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I have a feeling that when the Xbox Series X kicks off a new generation of games next month, it will be an investment in a system that will become the default home for Western RPGs. Not content with just having Outer Worlds developer Obsidian locked away as an exclusive game development studio, Microsoft recently dumped a staggering $ 7.5 billion into Zenimax, parent company of game studios Bethesda.
There were fears that all of Bethesda’s current projects were no longer cross-platform releases, but Microsoft confirmed that Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo would continue to honor their agreements to appear on PlayStation consoles. But future games? It looks like Microsoft is ready to start flexing those muscles of exclusivity.
Speaking with Kotaku, Xboss Phil Spencer was asked if Microsoft could recoup its investment in Zenimax and Bethesda, without releasing the studio’s games on other consoles. “Yes,” Spencer said, adding a more detailed explanation later.
I don’t want to get mad about it. This deal wasn’t made to take games away from another player base like that. Nowhere in the documentation we gathered was: ‘How can we prevent other players from playing these games?’ We want more people to be able to play, not fewer people to be able to play.
But I will also say on the model, I’m just directly answering the question you had, when I think about where people will play and how many devices we had, and we have xCloud and PC and Game Pass and our console base, I don’t have to send those games to any platform other than the platforms we support in order for the deal to work for us. Whatever that means.
While it is not a definitive confirmation from Spencer as he spoke in pure public relations, it appears that Microsoft is well aware of the value of the brands it now has control of. Among users who will be happy to buy the game outright or keep their Game Pass subscription recharged, the Bethesda catalog is a huge draw for the publisher, as it appears to re-establish itself in the 2020s after spending most of the decade. 2010 on the back foot.
Sorry PlayStation 5 owners, it looks like you’ll have to bite the bullet and secretly join the green team if you want your fix of Elder Scrolls 6: Lydia’s Revenge.
Last update: October 19, 2020
