Microsoft Acquires Bethesda
Creating a major shake up in the video game world, Microsoft announced today that they have acquired Bethesda softworks in massive $7.5 Billion deal. Head of XBox, Phil Spencer, published a letter on Xbox Wire welcoming the new titles that will be under the Xbox Studios umbrella now.
The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Doom, Dishonored, and Quake franchises, as well as Starfield just to name a few.
Bethesda’s games have always had a special place on Xbox and in the hearts of millions of gamers around the world. Our teams have a close and storied history working together, from the amazing first DOOM, and its id Tech engine, innovating games on PCs to Bethesda bringing their first console game to the original Xbox, the groundbreaking The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Over the years I’ve had many deep conversations with the creative leaders at Bethesda on the future of gaming and we’ve long shared similar visions for the opportunities for creators and their games to reach more players in more ways.
Phil Spencer
Just as they took the bold first steps to bring The Elder Scrolls franchise to the original Xbox, Bethesda were early supporters of Xbox Game Pass, bringing their games to new audiences across devices and have been actively investing in new gaming technology like cloud streaming of games. We will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios.
Spencer is calling this a “landmark step” for Microsoft. He continued
“One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios,”
Phil Spencer
On the other side Pete Hines, senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Bethesda, released a letter of his own on the developers website, outlining why Microsoft is the right fit for his company. Stating that the two companies have a “long history of working together” He adds that this acquisition will allow Bethesda more resources to innovate and to grow.
For those unaware, this is announcement is coming just one day prior to the official start of Pre-Orders for the upcoming Xbox Series X and Series S consoles. Which should help catapult them into a very nice position heading into the Ninth Generation of Video gaming.
As of now it is still unknown what this means for Exclusivity of Bethesda titles. It isn’t out of the realm of possibilities that nothing would change in that regard, although you have to imagine Xbox may take a title or two for themselves.
More on this as it develops.
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