Bethesda and Xbox held a very chummy roundtable this week to celebrate the acquisition of the former by the latter and used it to reveal more about the studios working under the ZeniMax umbrella and what games they’re working on. It also addressed the issue of future game exclusivity in about as blatant terms as you would expect. Essentially, Bethesda’s future titles will be available on platforms that host Xbox Game Pass — and that’s not likely to include PlayStation.
Xbox head Phil Spencer explicitly said this deal is to bring great games to Game Pass. Specifically, he said: “I can’t sit here and say every Bethesda game is exclusive, because we know that’s not true. There’s contractual obligations that we’re gonna see through, as we always do in every one of these instances. We have games that exist on other platforms, and we’re gonna go support those games on the platforms they’re on… But if you’re an Xbox customer, the thing I want you to know is this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists. That’s our goal, that’s why we’re doing this, that’s the root of this partnership that we’re building.”
Neither Spencer nor anyone else present named specific games that would be exclusive, nor specific games that would not be exclusive. One can assume by “communities” he’s referring to existing Bethesda games and franchises that have a presence on other platforms — I’d like to see them pry the Elder Scrolls games away from PlayStation. But the status of Starfield or the Indiana Jones game is anyone’s guess.
The rest of the roundtable consisted of personal introductions to the many development studios that now reside in Xbox’s stable, and what they’ll be working on. They also teased unannounced games from Roundhouse Studios and Alpha Dog Games.
