Todd Howard Suggests Bethesda Leaving PlayStation Behind Will Make For A 'Better Product'

You don't pay 7.5 billion to put your games on the competitors console. I agree with Todd Howard, Overall I think the games will be better overall.

It makes sense, Bethesda are focused on Windows development and Xbox is a Windows box. They can make just a Windows version of each game and it will work on PC, Xbox and Cloud.

Well I can't see this statement being received particularly well over at PushSquare.

But he does have a point in that focusing on fewer systems will make for better games. Less time wasted on getting the games to work adequately on all systems, and more time to improve the versions that are already there. Good stuff!

This day and age who doesn't have 1 of each console, no game left behind or unplayed!

Well it makes sense less systems to develop for, but we shall see next November 2022 when Starfield is released. At the end of the day it’s when the game hits and how good it is when you truly now.

Well this pretty much confirms that all games including elder Scrolls ect will not be on PlayStation ...which I thought was obviously the most likely conclusion...but was funny seing so many ps fanboys claim they where 100% positive they would come to ps because they wouldn't want to miss out on the money sales on ps made lol

What I will be curious about is how Deathloop sells on PS5 later this year.
The last big game from Bethesda to probably ever hit the PS5.
Will gamers embrace it or avoid out of spite?

Totally will. LOL.

@DDJT people who are not rich.

@blinx01 I think those games won't get any marketing from Xbox/Bethesda. Casual games will not even hear about them unless Sony themselves promote it.

Then, next year, we will get Deathloop Ultimate Edition with exclusive DLC and Microsoft will make a big push for it.

@blinx01 it will still sell really well

@blinx01 will not really matter ultimately. Will check it out when it comes to Gamepass

What a load of Bull, the series S, X and various PC set ups are all different. Nice try though

Well elder scrolls 6 and starfield come out I expect it not to be riddled with bugs and glitches then if what he says is true

@DDJT I would say millions only have 1 console. Because they don't have the time or money to have multiple consoles.

@StylesT Apparently some websites and You Tube channels STILL claim Starfield will come to the PS5 🤣😂 they are at the utterly delusional stage of grief now 🤣😂

@Chaudy @DDJT you know, in Brazil the official price of both the Xbox Series X and the PS5 is R$ 4599,00. In a direct conversion to dollars, that's US$ 903,38. Remember that we're talking about an emergent country whose average income is about US$ 270 per month.

So I can think of many people who cannot own both consoles all over Latin America, Eastern Europe, India, Africa, etc.

In fact, the Xbox Series S is a godsend. It costs "only" US$ 549,81 down here. That's the console I purchased and it's been the #1 best selling videogame console in the Brazilian Amazon store for quite a while, even beating Nintendo Switch.

This is like saying water is wet. Of course developing for only Xbox (and PC) will be easier than another system too. Perhaps they could drop PC and focus just on the Series X, but that's a pipe dream.

Now hopefully they can iron out the bugs their games are historically known for.

@DDJT During the last gen I had a PS4, PS4 Slim, Xbox One, Xbox One X, Nintendo Switch, PS Vita, PC.... Frankly, I couldn't keep up with the back catalogue, this gen I'm probably going to focus on what's available in Gamepass and Nintendo. I feel for the PS5 owners that will miss out, but they could always subscribe to Gamepass and use the cloud for a couple of months.

Or you could sell 20 million more copies on Playstation.

@UltimateOtaku91 More similar than apart... whereas PS is a completely different platform. Regardless why did anyone think these go-forward games wouldn't be exclusive...

@nofriendo or you could not do that and make Playstation fans:
a) buy it on PC instead
b) buy an Xbox
c) subscribe to Xbox Game Pass and play it on Xcloud
d) do not buy and cry me a river

There's no lack of options for PS fans and either (a), (b) or (c) are huge wins for Microsoft anyway. (d) is unfortunate, but that's a wager every game company makes — you don't see Sony releasing Bloodborne on competing platforms.

