So, unless you've been living under a rock, today's biggest story is that Microsoft has finally acquired Bethesda. It's been a long time coming, but we're glad to finally have official confirmation that the deal is complete.
And with such a deal, some questions are starting to get answered - albeit in vague ways. The biggest one on the agenda is whether future games will be exclusive to Xbox systems going forward, or whether they'll be distributed multi-platform. We kind of got a half answer on that front.
The answer is in fact "some", which still begs the question as to which ones.
It's not like Bethesda has a quiet slate of games approaching. In fact, it's probably facing one of its biggest lineups to date. Starfield, a new Indiana Jones game, and of course, The Elder Scrolls VI - it's a big selection, all of which now face potentially being Xbox exclusives going forward. Obviously for Xbox gamers such as ourselves, this is a big win, but what about everyone else?
The gaming industry feels like it's playing a massive game of Monopoly right now, and Microsoft is winning with the blues, greens, and pinks all taken up on the board; all it needs is to start adding houses and hotels to build up the rent. In this case, those would be in the form of exclusive games which will undoubtedly soak up a huge player base.
It's going to be exciting to watch, and healthy competition between companies is always good, but is absorbing third party studios and making exclusives too much? And what games will Bethesda cook up that are only available on Xbox? Let us know your thoughts on it all in the comments and polls below.
Comments 42
I only play Xbox but I don't see why good games should be exclusive. I think good games should be played by (and with) as many people as possible. Cross play should be more readily available than it is. Obviously when it comes to pc players and the availability of mods for them there needs to be some borders but PS, xbox and Nintendo shouldn't be as separate as they are.
Just my opinion, don't cry because you don't like it.
They can't say all future games will be exclusive because of some games like Deathloop will come to the PS5. But you can bet your life savings that all the big dogs like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Wolfenstein will be Xbox exclusive..
Come on exclusives sell consoles and could sell game pass.
If Sony and Nintendo had no exclusives you think they would have done so well over decades.
People buy Nintendo for Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing etc etc. If those games where on PS4, PS5 or Xbox one, Series X released day one with enhanced graphics etc, you think so many Switch would be sold. I think not.
As someone who owns both consoles i am not to bothered either way.
It’s business economics.
Some VP accountants will be working out this.
If exclusives sell more consoles does that make more money including other incomings than making the game multi platform.
It’s business.
A streaming service needs exclusives and Xbox is full tilt on gamepass. I'm in already and have no desire to leave so I'm not personally bothered if it's exclusive or not. My enjoyment doesn't change if people on PlayStation or Nitendo can play it as well...that would be pretty odd. But the shareholders of MS do care where people are playing it and everything about Xbox is Gamepass, gamepass and oh how bout some gamepass. So they want subscriptions to rise. I think Indiana Jones will be multiplat cuz it's not Microsoft's IP. Like other's have said any MMO's or F2P games will be multiplat just for the player base but the rest will be exclusive. Talk all you want about 110M PS4's... only 5M people buy games outside of COD and EA sports titles so it's not that big a draw when Sony takes 30% off the top.
It's entirely possible MS treats ES and Fallout like it does Minecraft. Imo, this would be a mistake. Doom and Wolfenstein would ideally go exclusive, as well. Again, I do not see that happening and it would be a mistake. MS really seems to be leaning into their past as a software developer first. It isn't like they had trouble securing third-party support, so buying Bethesda seems to serve MS' goal of acting as a software company that has hardware and not the other way around.
People on here saying about you don't spend $7.5 billion to put their games on playstation, so basically they spent $7.5 billion to put 2-3 really good games on gamepass?
So the many millions of people on nintendo and Sony who buy Bethesda games, most of those people who will still not get an xbox or get gamepass will not be contributing any money at all towards Bethesda?
I'm sure as a business Microsoft know that keeping the big "3" Bethesda games exclusive will make them miss out on around over $1 billion of sales lol why do you think they never made Minecraft exclusive....
@UltimateOtaku91 the $1B seems a bit high but still that's sales less 30% for Nitendo/Sony. So $700K less the costs of making for the platforms = a small decimal change in the big picture. PC is the sweet spot for Bethesda no? I honestly believe this whole narrative of them needing the other platforms is dead. They have Xbox and PC plus Xcloud for the market's it's big in (Asian markets). If they are looking at buying more studios they are likely acting nice to avoid any issues getting the next deal approved. But outside of MMO & F2P it's not coming to a competitive console near you unless it has gamepass on it.
Oh and Indiana Jones, that i expect to be multiplat
Its just like MS say "hey Jim, you made a good deal with Bethesda so we can't release 2 games from our studios to xbox for a whole year, as a bonus we will release most future games on ps too"
I have no issue with it I think the big thing to look at is how does this benefit Xbox players? If you have gamepass it is huge for you because these games will be on it day one included in the sub. I think that is what is most relevant to me. If it comes out on ps5 does not really bother me If it does not come out on ps5 it is a little sad that not everyone can play it but that's life if you want to drive a corvette your going to be buying it from Chevy exclusives have been part of life for a long time.
