Bethesda's Pete Hines Apologises To Fans Upset By Starfield Xbox Exclusivity

Why is he apologising? I don't see any PlayStation execs apologising for any of their Exclusives, where is the apology for continuesly locking Final Fantasy 7 to PlayStation? I'm glad starfield is an exclusive. I hope it turns out to be a Masterpiece.

So can we expect an apology from Neil Druckman then for making all Naughty Dog games PlayStation exclusive, or an apology from Insomniac for making all there games PS exclusive after Sony acquired them?
I’m sorry but the man has absolutely NOTHING to apologise for, he should be celebrating the fact they are supporting Microsoft and all its customers by brining fantastic titles ‘exclusively’ to them.

Can't blame Xbox for this. They've shelled out a load of money for Bethesda and obviously want to drive console and gamepass sales. With the affordability of the Series S it's never been easier to have a second (or third) console. However this is coming from someone who started last generation on PS4 before picking up a cheap Xbox one then upgrading to the One X having been completely won over by gamepass. Picked up a Series X and am increasingly convinced I made the right choice for me. Though the PS5 exclusives look as amazing as ever they're also £70 a pop, which makes gamepass even more appealing.

Not sure I like the sound of him or what he said.
That’s not the corporate way. If you are in a team now at Xbox I’m not sure what he said was right.
It seemed tainted towards Microsoft.
Maybe I have miss understood.
Any ideas 💡

Nobody bought a PS5 thinking they were going to be playing Starfield on it. Nobody was mislead here. The acquisition was done a couple months before the PS5 was even on sale. So he has nothing to apologise for. It gives the impression that he in some way regrets the acquisition, which is not a good look for Bethesda or Microsoft.

So what about cloud version? If xbox's next gen games don't come to cloud then this whole plan might backfire as I can't see xbox console sales going up massively just for Bethesdas games

The gaming media is concocting fake narrative again. Actually he later clarifies that he is not really apologetic about exclusivity. Please include this tweet.

https://twitter.com/DCDeacon/status/1405298599098044416

Sony locked third-party games like Final Fantasy VII Remake for one year and paid for the marketing and tournaments of Street Fighter V (one of my favourite franchises) just to leave Xbox out. What did Sony fans expect when Microsoft acquired ZeniMax? If Sony want their single-platform fans to enjoy ZeniMax's games, they just have to allow the Game Pass app on the PS5 store. Do Sony fans that ask for Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI, etc. on PS5 agree to God of War, Ratchet & Clank, The Last of Us and Uncharted to be released on Xbox?

@UltimateOtaku91
All Xbox first party games are cloud enabled, along with a big selection of 3rd party games on Game Pass.

@Senua thanks for the link. I see no need to apologise when all sorts of IPs are kept off Xbox. Street Fighter, Spiderman, any sequels to Sunset Overdrive. The whole industry is massively in favour of Playstation unfortunately. I wish gamers would be more open minded and less immature and just love gaming as a whole.

But as it stands: the pony poked the bear and then cried when it woke up

I will play this gem on my pc highest settings

To be honest. I see more articles talkong about it in the media than I see Sony fans crying about it.

Think its beating a dead horse at this point. Always made sense to lock the titles to the Xbox ecosystem. Only questionmark was whether anything contractual before the acquisition would make any future titles multiplat. E3 answered that question pretty much.

Life goes on, PS fanboys wax their carrots about exclusives all day long but when a game or set of games don't come to their favorite console they get irrationally upset.

Just buy the console and play the game if anyone is that bothered by exclusives, it is as simple as that.
You want to play FH5 etc buy a series x
You want to play BOTW etc buy a switch
And so on.
Moaning fan boys, with nothing better to do.
There’s a lot going on worse in the world right now and all the time.

@FraserG I see you have done a great job in clarifying that in the title. I’m just disappointed with rest of the media making a big deal about this and raising the question in the first place. It’s not the first time a studio has got acquired to make exclusive content.

I agree with all of you. PS owners just complain. Why can't they be more like MS who are exemplary at all times. Its like you can separate people by what square box they purchase. Although I thought that was also the case with football fans of teams I don't support as well. But what if those people also have an Xbox? Now I'm confused.....Oh well - may as well get back to bashing people who don't wear Nike trainers because they are definitely the most irrational for sure....

