It was a very normal Monday 21 September when, out of the blue, the official acquisition of the group appeared online ZeniMax Media in favor of Microsoft products for the modest sum of 7.5 billions of dollars, including Bethesda Company. A cost certainly not a small one but which, in relation to the company and the intellectual properties it has, makes the economic disbursement pass in the second place, making it appear almost like a real deal. The news was immediately welcomed positively, a sign that in the heat of the moment, the move in the media was appreciated by more or less everyone (very little by fans and future owners of PS5). Such a strategy will certainly have a strong impact on the ecosystem Xbox and on that of the main service as the Xbox Game Pass, which will push a large portion of users to buy a console Microsoft products rather than another. In fact, in the ZeniMax Media group there are very important companies with as many titles very famous and loved by millions of fans: we find the saga of The Elder Scrolls, various Doom, Fallout, Wolfenstein, The Evil Within and many other works of great prestige that until now we have almost always been able to enjoy on all gaming machines. But what will this acquisition entail in the future at the level of exclusives? This was certainly the question that most reverberated in the head of every enthusiast, afraid of losing their favorite saga on the console they are fond of or, on the contrary, happy to have chosen the "winning side", perhaps being able to enjoy advantages and exclusivity. Let's try to clarify by retracing the events from day "X".
Microsoft and its new exclusives
Right from the start, the number one in the Xbox division, Phil Spencer, has shown that with this move it will get serious, bringing the last chapter of Doom Eternal into the Game Pass catalog after only 10 days and thus giving way to millions of registered users to be able to play the title in question. Just recently, however, the good Spencer wanted to clarify a fundamental thing, namely that the acquisition of ZeniMax and all related companies such as Bethesda has not yet been completed and that it will take at least another month or two before being called such, making it impossible, and above all illegal, to talk about future projects, exclusives or anything else that is linked to something that does not yet belong to him:
First of all, I would like to point out that we have not yet acquired ZeniMax. We have announced our intention to acquire it. Regulatory approval is currently underway, although we have not encountered any problems. We expect the deal to close in early 2021. I like to set the record straight so people know I don't sit down with Todd Howard and Robert Altman planning their future. Also, currently I'm not even authorized to do this, it would be illegal. Right now I get a lot of questions: “Is this game exclusive? Is this game exclusive? " And at the moment, this is not my job as far as ZeniMax is concerned. My job is not to sit down and go through their portfolio and dictate what's going to happen.
Now, although as we have just read the deal has not been completely completed, we will assume that it was, trying to imagine the future scenario and analyze what are the statements about it. The next generation of consoles seems no longer to be a "challenge" between those who are more powerful than the other, indeed, never like this time the choice of a car will be dictated above all by the exclusives. We all know that Sony has a strong advantage at the moment, as does Nintendo. Both have always boasted many first party titles that they would never dream of bringing to rival consoles, taking away prestige from their machine and above all money. Microsoft with this move is trying to close the gap with its rivals, adding quantity and quality to its internal studies. During a recent interview with Kotaku, a very specific question was asked to Spencer which we report below (adding part of a subsequent question):
-Is it possible to recoup a $ 7,5 billion investment if you don't sell Elder Scrolls VI on PlayStation?
-Yes. […] But I don't want to be misunderstood. This deal was not done to strip games from other gaming communities. Nowhere in the documentation we have produced does it say: 'How can we prevent other users from playing these titles?'. We want many other players to be able to play it, no less than those who can already do so now. But I also have to say that when I think about the people who will play it and the range of devices we have - xCloud, the PC, Game Pass and our consoles - I realize that I don't need to publish those games on platforms other than the ones we support. already to make the deal work.
This does not necessarily want to preclude the arrival of a possible The Elder Scrolls VI or another game on PlayStation. Also seeing the past with the studio Mojang and title Minecraft, acquired but remained available on all platforms, a glimmer of hope may still be there. It is equally true, however, that the focus of Xbox at the moment is the Game Pass service that it wants to offer in all possible ways: from consoles to PCs, from xCloud to the future possible implementation in Fire TV or ChromeCast, up to iOS devices and last but not least also on rival consoles (the latter hypothesis, albeit remote, is often the subject of gossip). Finally, a thought of concern, always stated during the interview, was the admission of Spencer in evaluating "case by case" the possibility of distribution on several consoles of the next titles, while maintaining the agreements already made between the software house and companies like Sony and Nintendo (Ghostwire: Tokyo for example will be a title coming out on PS5 as per the agreements prior to the acquisition).
Xbox Game Pass to the nth degree
Another very important aspect to evaluate, to the detriment of the owners of Xbox and PC consoles or more specifically of the Game Pass service, is the admission by the company that it wants to insert from day one the new games of the ZeniMax ecosystem in the already vast catalog. This means that, although it is not yet entirely clear whether in the near future Fallout o The Elder Scrolls will be distributed on PlayStation, what is certain is that Game Pass subscribers will be able to enjoy every saga, new IP or other from the very first day of its debut, as well as obviously seeing the implementation of the current stock of titles with the main works carried out in the past:
“Bethesda was among the first to support Xbox Game Pass, bringing its games to new audiences across multiple devices and has always actively invested in cutting-edge technologies such as streaming gaming. We will be adding Bethesda's most iconic franchises to the Xbox Game Pass catalog for PC and Xbox. One of the most exciting aspects for us was seeing the roadmap of the company's upcoming games, some of which have not yet been announced: all of these games will arrive on Xbox and PC, including the highly anticipated Starfield, a title set in space and in development. got Bethesda Game Studios. "
At the moment, in short, it seems Microsoft is still slightly dubious about bringing future exclusives to PlayStation or Switch. Certainly owners of Xbox consoles - and fans of Bethesda and similar titles - can sleep peacefully, reassured by the fact that they will certainly be able to enjoy future sagas or titles coming both on the console and on the Game Pass. Those who are used to playing works like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls or other Bethesda titles on PlayStation consoles, unfortunately, may not be satisfied. On the other hand, even Sony would never dream of bringing games of the caliber such as Uncharted, The Last of Us or God of War on Xbox Series X. At the moment, however, we will first have to wait for the definitive acquisition of the company, in order to have a clearer picture on the matter and expect further statements from Xbox on the future of its new exclusives.
