Microsoft announced the official acquisition of Bethesda and with it, the revelation that some of Bethesda’s games will be exclusively for Xbox and PC. This is in stark contrast to earlier claims, suggesting Microsoft wouldn’t go for exclusive Bethesda games.
Bethesda Xbox/PC exclusives
Microsoft started the acquisition of Zenimax Media (Bethesda’s parent company) back in the fall of 2020. The takeover has now been completed, costing Microsoft a whopping $7.5 billion USD. Obviously, the company behind Xbox and the PC operating system has to get a return on that investment.
Apparently, part of how the company plans to do that is by making some Bethesda games exclusives for Xbox and PC. Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, details his plans with Bethesda in a blogpost, stating:
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.
Bethesda has quite a portfolio when it comes to mainstream franchises. Think of The Elder Scrolls series, Fallout, Rage, Dishonored, DOOM, Wolfenstein, and more recently Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.
It’s unknown if any of those would eventually become exclusives, or if Microsoft want to create new franchises exclusively for Xbox and PC. Spencer does write ‘some new titles’. But that could mean ‘entirely new games’ as well as ‘sequels in established franchises’. He also emphasizes the integration of Bethesda into the Xbox Game Pass; inevitably making it more accessible to people that generally play on PlayStation or Nintendo.
Whatever the case, for the sake of gamers around the world, let’s hope The Elder Scrolls VI releases for everyone!