This is evident from a written response from Microsoft to the FTC
Written by Michel Musters op
Bethesda is working on at least three games coming exclusively to Xbox and PC.
Microsoft has released a written response of 37 pages as the US Federal Trade Commission cleared Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard wants to block through a lawsuit.
The sixth page of this answer reports that Bethesda, which Microsoft acquired last year, has three games in development that will be released exclusively on Xbox consoles and PC. A black bar has been placed above the names of those games, so that the public cannot see which games are involved.
It’s clear that Bethesda will release Starfield and Redfall in 2023, and those games will only appear on PC and Xbox. This has been known for some time, so it’s unlikely those games were mentioned in the commentary – after all, they don’t need to be censored due to the information available.
Two more Bethesda games are known to be in development: The Elder Scrolls 6 and an as yet untitled Indiana Jones game. However, the platforms these games will appear on have not yet been announced. These games may be mentioned in Microsoft’s response, along with an unknown third game. In any case, all three games could be played “alone or in small groups”.
“Xbox has continued to release new updates to existing ZeniMax games like Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online on both the Xbox and PlayStation consoles, as these games are designed to be played together by many players across all platforms.” The company thus makes a comparison with Call of Duty, a game that is played mainly for multiplayer and that Microsoft wants to continue releasing on PlayStation and possibly also on Nintendo’s console.
In response, Microsoft insists that they comply with existing agreements: for example, after the Bethesda acquisition, the Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo games were temporarily released exclusively on PlayStation, as agreed. The company also reports that the main reason for the acquisition is the developer of Candy Crush King, also part of Activision Blizzard. It has also been reported that Xbox lags behind PlayStation and Nintendo and has a smaller amount of exclusive games.