The goal is to make all games (except the current deals with Sony) exclusive to push Game Pass which is why they spent 7.5 billion. Also, they said that they want Xbox and Game Pass to be the best place to play games. They won't publish games for PS5.
I'm just glad I will get to play them day 1 on gamepass. It would be nice of they could talk Nintendo into having Gsmepass on the Swotch Pro as that would be a win win
@Krzzystuff let's say 10 million people but the new elder scrolls on playstation at £60 a game that's £600 million already then say half that for fallout so another £300 million so nearly a billion from just two games.
@UltimateOtaku91
you forget the 30% sony gets from the sale
And from the 10millions sold games, most of it will not be from full price.
@UltimateOtaku91 yes, again less 30% cut and less development costs for the platforms. Not really a massive amount of money as that 10M would be over 3-5 years? A lot of that would be on sale so further reducing the amount MS makes. Is half a Billion worth it vs getting people into gamepass? In 3-5 years you can just play it on a tv with an app, no console required so what's stopping Sony and nitendo gamers from just playing the games on their TV with gamepass? Remember.... gamepass is what they ultimately want you to get.
I think indiana jones is multiplat I cannot see lucas games signing a game over for one platorm and the deal was probably struck for that prior to the purchase
@Krzzystuff well if that is their aim then they need to do some more work on the gamepass app due to latency and lag, gamepass at the moment is only worth it on the actual xbox systems as you can download the games plus you will already have a controller, but it's not been the best so far on mobile for me plus I don't think Internet speeds are where they should be for most people yet
@Murray ah yeah forgot sonys cut, I'm sure games like elder scrolls and fallout would reach those numbers pretty quick depending when they are released
@Medic_Alert "However exclusives are only good for platform holders. They don't help the consumer in any way. "
This is not entirely correct. Every additional platform supported introduces a lot of complexities and headaches for both, the developer and the final product.
Think about how every game developed for XBox needs to be developed on Direct X.
Any game developed for PlayStation needs to be developed in OpenGL.
PC can use either, but chances are they will use OpenGL unless they are planning to also support Linux. Macs ditched OpenGL long ago so that's a whole different ballgame too.
So, truth is that supporting multiple console platforms increases the complexity drastically, unless the development is being done in a third party engine like Unity or Unreal (but then you are allowing someone else to control your future.)
QA also is an extremely limited resource, and every additional platform limits how much testing can be done on every single platform supported.
Sticking to a single platform, especially, sticking to Direct X only development, has the potential of drastically simplifying development, and the quality of the final product, something that benefits players.
And before the subject of "just throw more money at it" comes up, it is not that easy either. Talent is not something you can magically materialize, regardless how much money you throw at the problem.
@Medic_Alert The benefit is not short term. It's pretty much perpetual.
Game more stable day one.
Devs get to move on and make more games faster (there will always be things to fix.)
Cutting an entire platform off the process frees a ton of resources that allows for much faster turnaround without loss of quality, meaning more games.
This is not me saying I want the games to be exclusive, in a perfect world without limits every game would be playable on every platform, but there are plenty of benefits for everyone when the developer only has to worry about a single platform.
Fact is: MS will do what they will do not based on what we say here. My guess is they will make these games exclusive, for all the reasons I listed plus their bigger goals being to increase windows/gamepass/xbox user count.
Edit to add: some players will be locked out from being able to play, but Xbox is making it very easy for them to play on as many ways as possible.
XBox.
Windows PC
Streaming
The last one means Android right now, but will expand to any computer with a browser, iOS, TVs with gamepass streaming apps, etc. Players will have plenty of ways to play other than having to fork money for an xbox or upgrade their PCs.
It depends so much on what MS's priorities are. You could say "why trade with PS with nothing in return. But PS is buying their ENTIRE PSN INFRASTRUCTURE from MS. And they're bringing many franchises to PC, MS's other platform. So PS is already extending quite a bit of business to MS.....why withold one of the industry's biggest games from your one of your biggest business partners who's also holding the competition at bay in the form of Amazon?
Our side as fans doesn't represent the whole business landscape. Sure, MS could bolster its brand by being the exclusive home of TES. Or it could broaden its market reach by not making it exclusive, and helping cement the status quo with its frenemy at Sony.
I don’t mind exclusives, its what gives a platform identity, gaming would be pretty boring imo without them. I’m excited to see what MS can do with Bethesda going forward and if that means the next Elder Scrolls is locked to Xbox that’s just the way it is, just like I have to own a PlayStation to play God of War.
Xbox has a bright future I feel with so many talented RPG devs under their umbrella, that’s something I wanna be a part of.
I think, all the games (except for some possible minor titles or one big exception) Will be exculsives. They want to push the gamepass on Xbox and PC. Having super popular games on GP (which is the strategic and ultimate aim of MS) will do the trick in 2 or 3 years. Releasing the games on rival platforms will defeat the purpose. They want to use Bethesta games for selling a SERVICE, and not to profit individualy from titles.
