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The next 2 major Bethesda releases are officially Xbox console exclusives (Starfield and Redfall)

VAL0R

Banned
Any reasonable speculation that Bethesda will continue multi-platform releases for major titles is now ended. Microsoft didn't glance over Starfield and Redfall exclusivity, they repeated and emphasized it. It's obvious now that this is their policy going forward, with any future exceptions being extremely limited, such as fulfilling contractual obligations made prior to the acquisition.

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Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Its Round 2.
Game was in development on PlayStation platforms before the acquisition so I believe MS will have to honor this.

Softening the blow is making it a timed exclusive.
If you think only 2 games are coming to PlayStation after the Zenimax purchase than you are fooling yourself.

I guarantee a few games were in development.
You believe just two games are coming to PlayStation?
I guarantee more than the 2 known upcoming PS5 games come.

I am going by what MS said..

Games will be 1st on XB or best.
Also that they will fulfill prior contracts.
You can bookmark it.
Remember because of what MS actually said.. I am claiming more than Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo are coming to PlayStation.
With MS saying games will be first or best on Xbox.
That they will fulfill prior contract obligations.
And not giving a actual list of what is or isn't *exclusive*
They been QUIET.

Leaves a few possible scenarios.
Cant wait see what games are coming to ps5 after the conference. Fingers crossed
He can say deliver exclusive games to platforms where GP exists. But he didn't say "Only" and he didn't say ALL the games would be exclusive. I'm aware this is a stretch, just keep it clean since you and some people add more words to what he actually said. This French article states they leave the publishing decisions to Bethesda, and that creates more confusion.
That they keep emphasizing how they are leaving a lot of Bethesda's (i.e. Zenimax) back-end alone should tell you all you need to know about how things are going to shape up in the near-term.

Expect first, or better, or best on Xbox. They can't just turn the tap-off or expect massive blow-back. Starfield as a proper exclusive I can buy, but beyond that... I still say timed exclusivity will be the norm.
I've got nothing to "accept" because I don't have a dog in this fight.

I don't have a PS5 and do not, and have literally never, bought a Bethesda product. The outcome is completely irrelevant to me, personally, and I'm just judging based on the messaging and my years of experience in the business.

I'm not going to be upset in the slightest whichever way it goes, and I'm not dealing in prophecy here. I'm just reading into what's been said, and more importantly, what hasn't been said.

As per usual "only" isn't necessarily a permanent state. Look back at past marketing from either Sony or MS and you'll see typically that when exclusivity is timed, they talk around the fact in order to help drive sales up in the short-term.

Honestly, hasn't the whole "we believe in generations"/"we don't believe in generations" thing not convinced you that taking PR statements as written-in-stone absolutes isn't a smart idea?
Minecraft, post Mojang purchase. Discuss.

Even if they left the original game multi-plat, what was the incentive for the spin-offs?
Explain Minecraft Dungeons on PS4.

No reason not to make it exclusive. Released 6 years after purchase. Past GamePass launch too.
So you have no explanation?

Let me provide one for you then: MS care more about money than fanboy bragging rights.

As to exclusives released on Playstation after a timed exclusivity period. How about Cuphead. It was third-party but MS were heavily involved in funding and publishing it initially. At no point was it suggested it would ever be on any platform other than Xbox and PC. Until it happened.
Psychonauts 2 hasn't been released yet but it is coming to Playstation three years after Microsoft purchased Doublefine.
Did they HAVE TO release Ori on Switch or did they choose to?
@kuncol02

Wasteland 3 was also released on PS4 2 years after inXile was acquired by Microsoft.
That they keep emphasizing how they are leaving a lot of Bethesda's (i.e. Zenimax) back-end alone should tell you all you need to know about how things are going to shape up in the near-term.

Expect first, or better, or best on Xbox. They can't just turn the tap-off or expect massive blow-back. Starfield as a proper exclusive I can buy, but beyond that... I still say timed exclusivity will be the norm.
I said this one and I say it again,

building gaming studios from 0 is hard but easier to maintain them and grown

buying big gaming studios is easy but harder to maintain.

so that already poses some questions for the future.

because buying a big gaming publisher and make it exclusive and “hope” it drives console sales are not a good business move.
But then again this is MS we are talking, they are very unpredictable and contrary to popular believe the Xbox division doesn’t have big pockets of money
Yes it would be correct if Sony brought a big publisher and made it exclusive. Is it so hard to understand this concept?

maybe we should use Nintendo as a example so that people don’t feel biased. Nintendo buys Bethesda and makes their games exclusive, now what? Nintendo fans are happy but what about Xbox and PS fans?

does people understand it now?
Yeah you don’t understand how hard it is to run a gaming studio….
It can be exclusive for platforms with gamepass, but a timed exclusive. That would match with MS said multiple times about 'first on or better on Xbox" strategy for future Zenimax games.
Both the Xbox CFO and Phil Spencer said they will release Bethesda games on their competitor's console. Which isn't something new, they released Minecraft Dungeons in their competitor's console several years after buying the IP for $2.5 billion.

If we split the Zenimax $7.5B between all their studios and IPs, they spend less money per studio/IP on Bethesda than on Minecraft.
Most big 3rd party publishers get a big portion -in many cases half or even more- of their AAA revenue selling games/DLC/IAP on PlayStation, something explained with the install base market share. So I assume it's the same in the case of Zenimax. So I highly doubt they will reject all this huge amount of revenue just to make happy some fanboys, because as a company they will want to recoup the investment they did on Zenimax as fast as possible in some years and to get a positive ROI.

