Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has confirmed that future Bethesda games will be available exclusively on “platforms where Game Pass exists”, which means that Microsoft is skipping over people with PS5.
During the round table conference «Bethesda Joins Xbox» on March 11, Spencer addressed speculation about whether the acquisition will lead to future Bethesda games, such as “Starfield” and «The Elder Scrolls 6» becomes Xbox exclusive – and that meant disappointing news for PS5 owners.
“If you’re an Xbox customer, I want you to know that this is about delivering great exclusive games to you that are launched on platforms where Game Pass exists,” Spencer explained. “That is our goal, that is why we are doing this, that is the seed of this partnership we are now building.”
What does this mean for gamers in practice? Well, that means Bethesda games will only exist on platforms that have Xbox Game Pass: Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PC. It’s simply a convoluted way to say that the games are not coming to PS5 or Nintendo Switch.
At the same time, games that were already tied to contracts that existed before the acquisition, such as «Deathloop», still get to PS5 – while games that currently exist on platforms that do not support Xbox Game Pass will still live on there.
“Of course, I can not sit here and say that every Bethesda game is exclusive, because we know it is not true,” said Spencer. “There are contractual obligations that we will follow, since we always do it in these cases. We have games that exist on other platforms, and we will support these games on the platforms they are on. There are large collections of players, and we love these gaming communities, and we will continue to invest in them. Even in the future, there may be things that have contractual things or older things on different platforms that we are going to do. “
Boring for PS5 owners
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It’s not surprising that Microsoft chooses to use the Bethesda acquisition to secure exclusivity for some of the largest gaming series in the world, but it’s still very disappointing news for anyone with a PS5 who was looking forward to playing future Bethesda games .
It is worth mentioning that there is a certain possibility that “Starfield” and “The Elder Scrolls 6” do not fall into this category of exclusivity, if it is the case that Sony has already secured the rights to release these games on the platform (s). At the same time, it is possible that these major games will only be available on Xbox and PC – at least for a limited period of time – especially since it has not yet been announced which platforms the games will appear on.
According to Microsoft and Bethesda, we will find out more about future games during an event planned for this summer, probably in June.