Cognition Dissemination: The Bethesda Exclusivity Debate Should Have Never Started

Microsoft finalized their acquisition of Zenimax Media and main subsidiary Bethesda Softworks earlier this month, around five-and-a-half months after first announcing their intent to do so. It all cost them a mere$7.5 billion, corporate chump change. The gaming audience, meanwhile, did what they do best: Frequently and furiously speculate on just what Microsoft will do with them in the near future. Bethesda announced the development of several upcoming projects over the last few years, but the remaining question involved whether some of the biggest games would now be Xbox console exclusives.

There’s now a fairly definitive answer from Xbox Game Studios head Phil Spencer, clarified on a celebratory roundtable held just after the finalization. The answer was clear and obvious enough that the months-long debate over whether they’d be exclusive was futile in retrospect.

Spencer confirmed that upcoming Bethesda games will come to “platforms where Game Pass exists.” This could not be clear enough: The titles will be exclusive to the Xbox Series and PC, the latter being available on Windows 10 and likely Steam given the number of games Microsoft has released on the platform recently — among them Forza 5 in late February.

Deals made prior to the acquisition will still be honored, like Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo being temporary console exclusives for PlayStation 5. (This is similar to how Wasteland 3 and the upcoming Psychonauts 2 from inXile Entertainment and Double Fine Productions, respectively, didn’t have their non-Xbox and PC versions canned after both were purchased by Microsoft.) Games already released on other platforms will continue to receive updates and new content, as Doom: Eternal recently did. But you know where you’ll have to find newer Bethesda games.

This was bound to happen. There was no reason for a giant corporation that manufactures hardware they want to sell (and will continue to push whenever the supply issues are fixed) to continue releasing games for competing platforms, particularly the PS5. Microsoft danced around the answer to this question before the acquisition was made official, a necessary tactic for a big company that didn’t want to run afoul of antitrust advocates and government watchdogs who might be concerned about a massive consolidation. Not that it appears they ever cared that much, considering this didn’t attract anywhere near as much attention as, for example, the Disney and Fox merger or AT&T’s subsuming of Time Warner (which partially ignited a political firestorm). Regardless, they played it safe, and dropped the mask after the EU confirmed they wouldn’t stand in their way.

Minecraft and its spinoffs have been stated as examples of how Microsoft could continue to publish Bethesda games on other platforms, but there’s a key difference with those titles. The Minecraft games are considerably more popular with a wider audience and children, making the games a special exception. Not so with Bethesda’s, aimed squarely towards the hardcore audience willing to spend themselves into bankruptcy to obtain particular hardware to obtain particular games. Microsoft knows they’re dedicated enough to buy Xbox hardware if they played (or are playing) games on PlayStation systems and want to continue playing Bethesda games.

Yet, some people still aren’t convinced this will be the case. Games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4 sold well on multiple platforms, so why wouldn’t their successors also come to all platforms that can run them? It is, in fairness, tough to think titles like Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI will skip PS5 given how the system is selling and how well Bethesda’s games sold on PS4. They will, though, and there’s an audience that will have to accept that. This deal will make the Xbox Series systems that much more enticing, at least for anyone who doesn’t have a gaming PC.

With the deal done, Microsoft will now have an embarrassing number of exclusives. The Xbox Series of systems will be the consoles for western RPGs, with Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls and Fallout teams (both featuring overlapping talent) have joined Obsidian Entertainment and InXile Entertainment in being big WRPG developers under one hardware manufacturer. Xbox won’t be the platform for western RPGs, which will always remain PC thanks to the number of comparatively smaller options exclusive to the platform (including upcoming games like Baldur’s Gate 3, at least temporarily), but this will be the closest a console platform can get.

The big question is what Sony Interactive Entertainment will do to compete. A fun console wars-ish solution would be to fight back with a slate of Japanese RPGs, a genre still popular despite the number of them falling since the dedicated handheld era faded. Final Fantasy remains formidable, but Persona 5 and NieR: Automata also performed well worldwide. But we’re talking about a Sony that’s in the midst of downsizing their Japan Studio, which sends the message that they’re not inclined to build any support in the country. It’s a move they might come to regret this unless they have hidden initiatives of their own.

Microsoft has for years been criticized for not releasing enough console exclusives on Xbox platforms, and has been pressured to do something about it. They have now done something about it. Xbox Studios’ future console-exclusive title showcases will be stuffed with an absurd number of them, one of which is bound to occur during what’s essentially the Virtual E3 Season this summer. Crying will ensue once the gaming audience at large realizes which games won’t be coming to PS5, but they can’t say they weren’t warned.