Microsoft announces the purchase of Bethesda Softworks, responsible for such important and popular franchises as ‘ Wolfenstein ‘, ‘ The Elder Scrolls ‘, ‘ Fallout ‘, ‘ DOOM ‘, among many other successful sagas. Microsoft buys ZeniMax Media, the company that owns Bethesda, and with this it is done with a group of 2300 people who join Xbox Game Studios and who come from studios (which will continue to operate autonomously) such as id Software , ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios.
Microsoft has announced that the purchase of Zenimax Media will occur for $ 7.5 billion in cash, multiplying the commercial potential of its new Xbox consoles. The future games of the company’s iconic franchises will see the light, possibly, exclusively -although they are temporary- for the home consoles, which is a clear reaction from Microsoft to the accusations that its console did not have its own titles sufficiently powerful, traditionally the most attractive commercial hook of Sony and its Playstation. In addition to those mentioned, Zenimax has IPs such as ‘ Dishonored ‘, ‘ Prey ‘, ‘ Quake ‘.
Microsoft highlights in its press release that the trajectories of Xbox and Bethesda have always been united, starting with the first ‘DOOM’ (when it was still owned by the independent studio id) and its original engine in a franchise closely linked to the evolution of the PC. as a gaming machine, all the way to ‘The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind’, an exclusive debut on the first Xbox of Bethesda’s console titles . Microsoft also highlights the support that Bethesda has always had for the idea of Game Pass , perhaps one of the services that will shape the video game industry in the coming years.
Investment in a critical strategic area
The intention of Xbox, although there has been no talk of exclusives at the moment, nor of actions related to the myriad of games already published by Bethesda, is obviously to improve its portfolio of exclusivities in Game Pass. Microsoft’s communication, for example, talks about future Bethesda games (“some announced and some not”) for Xbox and PC, which includes the future ‘ Starfield ‘, a space adventure title that had not yet released the formats in those that would appear and that is the first new IP of the company in 25 years.
Microsoft has also spoken openly that this increase in creative power, which takes it from 15 to 23 development studios, will allow them to bring the games created by Bethesda Softworks on the day of their launch on Xbox or PC directly to their Game Pass service. . Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, has stated that “just in the last ten days we have announced details of our new two consoles, which come out in pre-order tomorrow, we have relaunched the game in the cloud with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and we are investing a of the most critical areas of our strategy: games “