Don't agree that everything should be available on all platforms. As a few have said it gives the platform its identity. Microsoft are constantly hammered about having no exclusives. Sony is constantly praised for their exclusives. Microsoft wouldn't have bought the company if it wasn't to add more exclusives to the Xbox catalogue / Gamepass. In saying that I think they'll probably let Elder Scrolls 6 be multi platform. As that one will bring in soo much money selling everywhere.
Some will certainly be exclusive but I dont see any games announced before the acquisition being exclusive like Starfield etc. Anything well into development will go multiplat.
License holders will have a massive say there too. If Indy game already in development no way Disney will let that not be multiplat unless MS pay up money for some some separate rights to the license as Sony did with Spiderman.
I definitely can see anything unannounced before the approval this week staying exclusive to the Xbox platform and services.
"Exclusive" to the Xbox ecosysyem means the game is available to Xbox consoles, Windows PCs, and whatever xCloud can be run on — and that's fairly inclusive in my opinion. I wish Sony and Nintendo adopted a similar approach.
I'm concerned about what could happen in the future. If big names like Elder Scrolls become Xbox exclusives, we might see Sony throw some money around and get something like Resident Evil to be exclusive to them.
I still think the best bet would be to put them all on Gamepass but still sell them on PS5 but that's probably why i don't work for Microsoft 😂
@LX_FENIX I’d be mostly with you. Put them on gamepass. But sell them on ps5 months later (times exclusives).
Their goal is game pass subscribers. They will be putting some bangers on there to draw people in
MS could always go the long term timed exclusive route. They can have Xbox launch exclusives and keep it for 2+ years. That way they can probably milk the GPU subs as much as possible and sweep up the remainder of PS5 users that refuse to switch after the 2 year period.
From a strategic perspective it makes zero sense for MS to make an acquisition like this and not make desirable titles exclusive to Xbox. Frankly it’s downright irresponsible. If Xbox doesn’t turn the tides and provide exclusive content to owners, there is virtually no reason to buy an Xbox over a PS5. You know your going to get quality exclusives on PS, and the spec difference is not too substantial. Business 101, competitive advantage is king. In the console wars, exclusive titles will always be the greatest differentiator.
Something like Indiana Jones might go full exclusive, but I have a hard time seeing them doubling down on the big ones like ES, Fallout, Doom, etc. Launch exclusivity like Oblivion was is a smart move, but in the end, MS knows that with this acquisition, the more copies Bethesda sells, the better for them and their new partner.
Ms alreaddy is the most open platform of the three. No other platform gives users as manny choices on how & where to play. Poeple who are PS or Nintendo only have enough options to still play those games.
I am all for letting as manny as possibke enjoy all games. But this is about strengthening the MS brand/platform.
& sony pays money so other platforms cant play certain games. So I have no issue with them missing out on some games. Nintendo as far as I am concerned can have all the things they can get to run on the system.
I can't help but feel starfield, an all new IP will need a multiplatform release, elder scrolls 6 won't be full exclusive "out of respect" for existing fans.
I'm not sure what MS would have to gain keeping the smaller ongoing titles (wolfenstien) off PlayStation but all new titles, spin offs, remakes could easily be exclusive.
I can personally see all new IP being exclusive and established series getting timed exclusive releases for Xbox.
I say that just how they mentioned "some" games exclusive, and "best place to play on Xbox, PC and Cloud".
So by that logic, I think Starfield will be the first full exclusive.
And then stuff like Wolfenstein 3, Elder Scrolls, Doom etc will all be timed exclusives and lead platform obviously Xbox, being ported to PS5 6-12 months later.
That way they still look good from a PR perspective by still giving Sony fans games, but also appeasing Xbox fans with a mix of full exclusives and timed exclusives.
@Bmartin001 id bet that any game currently half way through development with ps5 games will be finished that way any new projects or projects that aren’t that far in will be exclusive that’s my feeling.
I’d prefer the games first be great, multi platform or not, before we worry about exclusive. So many exclusive meh games, IMO. Not trolling, just rooting for Xbox (and my Gamepass account).
New Elder Scrolls being Xbox exclusive would be devastating to the Sony fanbase.
@xMightyMatt14x Agreed, hell they don't even have to be timed exclusives, release them on the same day on PS5 for $70 (we all know all games are gonna be 70 eventually) Gamepass still looks way better in comparison, even if you can get them on day one on PS5
I'd like to see some 60 FPS and 4K updates to some of their last gen games. I think Starfield will be exclusive. Bethesda/Sony made a couple of announcements before the deal was finalized. I wonder if this is because it's the unannounced games that are going to be exclusive or timed exclusive.
I personally think (and expect) that the statements made by Phil Spencer so far are simply meant to be politically correct.
They'll obviously honor past agreements/ongoing projects, so those will be the so-called "some titles", but anything else is fair game and will more than likely be exclusive.
And not just because of them having spent so much money on the 2nd biggest takeover in the gaming industry EVER...
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