I do believe he will be genuine in his disappointment. His game will be a work of art. Certainly to the devs it will be and I doubt they do the work just to make money, like most true artists. The fact a huge proportion of the original intended audience will now no longer experience it - I guess it probably would make the team feel slight disappointment to some extent. Although maybe knowing everyone technically won't be paying anything extra to play their game makes them prefer the situation?

Comes across as a nice guy to me

Seems like there are more comments saying how upset PS fanboys are, than there are actual comments from upset PS fanboys. But eh.

In any case, I really don't see the sense in getting worked up over an apology of all things.

@blinx01 yes for last gen and 360 games, but not for xbox series S/X exclusives

I’ve never been an Xbox owner until now. I have always played in the Sony ecosystem. I know it’s going to sound weird (Being that Microsoft is a Faceless megacorporation) but the way that these representatives and the whole xbox as a brand behaves and comunicates things seems way more human than Playstation ever was.

What percentage of these fans do you think is comprised of playstation fans who spend most of their time online crowing about all the exclusives they have......?

This is ridiculous. He shouldn’t be apologizing. I’m 35 and I’ve had friends since MIDDLE SCHOOL bitching that Nintendo games aren’t on PC. People forget that while we enjoy the art of video games, it’s still a business.

For which he apologized, because I do not fully understand the situation. Sony should apologize to us every time they release games only for their own consoles.

@StonyKL

Sony fans are insane. When Microsoft didn't have exclusive titles, they complained that it didn't. Now that it shows up, there are plenty of them complaining that they have to buy consoles?

@K1LLEGAL the reason they like PlayStation is cause outside of the USA the xbox really doesnt sell…in Japan its nearly non existent like for real selling less the 100 units a week.. example xbox one has only sold about 100,000 units total, the UK it sells but at about half as many as the PlayStation does…now the Series x/s is selling better in both of those places but history shows that those numbers might not hold up.

As long as I can play Elden ring everything else os meaningless

@Dezzy70 Its worth watching the entire interview - he was 'pressed' on the subject about Playstation fans being really upset that after 'years' of support, all those releases etc to suddenly be 'cut off' from playing these. All he said was that he was 'sorry' that they feel rightfully disappointed but basically said 'its the nature of the 'business' and short of telling them to buy into Game Pass, basically said our games are PC/Xbox - implying that if you are 'annoyed' about missing out, there are options available to play these if you really want...

Later on in the interview, he also was asked about putting games on GP day 1. He referred back to the Bethesda Mantra of wanting as many people to play the game as possible - and related that back to the Exclusivity thing too. He said that by joining Game Pass, the numbers of people they reach day 1 is exponentially larger than the people on Sony's System buying the game would offer. In other words, to reach the 'most' people, the most efficient way, it was a no-brainer to join MS.

As this article points out, he isn't sorry at all about cutting development for Sony's hardware, making games Exclusively for MS etc - He is sorry that they are 'upset' the games aren't coming to PS, not sorry those games aren't coming just sorry its 'upset' people.

@UltimateOtaku91
Phil Spencer has said they are currently in the progress of switching the server blades over to Series X right now in an interview with 'Same Brain'.
Some insiders are saying it will be complete by the launch of Flight Sim end of July, but the official blurb from Xbox is "by end of the year".

The good thing is that, since it is next gen only, it’s not a situation where 100,000,000 PS4 players are missing out. Customers are in a situation where they are picking their consoles with knowing where these games are going. If it’s important to play Bethesda games, the beginning of a new generation is a great time to jump into an ecosystem. Or just play it on xcloud on a tv dongle. I guess he can apologize if he wants, but the barrier of entry is so low on the Xbox ecosystem, it seems very unnecessary. People not willing to play it because it’s in the Xbox ecosystem just come across as stubborn fanboys, imo.

@themightyant 100% correct

When Sony's bread and butter is (permanent, timed, dlc) exclusiv-ing everything they can possible, you don't see their devs apologizing. At least Microsoft is giving some cheaper pathways to entry for people into their eco-system. Simultaneously launching on PC for those who already have one, Series S as a cheaper option, and XCloud is going to be on everything soon. These are 3 options you do not get with Playstation if you want their exclusives.

