Microsoft has announced it has acquired Bethesda, meaning the studios behind Dishonored, Doom, Fallout and more now sit under the Xbox Game Studios label.
Bloomberg reports that Microsoft has purchased Bethesda for a whopping $7.5 billion USD, with Xbox head saying that titles like Starfield, The Elder Scrolls 6 and more will be considered for non-Xbox platforms like PS5 and Switch “on a case by case basis”.
That said, Microsoft has confirmed it will honour agreed-upon console exclusivity timings for Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, meaning it’ll be a while until the titles appear on Xbox Series consoles. We also know that Bethesda titles will soon be added to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription program.
“So why the change? Because it allows us to make even better games going forward. Microsoft is an incredible partner and offers access to resources that will make us a better publisher and developer,” Bethesda’s Pete Hines said of the acquisition on the company’s blog. “We believe that means better games for you to play. Simply put – we believe that change is an important part of getting better. We believe in pushing ourselves to be better. To innovate. To grow.”
“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,” Xbox head Phil Spencer said of the deal.
“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.”
We’ll keep you up to date as more as known, including PS5 availability of future Bethesda titles. In the meantime, what do you make of the deal?
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