Phil says he can't confirm if Bethesda games will be exclusive or not

"Phil Spencer explains that he cannot yet start to direct Bethesda from a creative or business standpoint. Doing so would be illegal. "We haven't acquired ZeniMax," Spencer says. "We have announced our intention to acquire ZeniMax. It is going through regulatory approval and we don't see any issues there. We expect early in 2021 the deal will close."

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Geeeezzz, pretty simple to deduce why, Watson. lol :P

🙄 this Bethesda acquisition is still eating you all up. Phil, cannot disclose information despite bombardment from the media because the deal isn't complete and would not be until first quarter next year.

You can still be in denial about every game coming to PS5 in the meantime.😎

Phil Spencer cannot say that Bethesda games will be exclusive, because MS does not yet own Bethesda, and he currently has no power to do so.

/stupidthreadtitle

They had no problem making this big announcement that Bethesda games were coming to GamePass, just before Xbox Series X preorders opened. What's the difference now? MS didn't own Bethesda then either. What's wrong with Phil saying that it's their intention to make Bethesda games exclusive to Xbox? Guess because he doesn't know if that's actually going to be true. 😃 Or maybe he does know the answer to that and doesn't want to say it.

lol

Seriously, of course he can say we intend to offer the product on their systems but can not "direct Beth at this point on creative or biz standpoint, ie, dev for other systems. :P

They could have also paid Zenimax for the GamePass inclusion separate from the purchase of Zenimax.

i.e. here is $100 million to put those games in but this money goes into a holding account that Zenimax can not spend unless the deal falls through

The weirdest thing about all of this.......

The same Cows that are putting on their business suits, larping as accountants, and twisting themselves into pretzels to tell you "well achshually.....MS has to recoup their investment" are the same Cows who just 2 months ago would have also twisted themselves into pretzels to tell you MS would never make an investment like this. They'd also have a long list imaginary handicaps they'd arbitrarily impose on MS to explain why (that read like the wishful thinking of a naysayer), such as "Xbox is only a small part of MS's income" or "MS doesnt care that much about gaming".

It has been made absolutely clear that Cows are not reliable at predictions like this. For entertainment, I read every page of the Resetera Playstation OT thread, just to take the temperature of what their opinion was. MF'ers are now floating that Sony buy Take Two, as if that were a remote possibility. And also, none of those aformentioned imaginary handicaps will apply to Sony, who is even less capable of doing something like that than MS is. Go figure.

Also, they want Sony to buy Konami and Square Enix, for some reason. So they can have a graveyard of past their prime IPs. Lots of general panic about "industry consolidation". Its a hilarious read, I recommend it.

Here's probably what it's going to come down to: if the XBoxes are selling like hotcakes it'll be MS exclusive. If it's a PS4 vs X1 gap again, it'll be timed exclusive.

The software sales make the money, and if the platform adoption isn't driving that MS will shrug and find a way to sell the software anyway

The gap will not be that big again. I think people lose sight of the fact that the gap was so big, because in 2013, PS4's only competition was:

• Wii U
• Don Matrick,TV,TV,Sports,$500 kinect, and $100 more expensive with weaker hardware

@StrongDeadlift: I'm not predicting what the gap will be, I'm just saying what I think Phil is being coy about

They would lose too much money making them a console exclusive.

And yet that same point doesn't seem to bother Sony and Nintendo? Weird stuff. :P

not until deal is finalised...as a multi console real gamer i get to play all the games,just means i get them on gamepass day one baby!

but i hope sir phil of xbox makes them all exclusive...just to piss fannyboys off hah

regardless if you wanna play MS/bethesda games you are paying.

your MS bitches now...a bitter pill for cows to swallow

As some one who prefers PS but also has switch and xbox (working on a PC), i'll just wait and see what the games are confirmed for and play it on that.

We already discuss this like 2 weeks ago when Phil did the interview. How is this any different?

Can't play Bethesda games on your PS5, get a PC or XSX/S, but I assume every Sony fans have a gaming PC, so this shouldn't be a problem.

I thought the deal was finalized already but I guess now. I'm still in the camp that believes the games will be multiplat (non-Xbox/windows store). Maybe not on playstation every time but at least on Steam. There's no way MS will give up additional revenue streams that are already established, especially if console sale performance remains the same next gen.

Who cares they overpaid For Bethesda anyway

Well the deal isn’t actually finalized and all so.......

I’m expecting them to make future Bethesda games exclusive to their systems and services myself. Getting people signed up and using them is the ultimate goal after all.

Short lesson on mergers and acquisitions:

1. It is illegal to try to dictate actions of a company you intend to acquire prior to ownership. Why? Because if the purchase falls through, any decision you made that ultimately caused the company to go under would be bad and spawn tons of lawsuits, not to mention companies would try to sabotage the competition without having to buy them

2. Talking about any plans you have for said company could lead to point 1 if deal falls through, not to mention devaluing the company you want to buy even if the purchase is successful.

MS and it's executives (and any company that wishes to purchase another private company) have to walk a fine line until deal is finalized. What most companies do is file all of the applicable paperwork AFTER lawyers have reviewed the deal to ensure there are no obstacles.

It's a little more complicated when buying a public company

Thanks for that explanation.

In other news, PS5 pre-order numbers are significantly greater than PS4's first 12 weeks. Keep hearing Xbox is making a come back.

Xbox would go multiplat if PlayStation went multiplat. Hell would have to freeze over for Sony to do that. Because that is there only current advantage at least in terms of single player experience. Xbox is still king of multiplayer.

2 reasons Xbox hasn’t announced Bethesda games are exclusive.......

1. They don’t own Bethesda. 😱 WHAT?!?!? Yep, MS doesn’t own Bethesda......... Yet they won’t own Bethesda until February or March.

2. Avoiding bad press. When it was announced MS was intending to buy Bethesda, media was quick to press Phil on of he would “continue in bad practice” and keep these games off PlayStation. Phil handled it extremely well.

But yeah, zero chance any of these games come to PlayStation or Switch or Stadio, or Luna. These games were purchased with the intent of having them on Game Pass and “Xbox ecosystem”. Last I checked PlayStation doesn’t offer Game Pass or anything remotely close to it in quality or practicality. Neither does Switch or the other gaming services.

Fanboys wish they will be exclusive. There may be one here and there, but MS is about money, they aren't gonna pass up other platforms so easily with heavy hitters. Especially if the other platforms are outselling the XBOX.

Phil knows exactly what he's going to do when/if the deal closes. Come on 😃

Yea I wonder what Xbox will do if they are behind like they were this gen.

Posts like this is why I regret that the Gamespot message boards do not have a "Like" or "Kudos" system.

It would be a total spite move if they didn't. I hope they don't go down that road.

Too much exclusivity bullshit in the industry as is.

This sums it up. End Thread

Gee I wonder why... lol.

If they were planning on having Bethesda games limited to Gamepass platforms only then they would have already made it clear to sell more consoles and subs.

Give me a break

They are saying it's on a game by game basis. If it was what others are suggesting would simply state that the acquisition isn't finalized in it's entirety and they don't want to talk about it yet. Leaving the door open is exactly what it is.

@SolidGame_basic: the difference is legality. Exactly what he said. Their games appeAred on gamepass anyway. Now he can’t state what other platforms can get as he has no control yet.

Bingo. That is my way of thinking as well. If there is a large gap in sales they well put the games on competing hardware, but if the sales are close they will keep them exclusive. My guess is that The Elder Scrolls VI will be a multiplat with a lesser feeling about Starfield. Now... with that said I would guess that those franchises will eventually go exclusive (probably after the first wave of games after the acquisition).