Home Gaming Microsoft has acquired Elder Scrolls, DOOM, and Fallout publisher Bethesda

Microsoft has acquired Elder Scrolls, DOOM, and Fallout publisher Bethesda

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Zenimax Bethesda

Microsoft’s been on a tear lately, acquiring studios and building up an army of teams whose sole job it is to develop games for the Xbox brand. Today’s acquisition though? It might just be the biggest one yet for Team Green, as Bethesda will now be flying the Xbox flag as ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, is now part of that gaming family.

“We will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Like us, Bethesda are passionate believers in building a diverse array of creative experiences, in exploring new game franchises, and in telling stories in bold ways. All of their great work will of course continue and grow and we look forward to empowering them with the resources and support of Microsoft to scale their creative visions to more players in new ways for you.

“Like our original partnership, this one is about more than one system or one screen,” Bethesda’s Todd Howard added.

We share a deep belief in the fundamental power of games, in their ability to connect, empower, and bring joy. And a belief we should bring that to everyone – regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you play on. Regardless of the screen size, the controller, or your ability to even use one.

We can’t think of a better group of people to do that with than those at Xbox. We have friendships that go back to those original days. From Phil to his senior leaders to developer support, they don’t just talk about putting players first, they passionately live it.

According to Bloomburg’s Jason Schrier, this deal wasn’t cheap: Microsoft went all in, buying Zenimax for $7.5 billion. Long story short? Microsoft now owns Skyrim, and the next Elder Scrolls game and more will be Xbox exclusives and featured on Xbox Game Pass from day one.

Last Updated: September 21, 2020

18 Comments

  1. Does this mean the end of seeing Skyrim being released for every platform?

    Hopefully Microsoft will reign in the code quality of their open world games.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5933ef0435a8a888d46278b3b48451743625b18c5058d2b4ff5988e714a51834.jpg

    Reply

    • Son of Banana Jim

      September 21, 2020 at 21:38

      lol, deep down we all wanted an Elder Scrolls Skyrim on PS5… hahahah!

      Reply

  2. Francois Knoetze

    September 21, 2020 at 16:05

    I seriously did not see this coming AT ALL!! Nearly spat out my coffee…

    Reply

  3. Mark Treloar

    September 21, 2020 at 16:05

    I feel very uneasy about this

    Reply

  4. Original Heretic

    September 21, 2020 at 16:05

    Well fuck…

    Reply

  5. Seeker

    September 21, 2020 at 16:19

    OMG! This is incredible. I always wondered why there’s a lot Bethesda games on Gamepass and they stay longer than any other third party’s games.
    This deal must have been in the works for a long time.

    Reply

  6. Pieter Kruger

    September 21, 2020 at 16:19

    Great news!

    Reply

  7. Ruan Fourie

    September 21, 2020 at 16:22

    Absolutely amazing. I just hope I can get a pre-order tomorrow before the Series X is sold out.

    Reply

  8. Pieter Kruger

    September 21, 2020 at 16:22

    1 Cheque, 8 Studios, so many games…..guess all the “Xbox has no games” memes finally paid off!

    Reply

  9. MaSeKind

    September 21, 2020 at 17:14

    WHAT!!! I’m having a hard time really believing this.

    So now that MS owns Fallout and the devs who created it, they can maybe give old school Fallout some love!

    Reply

  10. Son of Banana Jim

    September 21, 2020 at 21:23

    Don’t screw it up Microsoft. This is definitely going to make things a whole lot more interesting, but it’ll all depend on whether you’ve learnt from the mistakes you made with Rare. Now you have an enormous former publisher to create amazing games. Don’t make me quote the great Ru Paul!!

    Reply

  11. Fox1

    September 21, 2020 at 22:31

    Cancel that PS5 pre-order :p

    Reply

  12. Lu

    September 22, 2020 at 07:38

    WAIT. Microsoft owns Bethesda. Microsoft owns Obsidian.
    This means we can realistically get New Vegas II (or a better fallout by obsidian on the Fallout 4 engine).
    Happy noises! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ebb24de08145959e8e54d301774e56632bc49bc2554373f69edbb7040e3be99.jpg

    Reply

  13. Pofadder

    September 22, 2020 at 08:42

    The only thing in Bethesda’s library that I am interested in is TES. And 6 still seems years away. And if they do to TES what they they did with fallout 76, then I won’t be interested in that either. Bethesda isn’t the same company from 5 years ago.

    Reply

  14. Kenn Gibson

    September 22, 2020 at 09:18

    The only exclusives on PS5 that I really want is God of War and Horizon…. Xbox has literally gone all in on this generation. Game pass and the Series S are just too good to ignore now, especially if you only play 1080…

    Reply

  15. Du4098

    September 22, 2020 at 09:18

    I don’t actually play any Bethesda games so as a PS gamer this makes no difference to my life BUT I really hope Microsoft can use this purchase to somehow strong-arm Sony into ending this ridiculous exclusive games war. I know it’s a reach but I just want all games available on all consoles ffs! Yes, even for PC users…

    Reply

  16. Iskape

    September 23, 2020 at 08:15

    The fact that I have committed to the XSX, and I’m assuming future games released by the publisher will be part of the Game Pass, I believe I chose wisely to move across from Sony to Microsoft.

    Reply

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