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Microsoft has played a major role in the gaming sector. It strengthens its gaming division with ZeniMax, the parent company of Bethesda Studios that has many major titles in its portfolio.
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They may be final next to TikTok, Microsoft will not in the least hold back. The software company yesterday announced the acquisition of ZeniMax Media in a press release. Microsoft is paying $ 7.5 billion (about 6.4 billion euros) to the media conglomerate that is mainly active in the gaming industry. And while the name ZeniMax Media may not ring a bell, veteran gamer will probably know Bethesda Softworks. The gaming studio behind well-known video games such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and DOOM is a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media.
It remains to be seen what impact the Bethesda Softworks acquisition will have on the gaming industry. In principle, Microsoft could decide to keep Bethesda’s games exclusive to its own platforms. That would be good news for Xbox and Windows gamers, but PlayStation gamers will be completely left out. All Bethesda games are already being added to the Xbox Game Pass, the paying subscriptions for Xbox. Microsoft is also now expanding the number of gaming studios from 15 to 23.
Xbox Series X
The takeover is certainly interesting in the context of the launch of the next-gen Xbox Series X and Series S. We can expect that from November 19th. Perhaps not coincidentally, Microsoft announces the news of the acquisition exactly one day before opening the preorders for the console. They start from today. Microsoft can learn from the mistakes Sony made with the preorders from the PlayStation 5 to make this run smoothly.
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