What Microsoft's Acquisition Of Bethesda Studios Means For The Console Wars

On the 12th of March 2021, after a long hard day at work, I settled down to unwind with my Xbox. I popped open Game Pass and was met with a new graphic for Bethesda and twenty of its titles added to the standard subscription at no extra cost.

I was aware that Microsoft had been in talks to buy up more games studios to bolster their roster of exclusive titles. What I wasn’t expecting to find was so many of Bethesda’s best-known, albeit older titles, available on Game Pass so quickly, literally within a few days of the deal being done.

In a post on Microsoft Xbox’s webpage on 09th of March, head of Xbox Phil Spencer announced the acquisition of ZeniMax, Bethesda’s parent company. Eight games studios including Bethesda and Alpha Dog are now owned by Microsoft.

Bethesda Games

Amongst the new additions to Game Pass from this acquisition are perhaps some of the best-known games in recent years including Elder Scrolls, Doom, Fallout, and Wolfenstein franchise titles. This is great news for all Xbox fans. Game Pass ultimate, the bigger sibling of Game Pass already provides access to Electronic Arts titles in addition to Microsoft games, but of course Ultimate is the more expensive offering.

It is quite gratifying to have these new titles added to the standard subscription, making an already attractive service even more so. For Xbox owners and Game Pass subscribers, this deal already has many benefits. We can perhaps expect more Bethesda titles to be added to Game Pass in the future in line with the service adding new titles every month. This, in addition to being able to access brand new titles that had been designed to be PlayStation exclusives originally.

On the Bethesda website, for example, I saw the Deathloop game, which was originally a PS5 exclusive, has now been listed as Xbox Series X/S TBA. Deathloop was released for PS5 on 14th September and it should be released for Xbox by this time next year. Taking into account this is a game that would not normally have been made available to Xbox means this delay is by no means a deal-breaker.

What Does This Mean For PlayStation?

Phil Spencer has announced that all existing contracts for new games already in development will be honored. From this, we can reasonably deduce that in the short term at least, the studio will continue to release cross-platform titles available to PlayStation in addition to Xbox and PC and perhaps mobile devices too.

In the longer term though, when the current contracts have expired, the future for the PlayStation console owner’s ability to access titles by Microsoft-owned Bethesda will be less certain. In his announcement on 09th March Phil Spencer also advised that,

“…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”. (Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox in an announcement on Xbox website 09/03/21).

Games currently under contractual obligation and underdevelopment are expected to continue to be available to other platforms. In line with Microsoft’s other Game Studio acquisitions, existing cross-platform titles from Bethesda will continue to be supported. This can be demonstrated by Bethesda's imminent release of Back4Blood in October 20201 also being made available on Xbox, Playstation, and PC.

Final Thoughts

Both PlayStation and Nintendo are well known for their exclusive titles and until recently Microsoft did have exclusives, Halo, and Forza amongst them, but it couldn’t match its competitors in sheer numbers of must-have titles of its own. Microsoft’s drive to acquire as many games studios as possible in recent times will result in the playing field being leveled in short order.

The company has its stated aim of having its titles playable across all platforms that can access Game Pass, be it Console, PC, or cloud-based systems. They appear less interested in fighting for console market share and more determined in delivering games to their customers and Game Pass is central to this end. The recent addition of Bethesda to the fold will go some way towards making this goal a reality.