It seems like Xbox is attempting to make this week an exciting one for its fans. Earlier today, Xbox announced that it has acquired ZeniMax Media and, more importantly, Bethesda. This massive acquisition for Microsoft makes series like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, DOOM, Wolfenstein, and others first-party Xbox titles. And now to help make some sense of the deal, Todd Howard has released a statement discussing the partnership, and how it came to be.
Todd Howard, the director of Bethesda Game Studios, details the long history between Bethesda and Microsoft in his statement on Bethesda's site, saying that the trajectory of Xbox and Bethesda have "gone hand in hand." Howard also reminisced on bringing The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind to the original Xbox and how he was "dubious" at first of bringing a traditionally PC centered series to a home console.
However, he ended up coming to share the vision that Microsoft had at the time (and still does today) of allowing players to play their games in whatever way they could. Howard then went on to discuss the many accomplishments that Bethesda has experienced since that console release of Morrowind and how the company has maintained a close relationship with Microsoft and the Xbox team throughout the process.
Todd Howard concluded his statement discussing an interaction he had with the Xbox team following his 2016 GDC Lifetime Achievement Award. In his acceptance speech, he had asked, "I wonder how many achievement points this one is worth?" And only a few months later, he received a code from Xbox for a game locked to his account called Todd Howard. When he ran the game, he found it automatically unlocked one achievement titled "Lifetime" worth 1000 achievement points. Howard said that he still looks at it and smiles every time he does.
This acquisition of Bethesda is a huge move for Xbox. One of the biggest complaints players have had about the upcoming Xbox Series X is the lack of first-party exclusive titles, especially with Halo Infinite being delayed out of 2020. And while nothing has been announced from Bethesda to take Master Chief's spot, this is certainly an important move nonetheless.
In the meantime, it's been confirmed that Xbox will be honoring Bethesda's previous PS5 exclusivity deals, including the deals made for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, not unlike how it's handling Double Fine and Psychonauts 2.
Source: Bethesda