Yesterday Microsoft announced they had purchased Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax for $7.5 billion. For those who don’t know, the publishing group owns studios behind games such as DOOM, Wolfenstein, The Elder Scrolls and more. In addition, two upcoming games PS5 from the company include Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.
Both of these games were announced as PS5 exclusives. Even after the buyout, which is set to complete in early 2021, Microsoft claims the company will still honour the PlayStation 5 deal and release these two games on the platform. However, things may be a little different for future releases. According to Phil Spencer, while Xbox plans to honour the PS5 exclusivity commitment for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, future games released by Bethesda will be on Xbox and PC and other consoles on a “case-by-case” basis.
Keep in mind that Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo are both timed PS5 console exclusives. The games are meant to release on PC after the PlayStation 5 sometime in 2021. However, there’s been no word yet whether or not the two games will launch on Xbox. We should take this buyout as confirmation the games will arrive on Xbox sometime in the future.
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Microsoft Purchases Bethesda Game Studios For $7.5 Billion
Other ZeniMax studios announced that current games will not change in any way after the Xbox buyout. The Elder Scrolls Online, for example, released a statement that said;
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#68FF12″ class=”” size=”21″]“The game will continue to be supported exactly as it was, and we fully expect it to keep growing and thriving on each of the platforms that are currently supported,[/perfectpullquote]
What about future games such as The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield? We don’t know what is going to happen to Bethesda games which are years away from release. With that being said, Microsoft’s approach to this Bethesda deal seems to be solely in favour of Xbox Game Pass and adding games to the service. By the sounds of things, the company may still release games on PS5 but the idea of paying R1,499 for a game compared to R149 a month for hundreds of games is where the company plans to draw players in.
We are going to just have to wait and see what the future holds for Bethesda and its games. So far the acquisition has received mixed reactions. Some gamers are happy to have Xbox at the helm while others believe buying dozens of studios does not result in good games. It is definitely going to be an interesting generation ahead.
