Xbox boss Phil Spencer reveals that Xbox’s highly-anticipated RPG star school could be a PlayStation exclusive, and Microsoft bought Zenimax to prevent that from happening.
While speaking with the FTC about the acquisition of Activision Blizzard (via precipice) today, we learn that Spencer has revealed that Sony regularly pays competitors to skip the Xbox. So to prevent this from happening, Microsoft felt it was necessary to buy Bethesda to prevent it from becoming a PlayStation exclusive. Spencer had this to say about buying Zenimax:
“When we bought ZeniMax, one of the driving forces behind that was that Sony made a deal with Deathloop and Ghostwire… that paid Bethesda not to port those games to Xbox,” Spencer said. “So the discussion about Starfield when we heard that Starfield was also likely to skip Xbox, we couldn’t be in the position of being the console in third place where we fell behind in terms of third place. ownership of our content, so we’ve got to keep it secure to stay viable in business.”
Originally, Microsoft bought ZeniMax and its subsidiaries, such as Bethesda, in 2021 for $7.5 billion.. When the deal was official, it was revealed that Bethesda will release “several” games exclusively for Xbox and PC. Since then, Bethesda has released failure as an Xbox/PC exclusive, and there are plans to do the same with Starfield.
For more news on what Phil Spencer told the FTC today, check out our story on how Spencer said it. Elder Scroll 6 has no platform and more than 5 years left and how Xbox will suffer “irreparable harm” if it goes back to PlayStation CoD promises.
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