@IronMan30 Theirs so much salt in the comments of this story on Push Square, you could use it for all the roads in the winter time. It’s hilarious how upset they all get haha.

@Hypnotoad107 A better description, as I read in a You Tube comment, is to describe those people as confused hypocrites.

@Blessed_Koz Wrong, Japan is Xbox’s fastest growing market now: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/06/japan_is_now_xboxs_fastest_growing_market_worldwide_confirms_exec

And in the U.K. the Xbox sells very close to as many as PlayStation does, not like you claim at all.

@GunValkyrie probably because under the Zenimax umbrella rests a wide array of franchises that have historically all been multiplatform. Comparisons to Naughty Dog, which is the example most frequently trotted out over here, really don't track.

But I have both consoles this gen so it's really whatever.

@S1ayeR74 i typed uk mean EU sorry for that mistake and in that case and the UK case your wrong just flat blatantly wrong….in the EU the ps4 has sold to date 48+ millio units. Xbox one 12+ million um that’s no where even in the same ball field….japan is laughable 100k+ units to ps4s 9+million and then the entire rest of the world minus USA its the same ps4 20+ million to the xbox1 5+ million

I dont have the UK numbers and for all i know UK is where most of the European sales come from if that’s the case UK is the outlier like the USA

Like i said the only place the xbox is even remotely competing but still is outsold is the USA. Where its ps4 38+million the the xbox1s 32+million..

This is coming from a person who loves my series x and my one x and owns only a ps3 on the PlayStation side…facts matter and those are the facts on why developers like the PlayStation brand better…outside of the USA it slaughters the xbox in sales….

As for the Series x/s in japan yes it has gained traction but .05 million is still a lot less then the ps5s .76 million sold there so still slaughtered in sales but at least they are showing some fight there.. and that link seems more like MS press release or spin after seeing the numbers i mean they have barely sold any from what i can tell

I'm not going to touch Sony's first-party studios since almost all their games are just for PS(duh, of course!) but if that's how it works, then whoever the head of Square Enix today should apologize to me for accepting Sony's timed-exclusivity deals and locking out few of what should be multiplat titles to PS only.

@Blessed_Koz You won't find any official sales Xbox figures because Microsoft does not publicly release them. So any ones you do see are from other sources.
The Xbox sells very well in the U.K., store shelf space shows that in your local Tesco.
It is believed in the EU the PS sells better and is the more popular console. However with the US the Xbox One I believe outsold the PS4 for several months, not sure about overall.
The Japan comment was in reply to your statement that it's not growing there.

@Blessed_Koz there are no official sales figures, now let me proceed to tell you how well it is selling in the most matter of fact way possible.

@S1ayeR74 in japan I’m pretty sure the sales figures come straight from stores and it’s MS saying they are growing and if those numbers are correct which from all I can see the japan numbers seem to be then I’d argue against it growing as far as systems go but Ms could be counting gamepass as the xbox brand growing… also store shelves mean nothing…. I’m in the USA and if tesco(never heard of it) runs like bestbuy or GameStop you can be out of something cause your max 8nventory level is lower then the other… ie. bestbuy I worked at only carried 3 Xbox 1S and 2 xbox 1x but carried 5 ps4s and 5 ps4 pros in stock… just cause xbox was out didn’t mean it was a better seller… just meant we ran out that week also the max inventory numbers are more telling as you keep more on hand of the thing that sells well…

The man does not need to apologize at all. As a guy who plays Nintendo a lot, I am happy that Xbox users get to enjoy such a wonderful game.

As for PlayStation users who are complaining, grow up and deal with it.

You want Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 and the new Arkane game on PlayStation?

Put Spider-Man 2018, God of War, and the Last of Us on Xbox then

@blinx01 If only they had something called a “browser”. 😂

Did Playstation fans really think Microsoft would pay billions for Bethesda just to release their games on other platforms? That's just delusional, especially when it comes to Sony who doesn't play nice with others and always tries to rely upon it's exclusive catalog of games to push petty console war crap.

@Blessed_Koz important thing about Japan as a market is that for a while now the primary gaming devices have been Windows PCs and mobile.

Microsoft’s strategy this gen has been to blur the lines between Xbox consoles and PC gaming via Xbox GamePass. If you make your PC game available on GamePass, that means it’s on the Windows Store too, even if it leaves GamePass. GamePass on PC ends up being a lure for developers to start selling their games on the Windows [App] Store. And of course, streaming Xbox console games from PC also factor into the whole equation.