@DDJT the vast majority of the world doesn't own at least one of each. Glad you have all of them and have the time to play them but you are in a small minority.

@S1ayeR74 the sites are not delusional at all. They are smart and are chasing them clicks from the delusional audience. Just telling people what they want to hear even if it ain't true... like Sony they after that $$ all the way, no matter what.

@nofriendo so 20M less 30% from Sony's cut. Half likely on sale and less cost of making a PS5 version... not a lot of cash when you compare it to drawing more people to your ecosystem. Satya has gamepass metrics on his bonus structure...it's all about gamepass subscriptions and having it on PS5 ain't helping with that. Facts were always there to be seen but people didn't want to see them. It's a first party studio and unless they so another MMO it's exclusive.

@LtSarge "being able to focus on one platform makes for better games" is exactly the line I've seen them use to argue against playstation games going multiplatform.

Also, the whole "Bethesda games are broken"

To be upset about this now would be hypocritical.

@Krzzystuff Would a timed exclusive accomplish the same thing with a game of this profile? I would wait a year if I knew it was guaranteed to arrive. And I would never pay $300 for a console just to play one game.

@StylesT @Krzzystuff We have been saying this since the acquisition was announced. It's all about Game Pass value and PS5 is out of the equation unless Sony allows the Game Pass app on it. Those Sony fans are delusional.

@Richnj I wholeheartedly agree!

Did Bethesda ever split their focus for PlayStation, though? As an owner of Oblivion PS3, and Skyrim PS4.....serious question....

I just assumed they hit "build" and hoped it worked.

@themightyant It's not totally BS. From what we do know from some of the dev conversation on PS a while back, the methodology of optimizing and approaching the data pipeline between PS5 and XSX is very different, and the toolkits involved is very very different. Their point at the time was that PS5's setup was actually much easier and they predicted would lead to better support and performance of most games on PS5 vs XSX, but the advantages/disadvantages don't matter as much here as the fact that they are indeed fairly different to work with, and focusing only on one probably does save a lot of development time. PS5 allows brute forcing a lot of things, so it's a lot easier to do PS5-only than XSX/PC I'd bet. But if you're already doing XSX/PC, then you have to have the brute forced version that does everything differently for PS5, or just meet half-way and compromise both to minimize the work involved (The Bethesda Way (TM)) So it's probably not spin here beyond the fact that we know from 30 years of history that Bethesda would just build for PC, stumble into working decently on Xbox, and end up with an unusable mess on PlayStation, anyway.

@themightyant In Bethesda (and CDPR)'s case I don't think PC "adds" time, because they were PC developers from the start...that's their home turf they're most familiar with and do everything in service of. The consoles remain "ports" they add on later. And CDPR proved especially well just how much an afterthought it really is for them. Buggy as they are everywhere, Bethesda's games manage to always be buggier on console than on PC (not that that lacks bugs.) So backward as it sounds, for Bethesda's development process, he's telling the truth (for once.) Xbox specifically is easiest for them because it's the closest process to PC for them to copy and paste their completed PC games onto with less risk of implosion. For Ubisoft, yeah, PC adds a TON of complexity because they're taking console games and trying to paste them onto PC with 1000 hardware configurations. But for Bethesda and CDPR that's their starting point that's largely complete by the time they touch a console and try to cram the PC stuff they already have into the limited kit. They're an old school DOS studio. Their workflow just doesn't match most of the other big publishers that do console (and usually PS)-first.

Weird thing is id is kind of my starting point, so the idea that any studio would start on console was unimaginable to me when I started seeing that. I'm like "wait, don't' ALL games start as PC games?!?"

Sticking to Xbox and PC means they can stick to Direct X development exclusively, meaning their engines will not need to be written for two APIs (open gl + direct x) and that will definitively reduce complexity and result in a better final game.

