The takeover of Bethesda was a very nice move for Xbox, but behind the scenes of this kind of operation is often more complex than it seems. What if we told you that Sony and Starfield had something to do with it?
Xbox had literally surprised everyone by officially announcing the acquisition of Zenimax, the parent company of Bethesda. Then, and still today, Bethesda is one of the most important companies in the market. Its game portfolio is full and the firm has a real aura with players. Titles like fallout or The Elder Scrolls have become true cult games, inspiring a whole generation of games and gamers. Other gigantic titles like Starfield or The Elder Scrolls 6 are highly anticipated. The takeover was therefore a nice move for Xbox, which then found itself with a real juggernaut at its side. But there was not only a question of licensing behind this historic takeover… Sony also had something to do with it.
Phil Spencer reveals the truth behind the Bethesda takeover
Remember, several months ago when the acquisition of Activision Blizzard was going through the various validation bodies, we learned that Sony had an aggressive strategy in terms of exclusivity. More than simply taking out licenses to make them temporary or permanent exclusives, the Japanese giant did not hesitate to slip in a few clauses purely and simply prohibiting games from landing on the Xbox ecosystem. Business is business. On the chessboard, Microsoft and Xbox realized that Sony was taking the advantage. As far as Bethesda is concerned, the Japanese firm was going to suck everything up.
Summoned to the bar during this second day of hearing in the case Microsoft vs the FTC (which turns into Sony vs Microsoft finally), Phil Spencer affirmed that the aggressive policy of Sony pushed Xbox to act accordingly. ” When we acquired ZeniMax, one of the reasons for the acquisition was that Sony had a deal for Deathloop and Ghostwire… They were paying Bethesda so they couldn’t ship those games to Xbox “, he says.
Starfield, center of the universe
But where everything changed was when Xbox heard about a game that would change everything: Starfield.
Yes, Starfield could have been a PS5 exclusive, even if the speeches have now changed. Temporary or permanent, we don’t know and we’ll never know, but it was on track for one of the most anticipated games of 2023 to be available only on PlayStation. Phil Spencer then declares: when we learned that Starfield was potentially never coming to Xbox, we couldn’t find ourselves in a position where, as the third console on the market, we were going to fall even further behind in terms of content ownership, d exclusivity. So we had to secure that content to stay viable in the industry. “.
More than a simple acquisition, the acquisition of Bethesda was therefore a real strategic strike. The company was able to attract the big fish who then began to fight for it, in the end it was Xbox who won the bet. Where Sony has so far preferred to hamper its competitor with small closes here and there, as lately with the recent Final Fantasy for example, Xbox prefers to swallow its partners whole to make a place for itself in the sun. Two policies, each as aggressive as the other, but which ultimately give the same result: to be in a position of strength on the market and to become unavoidable.
And us, the players in all this?
For the time being, we, the players, are paying the price for this fuss. Like children of divorce, there’s not much we can do when mum and dad are ruffling each other’s buns in court. On the other hand, if exclusivities have always existed and will always exist, it is above all that the process has become a little anarchic and unstable. We are slowly reaching a stage where we don’t even know if the games will be temporary, definitive or multi-platform exclusives.
Communication is closed during events where everyone presents exclusives in the middle of cross-platform games without displaying them, and afterwards we can even see the two giants of the industry mocking each other on social networks. Like recently when Xbox trolled Sony after the latter’s PlayStation Showcase. Recently, Indiana Jones ended up becoming an exclusive when it was not originally intended to be. We just learned that Starfield had changed its tune as well and there are countless games that travel from one platform to another. It’s a bit anarchic, but either, do we really have a choice?
And you, how much do these exclusivity stories impact you?