Microsoft Buys Bethesda for $7.5 Billion

[Moonface]

Microsoft has purchased Zenimax Media and publisher Bethesda in a deal for $7.5 billion. The move sees Bethesda properties such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, Doom, Dishonored, and Quake franchises, new IP Starfield, and more, now being owned by Microsoft.

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.

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.

Games such as Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo will still be timed exclusives to PlayStation 5, but whether any future Bethesda titles will be coming to platforms outside of Microsoft's ecosystem remains to be seen. If you are part of that ecosystem however, then all future Bethesda games will be free on Game Pass the day that they release.

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I know Microsoft has been buying studio's but I didn't ever expect them to buy Bethesda. Given that the games are going straight to Game Pass, I expect they're doing this to add value to their ecosystem and will try to make money back with sales of the games on other systems. I can't see the games being only on Game Pass because I don't see how that will let them recoup the $7.5 billion they just spent in any reasonable time frame.

[Dragon Lord]

I believe there was a comment from someone at either Microsoft or Bethesda that this purchase would not affect any of Bethesda's games from being on other consoles, so if that is true, then this move does absolutely nothing.

Regardless, company that has shit exclusives buys company that makes shit games. Nothing has changed either way.

[Eric]

I think this has pushed me to buy the Xbox Series S. Before this announcement, I was teetering back and forth the two consoles, but I just feel like Xbox has hit a home run with all of these moves. It just adds so much value to their Gamepass and the digital Xbox imo.

[Moonface]

Doing this right before preorders opened was a very good move. I can see a lot of people just like @Eric who go for an XBSS because it's a cheap way to get into Game Pass and having all of Bethesda's games on it just makes the package even more appealing to a lot of people.

I'd like to hope that Prey 2 gets made some day because of all this but I won't get my hopes up. It'd be a shame since Prey is one of the best games I've played this generation.

[Eric]

Agreed. Prey is hands down one of my favorite games last gen and was thinking the same thing when I saw the acquisition announcement. I don't expect any games to show up until mid next year anyway, but that's fine. I'm more excited about playing Rare Replay to be honest lol.

So, in light of all of the preorder chaos, I somehow managed to buy an Xbox Series X by accident. My impulsive-ass tried to cancel at the last second but the order went through lol. I guess everything sold out but I refreshed once more on the Microsoft website just in time to allow me to make a terrible financial decision. ?‍♂️

[Moonface]

So, in light of all of the preorder chaos, I somehow managed to buy an Xbox Series X by accident.  My impulsive-ass tried to cancel at the last second but the order went through lol.  I guess everything sold out but I refreshed once more on the Microsoft website just in time to allow me to make a terrible financial decision. ?‍♂️

If you can't cancel it you could always try to sell it for slightly more than you bought it or just the same price so you don't lose any money on it.

[Eric]

Yeah I'm considering doing just that...I'm not too sure though. Not a lot makes my little sister happy and having locked down a preorder seems to have inspired a bit of excitement from her. I can always cancel I think, they won't charge until it ships at least.

The part of me that wouldn't mind owning one is also reluctantly excited. We'll see. Are you buying into the next gen hype just yet, Moony?

[Moonface]

Are you buying into the next gen hype just yet, Moony?

I'm excited for the games, but not the systems yet. I don't have any issue with either system; it's just that I won't buy a console at launch after I did it with the PS3 and regret doing it, and I'd rather wait until there's enough games released so I have plenty to play while waiting for more games, rather than playing maybe one or two things and then watching it collect dust.

[Eric]

I have a similar anxiety that if I end up keeping it and it suffers through a red-ring-of-death-type of issue, that I'm SOL for a good amount of time. I'm at least somewhat confident that if it were to get to that point, that Microsoft at least seems to see value in keeping their base happy. Maybe they'd do an extended warranty or something, idk. I'd be content with a fix and a free copy of Cyberpunk lol.

[Moonface]

I think the size of the X is partly to make sure everything has plenty of room unlike the 360's. I don't even recall hearing of the One's having widespread issues. In fact, it seems console failures have been pretty minimal this generation for all consoles.

[Eric]

That's good. I guess now I need to figure out where I'm placing it, I don't think my Ikea TV stand agrees with its shape lol.

[WR91]

I know this is a few days old now but I thought I'd chime in and give my two cents on the topic.

I really think that this deal is HUGE for Xbox and Microsoft in general.

Last generation the Xbox One didn't have many exclusive games for their system. So what do they do? Buy up a bunch of different game studios a few years back and now acquire Bethesda. Which not only does The Elder Scrolls games but the DOOM series, Fallout series, Dishonored series and even the Prey series.

Man did they strike fast and hard with this deal. Sony, you honestly might be in trouble this gen with the GamePass deal and so many either timed exclusives or flatout exclusives in general.

So all in all, it was a very nice pickup from Microsoft.

[Moonface]

I don't think it'll give Sony any problems. For any notable Bethesda game they don't get, they either have a first party exclusive that's a big hitter or a third party exclusive like FFVII Remake that Microsoft still doesn't have access to.

If these are just timed, then I don't think it'll push people to move over in droves. Rise of the Tomb Raider was timed exclusive and if I recall correctly still sold better on PS4, and generated a lot of bad feelings towards Microsoft and the series for making a successful reboot on all platforms and then suddenly only having it on one for a year. Don't fuck around with people like that; do it from the first game and not in the middle after people have got into your series on a platform you choose to not support after the players supported your game.

Competition will just breed more competition.

[Eric]

Both companies do the same thing though. Sony for example made Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, and Call of Duty Zombies timed exclusives for one year when they release this holiday - which especially sucks for Call of Duty players because they generally have an online shelf life of one year until the next one.

From what I hear, Bethesda was going through financial trouble and was looking for any suitors, and at one point nearly sold to EA. If I'm honest, I'd rather Microsoft have bought them than a shady publisher with MTX history like Activision, EA, or Ubisoft. I would argue that Microsoft hasn't been competition for Sony for quite a while considering they lacked any titles under their belt, but now that they do it will be interesting to see what next gen brings to the table. I'm excited to see if Sony has an answer for that Fallout/Elder Scrolls itch that will now be missing, and that's the kind of competition that gamers should look forward to.

[Moonface]

As of today, it's now official that Bethesda is part of Xbox. Unsurprisingly, there will be some titles that are exclusive to Xbox and PC: