My thoughts on the Zenimax purchase.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the blog.

Well, this has been quite the morning, I sit down for news and morning coffee only to see the Microsoft has made what is easily the biggest flex purchase in the games industry so far by buying Zenimax media along with all their properties. This news nearly blew me right out of my chair, I mean damn, I knew Microsoft had deep pockets but, a purchase of this magnitude suggests an ever-growing confidence in the profitability of the Xbox brand on Microsoft's part. Now, I know, some of you are saying "but Sony is the console winner" and that may be true for now but, as most of us gamers who have been at the hobby for thirty plus years have seen, console makers tend to rise and fall. I am certainly not suggesting that Sony is fixing to fall any time soon but, they have made their fair share of missteps ranging from the blatant pomposity of PS3's launch to other things such as quality issue with launch PS2's, a very lackluster early lineup of games for said consoles, as well as the more recent cross-play fiasco that had many gamers hot under the collar over something that should have been a standard for a lot longer than it has started to become. 

What I am attempting to illustrate with these examples is that many console makers just make mistakes and they can get greedy and good competition can help to keep them honest. We all remember the absolutely horrid announcement of the Xbox One and their focus on TV and ludicrous DRM philosophy which, of course, was all backpedaled on when Microsoft realized that gamers wouldn't put up with it and that the PS4 offered a much more enticing prospect of lending games, buying used games, as well as a stronger focus on entertaining software. Of course, none of this is to say that Microsoft hasn't done their damnedest to try and catch up but, that bad will really hampered them this cycle on top a heavy reliance on aging franchises and many subpar exclusives with a few gems sprinkled throughout the console's lifespan. 

Moving on to the present, I know that many gamers on social media are absolutely freaking out about this with takes ranging from "OMFG, this is so awesome!" to "OMG, this is terrible!" I totally get the anxieties as well as the enthusiasm as it seems many people still haven't gotten over the Rareware acquisition from long ago when the Xbox brand was still in its infancy and Microsoft treated it much differently back then. I would also like to point out that newer acquisitions have been much less of a complete takeover and more of a mutual partnership with newer studios being able to keep what makes them special. It is also important to point out that the two PS5 exclusive deals (or timed exclusive deals from what it sounds like) will still be honored which means it will not be an immediate uprooting of games, we also know that all current and new non-exclusive titles will be coming to Game Pass which is a huge win for current subscribers of the service. It also seems highly likely that most of the new games coming out further down the line will be Xbox and PC exclusives. Now, it does sound like Microsoft and Zenimax will be addressing exclusives on a case to case basis and we can only speculate what that means at this point without any further clarification. All things considered, if I were to take a shot in the dark, I might speculate that it is highly likely that many big names will be Microsoft platform exclusive with large multiplayer endeavors and possibly free to play titles being multiplatform to maximize engagement and profit. 

So yeah, crazy news this morning, I know not everyone is happy with it but, we will just have to wait and see how things go over the next few years. Personally, I sincerely hope that this goes very well and leads to more quality titles as well as more competition in the gaming space. 

So Sick of Not Streaming

 Hey everyone, welcome back to the blog.

So, as of today, I am hunting for a new job as I have officially left my current position with the company. I really wanted to like the job but, after observing several serious accidents along with almost no on the job training, I came to the conclusion that it simply wasn't worth risking my personal safety, or my sanity for that matter, to continue on working there. 

Of course, this means that my originally planned streaming schedule is going to be up in the air again as I have no idea what work will be like at whatever job I land at next. Sorry for those of you who were looking forward to seeing me on a regular schedule again but, I hope you find it better than seeing me seriously injured or killed which could mean no streams at all. 

So, getting on to the better news, I am looking forward to going live again soon, I am not sure if I will be going live at all this week as we are still unpacking but, I will let you all know on the social medias. As mentioned in the last post, I will be more focused on just a handful of games which are mainly Open World and/or RPG/Survival titles. The first of these will most likely be Fallout 4 on PC as I have been absolutely glued to it lately, of course I will throw some more of those Bethesda games in there as time goes on but, I will also (eventually) start playing some more classic titles that fit the proposed content mold. 

Now, I don't have any plans for any kind of focused playthroughs, speed runs, roleplay streams, and the like; this will simply be me playing the games I love and hanging out with YOU, the audience. I look forward to seeing you all soon and thanks again for sticking with me through all the turbulence.

Later gamers.

If Only Things Could Stay The Same

Hey everyone, I've been sitting on this blog page for a while and I guess it's time I actually wrote something on it. 

Three years ago, I began my foray into content creation with the old Twitch channel originally called Jakaal84, it eventually became JK84TV and then I decided to tear it all down and start over again. I made a new channel, new social media pages, and this blog page. Originally I had intended to do nothing but stream and then, things changed, I had some changes in my life that made it difficult to do that and decided that I would try making YouTube videos. Sadly, that never really took and, now, with things the way they are (i.e. new baby on the way, plans to save for a down payment on house) they probably won't any time soon. The desire to make content has always been there but, the means and time, not so much. 

So here I am, changing things again, my original plans were to work on retro reviews and gaming news commentary and do a weekly stream on YouTube. Unfortunately, with work and other life changes, I am not sure how much of that will take and I am currently, yet again, attempting to rework ideas to make something that you all can enjoy on the regular. At the moment, I am not entirely sure what form that will take, I definitely have some ideas but, figuring out what will work right will be the tricky part. I thank you all who bear with me through all of this, as always it is forever appreciated. 

Getting down to brass tacks, I am gonna be trying a few things out over the coming months and we will see what sticks. With our current living situation, I am really not sure how feasible the YouTube content will be as we have very noisy neighbors and I am not sure that I will be able to get clean audio recordings for the VODs. That leaves us mainly with streams and blogs, to start out with I will look into the possibility of regular streams a few days a week before work as that is the most likely time slot that I will be able to use. For now, the streams will be on the Twitch channel as everything is already set up for that and free time is scarce. You can also expect to see more blogs like this as well as any reviews or gaming news commentary that I can come up with. I am also considering the possibility of uploading highlights from each stream to YouTube as Mouse has offered to do the editing and I wouldn't have the time to do it myself. As far as the content itself, I doubt that we will see much retro to begin with as I will mostly be sticking to current games that I enjoy which are mainly open world action and adventure games. If I am able to make time, I may consider throwing in something like a Saturday retro stream but, for now, I am trying to keep it simple.

Hopefully, in the future when we have gotten into a better spot with our lives, I will try to expand the content but, for now I am focused on work and trying to save money. Obviously, if by some miracle, the streams become profitable, I may be able to dedicate more time to them, then again, I may one day decide to drop everything and work on my book. The only thing that is certain is that I will always try to be here, in some form and I am grateful to every one of you, no matter how few there may be, for the time you give to me, you are all awesome.