Towards the end of 2020, Xbox announced they would be acquiring Bethesda and their entire suite of franchisees and development teams. At a purchase price of $7.5 billion, it became the second-largest video game acquisition of all time. This was and still remains to this day, a huge deal.
After finalizing all the paperwork and having the EU approve of the deal, ZeniMax (Bethesda’s parent company) was officially purchased by Microsoft today. In celebration blog posts, the two companies each posted similarly worded statements, but the Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer casually mentioned that some new titles will be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem.
“With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams, gamers should know that 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.” – @XboxP3
— Xbox (@Xbox) March 9, 2021
It is still unclear whether announced titles from new and existing IP will be in the Xbox ecosystem only, or if future titles of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout will release to all platforms. But it sounds exclusivity deals are still on the table as Pete Hines, SVP of PR and Marketing at Bethesda, states in his blog post that they are not ready to talk about anything official today, only that Game Pass will be a great place for Bethesda games.
Game Pass has been an important initiative for Xbox, and we’ll be working on putting even more of our games into Game Pass than ever before. Beyond that? Stay tuned, we’re just getting started together.
Phil closed out his message with news of Game Pass receiving more Bethesda titles this week for all subscribers to enjoy.
