Microsoft confirms some Bethesda games will be 'exclusive to Xbox and PC players'
Xbox officially welcomes Bethesda with a new statement that alludes to the company's future under Microsoft.
After getting government clearance, Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax and Bethesda is set in stone. Microsoft released a statement officially welcoming Bethesda to the Microsoft family, where they spoke in detail about the purchase. In this statement, Microsoft confirms that some Bethesda games will be exclusive to Xbox/PC.
A post was made to Xbox Wire on March 9 to officially announce the completion of the Bethesda acquisition. In this post, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer talks about what the deal means for both Bethesda and Microsoft, even touching on the topic of potentially exclusive games. “With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams, gamers should know that Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players,” Spencer states.
Here’s to the next journey only now getting started.
— Bethesda (@bethesda) March 9, 2021
Today we have officially joined the @Xbox family.https://t.co/bee08Px13K pic.twitter.com/FUepkINYbo
That last line would seemingly confirm that Microsoft does indeed plan to have some Bethesda games go exclusive to Xbox and PC. Ever since we first learned that Microsoft would be acquiring Zenimax and Bethesda last year, it’s been a hot subject of debate whether or not Microsoft would go exclusive with all of its newly acquired IP, or continue to publish Bethesda games across multiple platforms.
Just for a refresher, this acquisition means that the likes of Bethesda Game Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, and id Software are all first-party Xbox Game Studios. With franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, and more in its arsenal, it will be interesting to see how Phil Spencer and company choose to operate over the next few years. We already know that the upcoming Deathloop will still launch as a PS5 exclusive as result of a pre-existing deal, but what about the highly-anticipated Starfield? Could Bethesda’s brand new sci-fi RPG be an Xbox/PC exclusive?
Microsoft’s statement also confirms something that many of us had been suspecting - that a slew of Bethesda games will be coming to Xbox Game Pass. With such an emphasis on its subscription service, of course Microsoft will put some of its hot new properties on Game Pass. There are already some available, but more Bethesda games will join Xbox Game Pass later this week, and will be revealed soon.
With Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax and Bethesda now official, we look forward to seeing what future projects the two do together. For more news and updates, stick with us here on Shacknews.
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replyDonovan Erskine posted a new article, Microsoft confirms some Bethesda games will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players
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Well, factors include
a) Microsoft's general pivot from a vendor-locked company to a services-oriented company. Like how .NET is open source, or how SQL Server runs on Linux, or how a lot of their stuff is crossplatform, and their GamePass subscription concept is cost effective for consumers in a not-traditionally-Microsoft sort of way.
b) Their biggest single gaming acquisition, Mojang, has basically continued to operate as before, with Minecraft continuing to be released on competitors consoles and even adding cross-play support. That said, Minecraft is also more or less an example of a game that's perfect to be on multiple platforms because it will then just sell more copies - they're at over 200M now and every time some kid gets a new phone or a Switch or whatever they go and buy another copy of Minecraft.
That said, yes of course it makes perfect sense that you'd buy a major company like Zenimax and then make the most attractive games be exclusive to your service. The PS4 cleaned house for years because Sony understood this, of course Microsoft goes on a spending spree in the other direction to pick up the slack.
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Yes. Any game that Bethesda hasn't already signed an agreement with Sony/Nintendo for is most likely going to be Xbox/PC exclusive. Which at this point is everything that isn't Deathloop, and Ghostwire: Tokyo.
I would be shocked it Starfield wasn't a Microsoft exclusive. The only way it won't be is if there was already some deal in place with Sony.
The Indiana Jones game may also be multiplatform if Disney mandated it as part of the licensing agreement. Similar to what MLB did with "MLB The Show" -
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You mean we all collectively went “I bet they will have exclusives” especially since in interviews they said as much. YOU DON’T GET THIS ALL TO YOURSELF!
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Sony: Hey y'all, only we've got Spider-Man, Demon's Souls, God Of War...
Gamers: NICE
Microsoft: Those BDE Bethesda games you all love are gonna be Xbox and PC exclusive
Gamers: WTF this is bullshit exclusives hurt the industry-
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But is it any less impactful than Sony gobbling up 4,5,6 smaller studios? The end result is many platform exclusives.
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Like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Guerrilla, and Sucker Punch who all released games on other platforms before being bought by Sony?
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They recently bought Insomniac as well.
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Except “Oh wait I can play those on my PC now... why do I want a console at all now?”
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*now = in the future :P
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Play Mortal Kombat with a kid in Vietnam!
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Majority of people don't want to spend the type of money you need to spend to get a PC that's better than a Series S or X, plus the added PC eccentricities you have to deal with. There's also how console is easier/better suited for couch gaming. Lastly MS don't care if you buy a console they want you on game pass.
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Yup. Sony exclusives are nice but the only thing really keeping me from selling my playstation is my friends list as some of them don't have PCs. Still, there are only a handful of coop or multiplayer console games we bother with and interest in PC rises due to titles like Among Us or reliance on Discord which is just easier to use on PC.
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MODS?!!!
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I mean...all these games play best on PC anyway, so who cares?
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