In a shocking announcement today, Microsoft has confirmed that it is purchasing Bethesda parent company, ZeniMax Media. As many know, Bethesda has a slew of high-profile, AAA games under its belt including Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Dishonored, Quake, Starfield, and more.
While exact details are still in the air, Microsoft has confirmed that there is an agreement to purchase Bethesda Softworks' parent company, so the biggest question is exactly when this goes into effect. Alongside the big name Bethesda, Microsoft will also be picking up id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse studios, all of whom played some role in the aforementioned video game releases.
According to Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, he has had several conversations with leaders at Bethesda about the future of gaming, seemingly indicating their shared beliefs as a motive for this purchase. Furthermore, Bethesda was an early supporter of Xbox Game Pass, which will soon play host to Bethesda's most iconic franchises on console an PC. This means that Starfield, and likely The Elder Scrolls 6, will release day one as part of Game Pass.
With such a high profile purchase, this is likely to shake up the future of Xbox games. What this exactly means for The Elder Scrolls 6, other Bethesda games, and the future of RPGs on Xbox Series X is in the air, but it is exciting nonetheless. After all, one of the biggest complaints lobbied against Microsoft and the Xbox ecosystem is its lack of exciting exclusives, particularly on the single player variety, but this may no longer be the narrative moving into next-gen.
Playground Games is currently working on the next-gen Fable, something fans have been dying to see for quite some time. Obsidian Entertainment has several projects in the works, including a secret one, as well as Avowed which many have compared to Skyrim. And on top of all that, Bethesda comes with several big profile names and studios that have worked on games like Doom, Fallout, Starfield, and The Elder Scrolls. How all of this specifically manifests remains to be seen, but it stands to reason that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be a Microsoft exclusive.
The Outer Worlds (as a point of comparison) wasn't due to previous agreements that had to be fulfilled, but for the future of Microsoft and Bethesda, it seems bright and open.
The Elder Scrolls 6 is in development.
Source: Microsoft