I support MS buying Valve, but if Minecraft is any harbringer.

Minecraft runs on more platforms now than when it was just Majong, and is (arguably) better supported across those platforms. That multiplatform support was actually one of Satya's major points about Windows gaming in their recent quarterly report (although I think that was aimed more as a dig to Sony who is restricting cross platform play than it was really any indication of direction of Microsoft)

I don't think MS would necessarily pull the plug on a Linux/Mac version of Steam - at least not outright in the beginning. But I would not expect MS to subsidize them as platforms the way that I suspect Gabe has absolutely no problem doing. If a platform isn't showing profitability versus the development and support cost - I would fully expect MS to pull the plug on it eventually, whereas I suspect Gabe would continue to fund it just to spite MS and keep a measure of (veiled) independence from Windows.

That being said, I absolutely expect that MS would somehow merge Steam into Windows Store (probably games-section only of the current WS renamed XBox store at that point, with it's own launcher). And we'd see that model migrate over to the other platforms as well. I'd also expect the game library/managment/streaming all to be merged over as well into the current XBox functionality. The (somewhat questionable) social media aspect of Steam, that would be about the only thing I don't know would change appreciably.

That being said, I would be very surprised if MS did a deal with Valve, if that deal would include Steam. I would expect it to be more centered around Source and game development, which Valve has pretty much shelved since ... Portal 2 (which was mostly developed by an outside team who were hired just for the project), and Source (which saw it's last major update around 4 years ago - Source 2, which was the major cross-platform push with a lot of Vulkan support).

Steam is to parallel with current Windows initiatives, and the typical MS model is to continue to iterate and support their in-house version, and push it as baked into the OS as they can, in order to eventually beat out the competition. They can do that with a distribution platform, as they already have multiple distribution platforms of their own (for some questionable reason). But what they can't really perform that business model with are game studios, since that's more of a Developer/Publisher model. MS acting as a Publisher (as they have in the past, also to somewhat questionable capacity) they would just look to wrap up Developers in order to produce exclusive content. That's what Lionhead, Rare, Bungie, Remedy, etc are/were. Microsoft does have MS Studios, but that acts more as a managing entity for other development studios rather than creating a lot of it's own content (to date, mostly exciting titles like Windows 10 Solitaire, Minesweeper, etc).
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What are you talking about? Linux shell has been ADDED in to Windows recently. Microsoft has been embracing Linux so there is no reason for them to drop Linux support.
 
Gasaraki_ said:
What are you talking about? Linux shell has been ADDED in to Windows recently. Microsoft has been embracing Linux so there is no reason for them to drop Linux support.
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Supporting a shell doesn't promote Linux over Windows - it does the opposite in fact, and makes sense for MS. It's a very easy, low cost way for MS to lower the barrier to entry for Linux server admins to come over and support Windows Server. In the Server world, Linux still dominates over Windows Server in certain applications (web serving and other public-facing services, HPC, etc).

Supporting the gaming-on-Linux movement - entirely different story, and not something i would suspect Microsoft would be terribly interested in supporting. That's in direct opposition to their Windows business.

Now, perhaps, if Windows 10 does become a "Free to Play" model and is largely data collection/advertising funded (it's been rumored, and seems to be a lot of movement in that direction) - then MS wouldn't be losing (a very small number of) sales to Linux desktop installs, and it could very easily bring those same data collection and advertising methods to a Linux (or any other) desktop. I don't really see that happening though, I suspect MS would very much take a Windows/Xbox first approach, if they did anything like making a Steam/XBL service cross-operating system
 
There's no way Valve would sell to another company. This came up before and Gabe Newell said he would rather kill the company then sell it off. I don't have any proof of this and could be completely wrong, but it is what I recall he said when Zenimax wanted to acquire them like 10 years ago.
 
I don't see Microsoft ever buying Valve unless Gabe dies! Valve is privately own company. No share holders.
 
Could be Matrix like. MS buys Valve, Valve takes over MS. Produces Steam Windows. = - = Win?
 
TheToE! said:
If MS buys valve I'm done gaming.
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If one company going down is enough to make you stop, then it’s probably not a super serious hobby for you. Still plenty of other software manufacturers that are fantastic. Despite the EAs and the Ubisofts.

Not to mention entire platforms that Microsoft has no part in, like Sony and Nintendo’s console business.
 
I would pay part of this purchase just to get them to fix some of my issues with PUBG, love the game but it can be frustrating sometimes.
 
Everyday PUBG is worth less and less. MS buying that seems to a bad move and would be in line with 2010 MS buying practices.
 
If MS were to buy Valve, I'd have a fuckton of downloading to do, and about 323 cracks to find. Fuck that, and fuck MS! I used to like them to the degree that I can like a company like that. No though. The only reason I run Windows these days is because of my PC games that won't run on other OSes.

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