Microsoft just dropped a bombshell. They announced that they have entered into an agreement to acquire ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks in a deal worth $7.5 billion. This continues the aggressive acquisition strategy that Microsoft has been using in the recent years to bolster their first-party lineup and in turn, Xbox Game Pass.
The question now becomes – what will happen to future Bethesda games on PlayStation platforms? Well at the moment we aren’t totally sure, although Pete Hines, VP of marketing at Bethesda had the following to say;
The key point is we’re still Bethesda. We’re still working on the same games we were yesterday, made by the same studios we’ve worked with for years, and those games will be published by us.
This would suggest that we may see Bethesda continue to publish their games on PlayStation themselves, but we will need to wait for further clarification. It also puts Arkane’s new PlayStation 5 exclusive game Deathloop under a microscope. Hopefully, soon we get some more details.
Our Take: This is a huge get for Microsoft and really shows their commitment to making Xbox Game Pass a real force in the gaming industry. Deathloop is really the first intriguing release to look out for. The game was always expected to come to Xbox platforms after a period of exclusivity, but it would now be strange to see a game essentially owned by Microsoft release exclusively on PlayStation.
If I was Microsoft I would honour the deal with Deathloop and then confine all future releases to the Xbox platform. It will annoy a section of gamers for sure, but you pay $7.5 billion for one reason, and that’s dominance. Unless of course, the eventual goal is to just have Xbox Game Pass on everything, including PlayStation 5 – which wouldn’t be a bad move.
-VDZE ✌️
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