Microsoft officially announced its acquisition of Bethesda, bolstering its lineup of first-party studios and fundamentally changing Bethesda's future. It's a move that came way out of the left-field, especially after false rumors circulated that Microsoft was trying to acquire Bungie. With next-gen consoles on the way, this is a massive change for the tone of the generation, and Bethesda's games may look a lot different in the next few years.
Bethesda has helped shape the direction of RPGs for decades. Starting off with Arena and steadily evolving into Skyrim, the Elder Scrolls franchise has altered the course of contemporary RPGs in a way few others can claim to have done. In recent years, however, the company has lost favor with a significant portion of its player base. Changes to the established franchise formula, as well as the highly criticized launch of Fallout 76, have landed the company in hot water.
Now, Bethesda has plenty of opportunities for change. Its new games will be made available on Xbox Game Pass, with exclusivity deals being worked out on a case-by-case basis. That means that games like The Elder Scroll 6 could be exclusive to the Xbox Platform, potentially leaving behind the PlayStation and Nintendo ecosystems.
The PlayStation Problem
In the past, certain PlayStation ports of Bethesda's games have been worse-off than their Xbox counterparts, with Microsoft and Bethesda sharing a close relationship long before the acquisition. And while that's potentially bad news for gamers on other platforms, it could mean good things for Bethesda's games, assuming that the narrow platform focus allows for better optimization within each title.
After all, developing for a smaller range of platforms means that those exclusive games will likely see performance improvements thanks to being optimized for more specific hardware categories. Not only that, but fans could see Bethesda's exclusive games launching with fewer bugs.
Bethesda has long held an association with buggy games in the eyes of its fans, but also received a pass for many issues prior to the launch of Fallout 76. That launch has been largely damaging to the company's reputation, and while it's unfortunate that PlayStation and Nintendo may not get to partake in some of the big new games the company releases, Bethesda's games may be as coveted as they once were if launches go a bit more smoothly.
Exclusivity Changes Everything
It's unclear which games will be exclusives and which won't, though, which muddies the waters of the Bethesda acquisition to a degree. Whether the company will save its biggest games for exclusives, or opt to reserve small-to-medium games for exclusives, is a mystery — and a significant bit of information left out of the equation. There's certainly the possibility that the company's two behemoth franchises, Elder Scrolls and Fallout, are now locked-in to the Xbox ecosystem, but it's still too early to call.
With Obsidian entertainment developing Avowed as a massive fantasy RPG, Microsoft may not need to keep Elder Scrolls exclusive to the platform, as it already has something to fill that void. Fallout, on the other hand, is a different beast entirely. Bethesda revealed Fallout 4 on-stage at an Xbox E3 presentation before the company did its own E3 conferences, and console mod support was much more versatile on the system, giving it a close association with the Xbox brand.
This could change how Bethesda develops both franchises, which would shape the future of the company's development style and pipeline. If one of the franchises is limited to a specific audience, and that series becomes more stable, it might incentivize Bethesda to put a greater focus on it, especially if it becomes more successful. With Bethesda's games now coming to Game Pass day one, though, what is and isn't successful is suddenly more complicated.
Bethesda is no longer a two-trick pony, though, having introduced a number of new IPs in the last decade. It has goliath franchises like Dishonored that may draw in many fans to the Xbox brand, especially with it being on Game Pass. The beauty of the Microsoft acquisition is that Bethesda has more room to experiment, as Game Pass will undoubtedly draw more users to each game.
Video Game Giants
With the acquisition, Bethesda has become one of the biggest studios owned by Microsoft, the closest challenger being Rare, though it isn't as much of a behemoth as it once was. That puts Bethesda in an interesting position. For the most part, Microsoft will leave Zenimax, Bethesda's parent company, alone, and honor Bethesda's exclusivity details. It's evidence that this acquisition might be different than the ones that came before it, but that can mean a lot of different things for fans.
However, the Rare comparison has worried some fans, who fear that Bethesda might be sidelined, slowing down production on games and releasing new titles on a limited basis. These fears don't seem realistic, though. Rare's best-known IP that isn't owned by Nintendo is Banjo-Kazooie, and while there are fans that would like to see that franchise return — with a remaster, remake, or a new game — Bethesda's current library of games is far more valuable to Microsoft, so it's unlikely that output will slow down.
If anything, Microsoft's additional resources for the company can go a long way to painting a brighter future. With any luck, Microsoft won't be opposed to Bethesda taking risks, and that will be key in the company's future games. Part of what separated Morrowind from other RPGs of the time was how bizarre the setting was. That risk paid off, and the series successfully established a foothold on consoles.
Bethesda's future needs to include more risks like that, and considering the broad range of titles on Xbox Game Pass, it very well might. It's a massive acquisition for Microsoft, and there's little doubt that Microsoft will do everything in its power to ensure that it's successful. That implies turning Bethesda into something as bold as it once was, even if there means will be failures from time to time.