Point being: Xbox console will be doing a lot better this gen in Japan even if it is not due to direct console sales.

@StonyKL Honestly I see a lot of narcissism and tribalism on the Sony side of things. It's like the fanbase is full of these people who think they're the best, that everyone agrees with them, and that they have what everyone wants. They are also the types who project themselves onto others a lot and are constantly trying to bully and put everyone else down when they aren't a part of their fanbase. That and I always see them try to invade other spaces for other platforms just to hate on those platforms and push the usual Sony fanboy nonsense. It's been a highly toxic fanbase in the gaming industry since the PS4 was announced.

I honestly miss the old PS fanbase, they used to be so cool back in the PS1 and PS2 era, heck even the PS3 era was pretty relaxed.

@Blessed_Koz Ah your in the US. Store shelves DO mean a lot, any store space is limited, Tesco is a supermarket, and stores do not give shelf space to things they don't sell. But I believe what a Microsoft executive stated over game sales then random people in the internet, sorry, if they state officially Japan is it's faster growing market then that's what it is.

@JayJ lol!

I've been console agnostic for years. It's all about the games, not the console. That's why I didn't have to think twice about purchasing my first Xbox console ever a few months ago (I've played my friends Xbox for years). Fanboys are too caught up in the "my team is better than your team" mentality. Being liberated from that mentality and playing games across all platforms is the only way to go.

@JayJ My favorite platform is Playstation. But I completely agree with your comment. Sony fans are the most toxic. Go to n4g and you'll be down voted just for saying something positive about the Xbox brand. Don't let it bother you my friend. I just ignore them and live a happy life surrounded by all of my platforms--PS/Xbox/Nintendo/PC--it's all about the games not the brand

Exclusivity sucks either way. I'm just happy MS has made themselves a nice path backward and forward so I can play these things well into the future and still go back and play Panzer Dragoon Orta every now and again. Where exclusivity really burns are those PS3 games i never got around to playing before my console died and now my only choice is to use the godawful PS Now service.

@Blessed_Koz Well, those numbers (that aren't official) don't matter much. Not only Xbox isn't just about consoles but several games sold more on Xbox One than on PS4 in UK, e.g., Assassin's Creed Origins, and Xbox One wasn't the most popular console last generation. So yes, PS is the default console, the most popular platform, but games don't necessarily sell as well. Even some Sony's exclusives don't sell that well. The best sellers are GTA, FIFA and Call of Duty in UK and EU... and a few Nintendo games.

@Chaudy how you can rant at Sony for locking games away as timed exclusives but act like Microsoft have never done it is laughable. It was worse on Sony's part to get Street Fighter V as an exclusive game for me than have FF7 for a year.

@Kopite I'm not complaining about the fact that they've locked it in. It's the fact that Bethesda is apologising, why doesn't Sony apologise for doing the same thing?

@Chaudy I can only assume you mean with the likes of Naughty Dog and Insomniac? I think those are difficult to compare to the Bethesda deal. Buying a studio that has spent a couple of decades making exclusive titles with the occasional third party title isn't the same as buying an umbrella company that has been making multiplatform games for the the same couple of decades.

I agree Pete Hines had absolutely no reason to apologise, Bethesda were offered an insane amount of money and they were right to take it all it does for me is change the shape of pad I'll use to continue playing there games, I'm not blindingly loyal to any platform holder, if that was the case I'd still be crying that Sega don't make consoles anymore.

@IronMan30 If only there were only one console vendor and PS could be a monopoly, and then everyone could be exactly the same with one option and no choice, and then the world would be perfect!

@JayJ There is a very very weird element to the PS fandom post-PS4. They were cool before the PS4, but something during the PS4 totally unhinged that community. There's still good folks there here and there, but so much of the base is just utterly unhinged in a weird alternate reality with self-declaring adults who think and talk like middle-school kids. It's the weirdest thing. You can talk in any fan base and find the normal people and the fanatics and just steer wide of the fanatics. But when you jump into a PS conversation you feel like you're in this weird nether realm trying to cover and blend in. There's good people to have conversations with, but you have to search for them between the weird indoctrinated ones. It didn't used to be like that. From 1995-2013 it was a perfectly sane, pleasant community. I really don't understand what happened but it went completely off the rails in the most unpleasant of ways. It's like the official console of the AOL Chat Rooms.

