A new internal email in Bethesda provided further proof that the company was not quite in sync with Microsoft when it came to their game development.
This email is one of many documents that is now going public as part of the FTC federal case vs the Microsoft Activision deal.
As shared by Stephen Totilo, the email shows Bethesda’s SVP of Global Marketing and Communication trying to get clarification from his bosses on what the plans where when it came to Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6.
Pete addressed his email to Todd Howard, Bethesda’s Director and Executive Producers, as well as Todd Vaugh, Senior Vice President of Product Development, as well as Jamie Leder, their COO.
So, Pete shared an excerpt from an interview, with Microsoft President Brad Smith to CNBC. This seems to be taken from this article from the Verge, which itself transcribes part of the interview.
Brad explains that Microsoft has promised their commitment to make Call of Duty available on the PlayStation in the future. Pete’s email asked his bosses in turn:
“…you don’t think a journo might find [Todd Howard] and press him on why the below is ok for COD or any Activision Blizzard game, but not TES6 or Starfield?”
Now, we do know the answer to Pete’s question, since Microsoft has already made their decision making process public. This goes back to their interaction with the CMA last November, where Microsoft shared a chart on choosing between Bethesda games.
Games with niche audiences, or mass market audiences, that include online multiplayer, are more likely to be multiplatform. This is the case for Call of Duty and Pscyhonauts 2.
On the other hand, Redfall and Starfield are both new IP with uncertain audiences. Microsoft is more inclined to make these exclusives.
In a way, we also now know how that works out. With Redfall’s poorly received release, Bethesda and Arkane Austin dealt with a smaller loss than they had to, since the game was only available on Xbox and PC. Most gamers likely only played it on Game Pass, and will jump back into it if Arkane Austin can fix it.
On the other hand, Bethesda’s stealth drop of Hi-Fi Rush was a definite success, and a win for the publisher as well as studio Tango Gameworks. While Hi-Fi Rush could have been more successful on more platforms, they likely couldn’t have pulled off a stealth drop if they did that.
It should be clear that Pete is not questioning the decisions regarding console exclusivity itself. Instead, his question is about the communication to the public. It seems that Bethesda wasn’t fully aware of Microsoft’s decision making process on their own games at the time of this email.
Getting back to Redfall, we now know that Microsoft did fail themselves and their consumers in not coordinating better with Bethesda. It’s a hard lesson they had to learn in public, while their work at acquiring Activision was also playing out.
For all these acquisitions to work out, Xbox needs to improve their corporate culture to make sure all the studios under them are all on the same page. Whether they finalize acquiring Activision or not, this is the work that Microsoft needs to do in the next few years so that Xbox and Game Pass becomes a success.