@themightyant I just mentioned this in my previous post, but being able to ditch OpenGL development is a huge factor.

On a side note: Stating that Bethesda games will be where Game Pass is, is such a shrewd move. It basically offloads the blame sneakily onto Sony. "Well, ... we're open to bring all these exclusives to PlayStation, you know? ... However, ... for some reason Sony doesn't want our Game Pass there!" ^^'

This makes sense except for the fact that developing for Microsoft requires development on quite a few different platforms* so I'm kinda not getting the - 'it allows us to focus' argument.

Still, it is what it is. Not too terribly worried personally.

*Or, at least more development than exclusively for PS I mean. Clearly that would be the simplest, most focused approach.

@DDJT A lot of people.

If multi-platform development is so easy and everyone wants to make money while serving a broad fan base, then why can I not stream God of War, Horizon ZD & FW, and Last of Us directly to my phone or janky non-gaming PC right now? I'd happily throw $$$ at Sony right now for a Game Pass equivalent for a year or two just to play their exclusives, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards. Why, then, is there so much vitriol directed at MS for offering the PS community a service that Sony simply can't reciprocate for Xbox fans?
All things considered, I'd say MS is being pretty inclusive with their strategy. If anything, the accessibility of the MS catalogue across multiple platforms is actually an incentive to invest in Sony's hardware, rather than Xbox. MS must have a ton of confidence in their position going forward...

The Series S is the first Xbox console I have ever owned. Obsidian and Bethesda are the primary reasons why I bought an Xbox. I'm loving the Xbox (playing the HMCC for the 1st time) and will probably bite the bullet and get a Series X too, because, why not? The point is, exclusive games sell consoles.

@Steel76 @NEStalgia Bug fest after 25 years in the making? 🤪

@UltimateOtaku91 But it’s a Bethesda game, which means it’ll almost certainly have a thousands bugs and glitches that’ll never be fully patched, and the game will be abandoned. Skyrim being the most perfect example.

It’s cute so many here are lapping up the PR spin. Bethesda workers are never gonna say… we are gutted we have cut such a massive proportion of our fan base.

They have to find a positive. It’s nonsense. If it’s true their next titles should be stellar.

Also if they can concentrate why are we having to wait so long for their next title. Where are all the games they were working on? I fear as I said on day one we will get less games now they are under Xbox and that’s bad news for everyone. I wish they had stayed independent as no one win here.

Hope his words come back to haunt him if Starfield launches with the usual amount of bugs.

Well they won’t have hypocritical censorship forced upon them hats for sure, PS being obsessed over censorship but is more then happy to ignore those same rules for first party studios like Naughty Dog…
I’m happy PS isn’t going to get anymore Bethesda games, MS just copying Sony with the exclusives route, so Sony will have to face proper competition now with vastly more resources and cash.

I see all the Sony trolls are in full effect on here, they MUST be worried lol… 😂🤣😂

@Tharsman Yeap, totally agree, I’d also argue DirectX is more mature and better. They can now have one product workflow, the teams working with one toolset, games will be made faster, more efficiently, and they will be better quality.

@Krzzystuff No I think some are utterly delusional, but your right plenty of very stupid people out there that you can sell snow to..

@nofriendo but it's fair game if Sony blocks everyone from playing FFVII remake?

@Krzzystuff Of course it's all fair game whatever these companies decide, or not fair, depending on your view. I guess I'm just curious what the actual numbers behind these decisions are. Seems wild to exclude a console as widely adopted as the Playstation if you're purely looking at the bottom line. I think the Bethesda exclusivity experiment will be decided when Starfield comes out. My guess is that the game will eventually be released on Playstation. My guess and my hope

@nofriendo i get that people hope it's coming but there's no justification for it financially. 120M PS4s and how many would buy the game? It's a very small percentage, likely a few million? When it comes out you can get a tv stick or just download the app if your tv will support it and play it then....in gamepass.