Xbox’s Phil Spencer officially welcomed the team at ZeniMax Media, the parent company of studios like Bethesda Softworks and ESO dev ZeniMax Online Studios, for the Microsoft family. This came a day after the European Commission gave the go-ahead for Microsoft’s acquisition of the gaming company in the biggest merger in the history of the video game industry.
The acquisition of ZeniMax Media is worth $ 7.5 billion, making it the largest business of its kind in the history of the video game industry. As a result, Microsoft strengthens its line of original studios to 23 different studios, adding ZeniMax companies, and now owns the rights to historic gaming IPs such as DOOM, To fall and The Elder Scrolls.
In a blog post on Xbox Wire, Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, welcomed the team from ZeniMax studios around the world, in addition to suggesting some things that Xbox and PC players have been asking themselves since that the acquisition was announced for the first time: exclusives.
After talking about how the goal is to give Bethesda “the best foundation to do its best work and learn from them”, while Microsoft continues, its job is to make Xbox what it calls “an inclusive platform for all players. “continued Spencer. to discuss the long-term plan for Game Pass, PC and Xbox consoles in general.
“This is the next step in building an industry-leading studio team, a commitment we have to our Xbox community. With the addition of Bethesda’s creative teams, players should know that the Xbox, PC and Game Pass consoles will be the best place to try new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players. “
It is unclear which games or how many new titles will be exclusive to Microsoft platforms, but we know that the Xbox team is not undermining the deals already made with rival Sony. Both PlayStation 5 exclusives Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo will still be sent on the platform. In addition, many games already released on rival platforms such as the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online are still getting their next generation updates on the Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles.
In a separate blog post, Bethesda senior vice president of PR and marketing Pete Hines said that nothing is being announced or changed – now.
“First of all, let me say that we are not making any major announcements or changes at the moment. As we all share, the expectation is that Bethesda Softworks and our studios will continue as they did in the past, with just more support and resources than ever before. Obviously, the Game Pass was an important initiative for the Xbox, and we’re going to work to put even more games on the Game Pass than ever before.
Bethesda celebrated the merger with a video showing its history and teams in action, looking at the past, present and future of the developer and publisher.
Let’s go to the next journey, just now starting. Today, we officially join the @Xbox family.https: //t.co/bee08Px13K pic.twitter.com/FUepkINYbo
– Bethesda (@bethesda) March 9, 2021
The confirmation came today a day after the European Commission approved the merger and a week after the United States SEC did the same.