Microsoft has acquired Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax Media, including Arkane, Machine Games, Zenimax Online, Bethesda Games Studios, Id Software, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios.

Why Microsoft Is the Perfect Fit

Welcoming the Talented Teams and Beloved Game Franchises of Bethesda to Xbox - Xbox Wire

Microsoft has acquired Zenimax (DOOM, Elder Scrolls, Fallout) for Xbox

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1308028640488292352

Xbox Buys Bethesda and Parent Company ZeniMax Media - IGN

Rarely does anything surprise me in gaming anymore, but I admit this is pretty eyebrow raising. Whether one likes Beth's games or not, there are huge potential implications to this.

 

Well shit! That just threw a Massive curveball at this generation. Microsoft really is buying up every studio that Sony has hid up there prostate.

 

Utterly bananas, didn't expect that at all.

Having said that, Bethesda and their studios have PC blood running through their veins so it's better that MS got them rather then any of the other big publishers.

 

Absolutely! Thanks to owning ID, The Microsoft collective basically possesses all the classic PC franchises outside of Half-Life.

 

I have no idea how I feel about this...I mean...I'll be a Microsoft employee when this deal goes through. Nobody asked me if this was ok!!  

 

Wow...

I'd ask about stock options if I were you  

 

I was just gonna say, I hope you got some shares as part of future severance or benefits or whatever when you came onboard wherever it was prior to this deal!  

As a gamer/consumer, for me the major implication of this is Game Pass and XCloud. Bethesda seems to be indicating they will remain their own publisher, and retain their current studio structure. And naturally, the games will still be released on Windows across multiple storefronts (MS releases on Steam, Windows Store, etc.) So the only practical impact for me is that now I can probably play the next Doom, Fallout, and Elder Scrolls with a low monthly sub and/or stream them if my PC isn't good enough by then.

The flexibility of not having to buy an Xbox that MS controlling Windows gives them is a unique and potentially transformative advantage, and something I'm sure they've wanted to move towards since Xbox's genesis. I remember back then them even saying, the eventual goal is to have a single box - be it a PC or a console - that plays all Microsoft games interchangeably.

The only question I have is whether they'll still publish Switch games lol. (At least finish that Doom Eternal port!)

 

Unlike there bitter rival Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft appear to have had a good working relationship for about 2 years now.

 

I'm not going to speculate here, because I'm absolutely clueless about any details. And even if I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to say anything   Right now, I'm just going to sit back go along for the ride - I have no reason to think that this will be a bad thing for me or my studio.

 

That smell of monopolization in the morning

 

Then again... for all we know they won't even pull the exclusivity card against Sony. They didn't after the Mojang acquisition. Minecraft hit PS4 and included the in-game store. So maybe the smarter play in MS's eyes is to just continue business as usual and make money off of Sony's install base. After all, I'm sure a good chunk of Skyrim's, Fallout 4's, Fallout 76's, Doom's, and Doom Eternal's sales were on PS4 given how well that system has sold. There's no intrinsic reason Microsoft has to suddenly make Bethesda games exclusives.

They did just recently say they "aren't reliant on exclusives." They seem to be moving in a more service-based direction. Yes they want to sell hardware but anyone who doesn't buy an Xbox is just a potential Windows user they can attract to Gamepass. Or sell games to via Steam or the Windows store. Or sell games to on PS4/PS5 lol.

Edit: Some more details.

Microsoft to Acquire ZeniMax Media and Its Game Publisher Bethesda Softworks

MS is paying $7.5 billion for ZeniMax.
Game Pass has 15 million subscribers now (I still feel like this is the biggest component of the implications of all this personally from MS's point of view.)
Bethesda's games going forward will be Game Pass at launch.

 

Even though Microsoft acquired the company, this doesn't mean their future games will be exclusive to Xbox. If we seen Psychonauts 2, Ori and Minecraft, Microsoft is totally willing to allow their games on other consoles, and they view exclusives as anti-consumer (even if they still do it.)

 

Not only that but PS5 now has two timed exclusives technically controlled by MS now.   Death Loop and Ghostwire Tokyo. So yeah, there's no reason to assume they will play the exclusivity card. I think this is more about driving Game Pass adoption personally. Because I think Game Pass - and services like it - are the real play in the long run. The movement to all digital and all streaming gaming is accelerating. Whoever gets the biggest and most locked in install base on that kind of a service is going to benefit, and MS is uniquely positioned to make theirs cross-platform on just about any device people own.

 

This means Obsidian could make another Fallout...

 

Does this make all their games Xbox exclusives then?

 

Don’t know. MS has a good amount of multi platform games like Minecraft. I think Microsoft is looking away from consoles and focusing more on services.

 

Doubt it. Microsoft is pretty buddy buddy with companies now, and allowed alot of their exclusives and games to come to other consoles.

 

We don't know yet, and it's definitely conceivable. But I don't think Microsoft is signalling that at this time, personally. As previously stated, MS acquired Mojang - yet Minecraft is for sale on PS4. Microsoft has now acquired the makers of Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo - yet those are both coming to PS5 as timed exclusives.

PS4 was the best selling console of its gen, and I have little doubt that the Fallout, Skyrim, and Doom games sold well on it. 7.5 billion is a lot of money, but I doubt they want to lose a huge part of their audience. I still suspect the main benefit to MS here is Game Pass day one availability, XCloud availability, and better integration of Xbox-exclusive features into the games. The major benefit to Zenimax and Beth (other than 7.5 billion dollars of course   ) is Microsoft's immense resources, which are myriad.

Timed exclusivity is more likely imo than total exclusivity. I don't think it really serves Bethesda or MS to totally jettison an entire audience, and they keep signalling they "aren't reliant" on exclusives so... we'll see.

It's really funny watching Twitter right now btw. "Konami" is trending, solely because people are calling for Sony to acquire them in retaliation and "set the IPs free!"   (Though, I do have to say... wtf Konami, are you ever going to make Mystical Ninja, Suikoden, and Gradius games again? Or at least port collections? They really do sit on their IP.)

 

I think there are some important points to remember here, which is just general legal/business stuff (nothing specific to the deal);

1. A requirement from Notch when selling Mojang was that Minecraft was to be made available on all platforms. No exclusivity. So what Microsoft have done, is to make Minecraft a user platform in its own right, and monetise it that way.
   
   
2. Anything that is a PS5 timed exclusive means that there is a business agreement in place, and those pre-existing agreements are still valid in the event of a buyout. So although a timed exclusive will still go ahead, it's not really relevant in trying to figure out what any future strategy might be w.r.t. supported platforms; it just means that there's a duty to fulfil a pre-existing agreement.
   
   
3. The paperwork hasn't been completed yet, the terms of the sale have simply been agreed. There's still a big process of going through the legal system to make sure that the SEC and other bodies are happy with the purchase. So the purchase itself might not be complete for many months yes...meaning that Zenimax is free to continue to honour its existing agreements as it sees fit.

 

The main goal here was getting more stuff on Game Pass. The most likely secondary outcome IMO is mostly timed exclusives and exclusive bonus content, and maybe a few very strategically chosen games that don't make it over to PlayStation. But for the most part it will be more like preferential treatment than exclusivity. Switch will probably be unaffected.

Longer than that, really. They seem to view each other as mostly not being competitors, though there is some overlap in their respective market niches.