The biggest history of the gaming industry in 2021 has to be the announcement of Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda for seven and a half billion dollars in cash, which took almost everyone by surprise when it aired on September 21, 2020.
Sure, the business is still going through regulatory phases, but in a recent video interview with Major Nelson’s podcast (episode 728), Microsoft’s gaming boss Phil Spencer provided an update stating that everything is on track for be completed this year. Spencer also said that he is very excited about the deal, as, for example, the Xbox Game Studios’ RPG capacity will be enormous.
When the time came when they were thinking about potentially becoming part of a bigger company, being sold, I was happy to be part of the conversation that they were willing to have and it really means to me that they would sign up to become part of Xbox.
2021 is when we will have the final approval, I feel very good about it, everything is on track. So let’s start to really get some of the planning that we can do with them, now we are a long way away, while they continue to do the work they are doing, because we do not have them yet.The other thing I will say is the commitment that the company, Microsoft, gave us when we introduced the idea to CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood, when we said ‘We have this idea …’ Our business is going well, we are running a profitable and growing business. They have a lot of faith [in Xbox].
I mean, just the fact that we went through an acquisition of this size. That Monday we announced that I couldn’t sleep on Sunday night, I was nervous, I was anxious, I was excited, I had all the emotions. So, we were quiet, it was really cool to see the reactions of the Xbox fans and probably the most important thing for me now, the Bethesda teams, because these teams will be very, very critical to our progress in the future.Exciting and exciting news. I can’t wait to close it so we can start working as a single company. I’m incredibly excited about Starfield and many other things, some announced and some unannounced, that they are working on.
I just think they will be an incredible addition to our studios. When I think about our RPG capabilities with Obsidian, inXile, what Playgrounds are doing, what Bethesda can do, it’s a huge capacity. And also for FPS capability, with id Software and 343 … It just doubles the size of our first party studios when Bethesda joins. I’m excited about 2021 and Bethesda is an extremely important part of that.
Next year, Bethesda will release Deathloop (recently scheduled for May 21) and Ghostwire Tokyo from Arkane Studios and Tango GameWorks, although ironically these two games will not be available on Xbox at first because of a previous console exclusive agreement with Sony.
That said, the biggest new title coming from Bethesda in 2021 should be Starfield. It will be the first new IP made by BGS in twenty-five years, featuring an entirely new Sci-Fi configuration and the largest overhaul of the Creation Engine to date. To be clear, Bethesda has not fully committed to launching Starfield this year, but its three-year development cadence and recent rumors suggest that the game will be available next fall.