@NEStalgia I agree. There should be one console to rule them all. And that should be the glorious PlayStation, that everyone wants!

@NEStalgia Well said, I was actually a big Playstation fan during that 95-2013 run, but they totally lost me after. You really nailed it with the whole acting like middle schoolers thing, whenever I encounter these people they always seem to throw around the middle school tough guy attitude. You know, trying to be real edgy, trying to brag about how great they are, while trying to put everything else down. It's like a lot of these people are supposedly my age but they seem like they never really matured, like their whole approach to gaming is the same as if they were a teenager.

It's like I'm at the point where I simply know what I like and what I don't like, and that seems to put me at odds with elitists who try to prescribe what my preferences should be. This is an area where I think the 2013+ PS fanbase is at it's worst, they think everyone should love their favorite games as much as they do, and if you don't they have a meltdown on you trying to personally attack you and your preferences as much as possible. It blows my mind how what is supposedly adults care so much about what kind of video games other adults prefer to play and how they prefer to play them.

@JayJ Yeah, and what's most frustrating about that post ps4 fan base is the obsession with "adult"and the implication that everything except a certain set of games is therefore not "adult", and that "adult" is superior content for a sophisticated palate. Except that definition of "adult" looks an awful lot like the teenager's concept of "adult". It's the kind of thing I thought was amaaaaazing when I was 16. Then real life devoured my soul, hope, and joy and depressing melodrama no longer qualifies as entertaining. I don't necessarily dislike those games they go on about, but they don't sit on any pedistals either. I can enjoy God of Boi without thinking it's the deepest most meaningful piece of art ever created. It's always like a school film club with that lot. But worse is the feeling like those old movies when a lawman walks into a saloon and everyone stops what there's doing, the place goes quiet, everyone stares, and you can swear you hear "we don't much like your kind round these parts....." With the implied threat. The moment you say something contradicting the committee approved right opinion the group is alerted of the outsider.

It's the weirdest thing. I'm technically a PS fan...I avoided setting foot into PS all gen because it just seemed so awful. I finally jumped in with PS5 launch. But any time I post there it always feels like you have to defend and justify any opposite opinion on advance, and sugar coat it, otherwise face the wrath of the horde. The pleasant surprise was it's not everyone. There's definitely some members that are normal, or as normal as gamers get, but it's just stressful to filter out the horde to converse with them.

Nintendo fans can be brand obsessive as well, but it feels different there. Nintendo fans are devout like Disney fans where the characters are timeless and iconic and part of everyone's childhood, so everyone defends the worst the company does because attacking Disney or Nintendo is attacking their earliest memories. Sony fans seem to actually love the corporate brand itself. If Alloy and Kratos are your earliest childhood icons, you have a messed up childhood.

It's probably telling that the toxic tribalist souls fandom is largely the same group

I still tend to think most of the obnoxious PS4 fans are the toxic x360 frat boy fans all grown up.

@NEStalgia Yeah well said again, pretty much my experience in gaming communities as well. It's refreshing to hear someone talk about experiences that I can relate to in these gaming communities. It's like I have increasingly felt like the odd man out the more confident I got in my own personal taste, and encounters with the PS fanbase always seems to become a stressful and toxic experience, the type where you seem to constantly find yourself walking on eggshells with every comment you make and having to defend yourself every time you deviate from the approved hive mind perspective.

Personally I just think it's sad how some people can't seem to just enjoy video games for what they are and instead use them to compensate for whatever is going on in their life. Like they suffer from arrested development and therefore see them as a means to project their "maturity" by the type of games they play, or they are desperate to be seen as superior so they are obsessed with competitive gaming as a vain attempt to show how they are better at a video games than other people.

It's like at the end of the day I simply always enjoy video games for the experiences and activities they have to offer, and the way they can relate to my personal interests. Trying to do what other people prescribe as the best simply results with a lack of fulfillment, and it indicates your own lack of values and self understanding. So I guess it's a good thing we are the way we are, it means we have grown up and know how to enjoy an entertainment hobby for what it is.