Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!

[Triaxx]

I mean I always assumed she was also a soldier, which is how they met. Of course my personal canon is that as far as she knew Shaun died and only the synth was left, since she minigunned 'Father' as soon as the door opened.

[Caelestion]

You would need to rule out completely that there was no hero to demonstrate the theory is false.

Expecting someone to prove a negative is rarely a sensible tactic.

[Brookshw]

Expecting someone to prove a negative is rarely a sensible tactic.

Fair. Still, the theory is supported by evidence, more is needed to disprove it.

[SZbNAhL]

Fair. Still, the theory is supported by evidence, more is needed to disprove it.

There's a lot of evidence that Nate is a soldier, but there's a massive leap between "Nate is a pre-war soldier" and "Nate was the questionably-existent Hero of Anchorage". You could just as easily argue that Killian's grandfather was the Hero, or Randall Clark.

[Brookshw]

There's a lot of evidence that Nate is a soldier, but there's a massive leap between "Nate is a pre-war soldier" and "Nate was the questionably-existent Hero of Anchorage". You could just as easily argue that Killian's grandfather was the Hero, or Randall Clark.

Perhaps, however, we have evidence Nate is both a hero and served in a snowy climate, which we don't in the two items you cited. I'm not saying the theory is definitive, just that it's plausible.

[SZbNAhL]

Perhaps, however, we have evidence Nate is both a hero and served in a snowy climate, which we don't in the two items you cited. I'm not saying the theory is definitive, just that it's plausible.

Oh yes, it's definitely plausible, and you make a good point with him being a hero (especially since he's clearly not been particularly badly wounded, the standard way to become a war hero), but it's still tenuous as heck. Also, it's just occured to me that the snow might not even be Anchorage; we know there was a war with Canada, for example.

In short: there are big question marks over the validity of the Anchorage simulation, and even if the hero existed, they'd be one of thousands of men who fought in snowy areas. It's a long shot.

[Brookshw]

Oh yes, it's definitely plausible, and you make a good point with him being a hero (especially since he's clearly not been particularly badly wounded, the standard way to become a war hero), but it's still tenuous as heck. Also, it's just occured to me that the snow might not even be Anchorage; we know there was a war with Canada, for example.

In short: there are big question marks over the validity of the Anchorage simulation, and even if the hero existed, they'd be one of thousands of men who fought in snowy areas. It's a long shot.

Absolutely! That leads back to Bethesda tying things together across fallout games, engaging in passive story telling leaving us to connect the dots, and acknowledging there was still an Easter egg out there that was undiscovered after months of playtime (or, at least, the dev hadn't seen anyone mention). Between those factors and the facts we discussed,...it certainly isn't definitive but does seem to match the MO. We'll never know, but it's a fun theory to consider.

[Vinyadan]

If Bethesda really follows so many discussions as to know which Easter eggs have been found, I am impressed at their dedication in measuring the reactions of the fans.

[Anteros]

If Bethesda really follows so many discussions as to know which Easter eggs have been found, I am impressed at their dedication in measuring the reactions of the fans.

If only they spent that much time working on their games!

[MCerberus]

Zenimax owns fallout
Microsoft owns Obsidian
Microsoft buys Zenimax


IT BEGINS

[Vinyadan]

That's unexpected. I'm also surprised that Bethesda costs less than half of what Whatsapp used to cost, but that's the power of an immense user base, I guess.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Well, at least Microsoft isn't so strapped for cash they'll pull an EA and burn their IP's for a quick profit like Zenimax was doing to Bethesda (see also: Fallout 76). Microsoft has actually been pretty chill with the IP's they acquire, so this could be a good thing for Bethesda.

Bethesda also announced that they'll be 'updating their game engine'. Having heard *that* particular song and dance out of them *many* times before... I won't be holding my breath on that front.

[JadedDM]

So Fallout and Elder Scrolls are going to be Xbox Exclusives now, huh?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So Fallout and Elder Scrolls are going to be Xbox Exclusives now, huh?

Don't be silly. They'll be out on Win10 as well.

[Vinyadan]

Mine might be selective memory, but I have a positive impression of Microsoft games. They tend to be good for everyone without forgetting what genre they are from (instead of doing the shallow mechanics, generalist appeal thing).

