Microsoft and Bethesda have made it official: Microsoft has finalised its acquisition of ZeniMax Media, making famed RPG game creator and publisher Bethesda and its eight game studios part of ‘the Xbox family.’ While Microsoft is keen to reassure players that Bethesda “continues making games the way it always has”, the acquisition does mean that some future Bethesda games will be exclusively available on PC and Xbox.
“We look forward to empowering Bethesda’s creative teams to reach even more players around the world, helping make future Bethesda titles the biggest and most popular games in their history,” Xbox boss Phil Spencer writes in the announcement post. However, he also says that growth will mainly be taking place on Microsoft platforms: “Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.”
Spencer doesn’t get into specifics about which upcoming Bethesda titles will be Xbox and PC exclusives – whether that means Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI, and/or some other games is anyone’s guess at this point.
Microsoft announced its $7.5 billion USD plan to buy Bethesda parent ZeniMax late last year. At the time, Spencer noted that Bethesda had been “early supporters” of Game Pass and that the publisher has “many unannounced” games in development. Notably, he also mentioned Starfield by name.
— Bethesda (@bethesda) March 9, 2021
There are plenty more exciting upcoming PC games in development of course, so be sure to click the link to learn more about them.