When Microsoft acquired Bethesda, many feared the company’s popular games would become Xbox exclusive games. It seems this will be the case for several games. Microsoft lawyers have indicated that the company is planning to make three massive franchises exclusively available on its own platform, although they have to jump through some legal hoops to get out of previous agreements with other platforms.
Read: Tesla planning more layoffs as stock price tanks
Already confirmed to be exclusive to Xbox is Starfield, a highly anticipated space action role-playing game first seen at E3 in 2018 and expected to launch sometime in 2023. However, many PlayStation and Nintendo gamers are extremely concerned that the upcoming sequel The Elder Scroll VI will be made exclusively available on Xbox, which now seems to be the case. Furthermore, there are other Bethesda titles which may not see the day of light on any platform other than PC and Xbox.
“Xbox anticipates that three future titles — REDACTED — all of which are designed to be played primarily alone or in small groups — will be exclusive to Xbox and PCs,” reads a passage in a legal filing.
What might that third game be? Well, Bethesda’s making an Indiana Jones game, and we know that Fallout 5 is coming… eventually. There’s also Redfall, which — like Starfield — was delayed to 2023. But your guess is as good as anyone else’s.
Microsoft’s been pretty clear for years that it’s buying up studios to shore up Xbox (and Game Pass) exclusives, so that’s not much of a surprise, but things have gotten heated recently with the company promising that Call of Duty will continue showing up on PlayStation — a piece of leverage that Microsoft seems to feel it needs to convince regulators to let it go through with the Activision Blizzard deal. We’ll keep you updated on the Activision deal.