[Erloas]

In my opinion, microsoft couldn't possibly make worse decisions than Bethesda has already been making.
I'm also going to bet they aren't going to accept the buggy mess that is the usual Bethesda games.
Considering what has happened with Wastelands and Minecraft since Microsoft bought them I might actually try a Bethesda game again in the future. (I know microsoft has bought a lot more developers, those are just ones I specially remember "recently")

[MCerberus]

The big concern is that Microsoft gets bored and decides either fallout or elder scrolls isn't part of their core brand.

I mean, there's a certain squirrel that has become vaporware
Crimson skies was an xbox flagship title
Rise of Nations had 2 amazing titles and nothing
The 3 best action mech games on consoles were all xbox exclusives, and none this generation (I am actually shedding a tear for Chrome Hounds here)
Fable has been on what, 3 failed projects and right now all we know is that the fae are jerks.
Honestly we can be here all day. The IP graveyard at Microsoft is only rivaled by EA.

[The_Jackal]

That's unexpected. I'm also surprised that Bethesda costs less than half of what Whatsapp used to cost, but that's the power of an immense user base, I guess.

Games are expensive to make, are harder to localize, have a limited audience, and have a finite shelf-life. A chat/voip app is tiny, inexpensive, anyone with a phone can use it, and can be operated indefinitely with minimal maintenance. The hard part is getting people to adopt it.

[factotum]

The big concern is that Microsoft gets bored and decides either fallout or elder scrolls isn't part of their core brand.

You don't pay $7.5 billion for a number of development houses only to ignore the biggest IPs those houses possess!

[Triaxx]

Especially not when you can now we release the most popular title in the series on your new console.

[Lord Raziere]

Especially not when you can now we release the most popular title in the series on your new console.

They're releasing Skyrim on yet another platform? Can we get it as coffee next?

[factotum]

I think an important thing to remember here: Microsoft is not EA. They actually have a pretty good history of buying development partners and then letting those partners do their thing without too much interference--see Lionhead, Mojang, Rare etc.

[Triaxx]

As long as the money flows they're happy.

[Rynjin]

I think an important thing to remember here: Microsoft is not EA. They actually have a pretty good history of buying development partners and then letting those partners do their thing without too much interference--see Lionhead, Mojang, Rare etc.

Seeing someone put forward Rare as one of the developers well managed by Microsoft is...interesting to say the least, since Rare is, to me, the best argument in favor of being wary of this acquisition.

[MCerberus]

Seeing someone put forward Rare as one of the developers well managed by Microsoft is...interesting to say the least, since Rare is, to me, the best argument in favor of being wary of this acquisition.

Lionhead was a mess under Microsoft as well, and it no longer exists.

[Triaxx]

Was Lionhead doing that well before being acquired?

[factotum]

Was Lionhead doing that well before being acquired?

No, it wasn't--the main reason it got bought by Microsoft was because it was in financial trouble, so odds are it would have disappeared ten years earlier than it did without them. Which shows the critical difference, I suppose--Microsoft bought a struggling developer, gave them ten years of life, and only shut them down when the situation became untenable, whereas the EAs of this world buy successful developers and then shoot them in the back of the head as soon as they produce a game that fails in the marketplace (even though said failure is almost always due to EA meddling).

[tyckspoon]

Was Lionhead doing that well before being acquired?

Well enough to be an attractive purchase- Black & White and Fable did well, and Peter Molyneux had a reputation as a kind of art/prestige game director, which was part of the attraction for the Xbox department of Microsoft that was looking to burnish their platform's image as well as wanting to secure a reasonably big-name RPG/adventure property as an XBox exclusive. So there was value in the studio even if they weren't financially stable on their own (as best as I can glean Lionhead blames this on accountants insisting they had to get bigger and work on more projects at once so they would seem more attractive for a public stock offering, leading to them massively expanding on basically speculation of future instead of organically growing to meet their own project needs.)

[Erloas]

One big thing to consider with Rare is that they bought them in 2002. Microsoft was a very different company at that point and the Xbox was a new brand. Expectations, the direction they thought the industry was going, etc have changed a lot since then.
Look at more recent acquisitions to get a better idea of what they might do now, for better or worse.
I would say the direction Microsoft has taken in the last 5-10 years is 10x better than the direction Bethesda has been taking.

[GloatingSwine]

Lionhead was a mess under Microsoft as well, and it no longer exists.

I mean they got Peter Molyneux to actually produce games that contained as much as 5% of the promised features, which is a minor miracle.