On top of that MS is already losing a ton of money almost giving away 1st and 3rd party games day one on Game Pass, and as Game Pass grows their revenue from 1st party sales on Xbox and PC will keep decreasing because even if a small portion of players will continue buying some of their favorite games on physical even if they already have them on Game Pass, the majority of Game Pass users won't. So until Game Pass grows until a critical mass that allows them to turn it into a profitable business,, if it even achives its, they will want to have a good alternative revenue sources, and the main Zenimax one, or at least a huge one, should be as of now to sell games on PlayStation.

The Disney and Fox deal has nothing to do with Microsoft and Zenimax. Microsoft isn't a market leader in gaming, they are the 3rd one behind Sony and Nintendo. Even addiing Zenimax revenue/market share. There are over 1500 million games sold for PS4 and way under 10% of them are from Zenimax, so won't have an impact on PS4/PS5 Sony 3rd party game sales (their main revenue source). So to remove Zenimax games from PlayStation would be a dumb move that would have basically no effect on the Xbox vs PlayStation competition, it only would mean tons of less revenue for Microsoft and to make a few fanboys happy.

Fox catalog of movies and IPs is way bigger than the Zenimax one, and unlike Zenimax has a substantial market share so means a huge move in the market because now combining Disney and Fox they are a clear market leader of the box office, that's why they paid 10 times more for Fox than for Zenimax:

So in their case, being Disney a clear market leader and having tons of top movies and IPs that give them revenue from many sources and not being Netflix the main one at all, makes sense for Disney to avoid Netflix and co because Netflix is a small part of the revenue that Fox made, unlike it happens with Zenimax, for who PlayStation was their top, or one of their top, revenue source. For Disney, having Fox movies on Disney Plus and not in Neflix will mean to make more money than before while at the same time earn market share and crush a bit more their competitiors (in this case Netflix & co). For Microsoft, to have Zenimax games in Xbox and not in PlayStation would mean to make less money than before beause they already had them on Xbox and made most of their money on PlayStation where Zenimax had a tiny market share of the total games sold in PlayStation, while Fox's main revenue source wasn't Netflix and Fox catalog was more important for Netflix.
Maybe they don't need it, but they have been doing it, they said they will continue doing it and in business terms it would be dumb to don't continue doing it. So they will continue doing it. For sure not with all their games, many or maybe even all with timed console exclusivity but they will.
Because a trillion dollar company isn't a charity. If they invest Billions they want to see their invested recouped back with profits on top. Obviously they need some time, don't need to get it back in two weeks, they won't be throwing Billions forever to the garbage bin for nothing. It wouldn't make them go bankrupt, but may make them shut down/sell their gaming team.

In fact being a trillion company adds them more pressure to achieve insane revenues and to achieve some nice profit what they lost in the past some day without needing to hide their numbers even merging the game division with other products.
Well, I assume that the 'first' inside the 'First or best on Xbox' Xbox Chief of Financial Operations quote was related to timed console exclusives. We also saw them releasing Minecraft Dungeons everwhere and after a timed exclusive, the Ori games on Switch.

They weren't cases where they were attached to pre-MS contractual stuff as may be the case of Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo or Psychonauts 2.

So it wouldn't be new for MS to release future games on other consoles at launch or after a timed console exclusive, they already did it.
This remind me when people said Ninja Gaiden, Mass Effect, Shadow of Tomb Raider, Plants vs Zombies, Sunset Overdrive? Etc..are xbox exclusives
Jeff Grubb? Okay. My prediction for them big AAA titles? Timed exclusives. Why in the hell do you think they are being ambiguous on platform specificity? MS only bought Zenimax to take it off the market from other buyers (Google, Facebook, Tencent, etc) for the purposes of going full blown publisher, and as a publisher, you want your content on as many platforms as possible, you wanna cast that drag net far and wide.

Your win will be that you get to keep singing the praises of GP and how you LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE paying for GaaS all while enjoying those titles day-and-date.
I think YOU yourself, have no interest in Microsoft being a publisher, but that doesn't change the fact that Microsoft is moving to just being a publisher, sure, with GP and xCloud.
I think that’s probably true - I also think Microsoft may be moving into sort of a platform agnostic model in the future and will likely try to put gamepass on Sony consoles as well as spend less time developing their own consoles. Like they’ll offer them but they won’t put much stock in the console itself more the service
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Any reasonable speculation that Bethesda will continue multi-platform releases for major titles is now ended. Microsoft didn't glance over Starfield and Redfall exclusivity, they repeated and emphasized it. It's obvious now that this is their policy going forward, with any future exceptions being extremely limited, such as fulfilling contractual obligations made prior to the acquisition.

13140843402022.jpg

WS003825.jpg
To the surprise of no one. You don't spend 7 billion to release the games for your competition. What would be the point then? Might as well leave things as they were then.
 

sol_bad

Member
Starfield has a confirmed release date of slightly under 17 months 🤷

Cyberpunk had a confirmed release date too. How many delays did it get? And even when it released it was unfinished. You can expect the same from Bethesda, their games are never polished.
 

MaulerX

Member
Cyberpunk had a confirmed release date too. How many delays did it get? And even when it released it was unfinished. You can expect the same from Bethesda, their games are never polished.

CD Projekt Red was developing Cyberpunk for seven (7) different platforms. Not including PC. Bethesda is only developing Starfield for Xbox Series X|S and PC.


Why are you comparing this to Cyberpunk again?
 

sol_bad

Member
CD Projekt Red was developing Cyberpunk for seven (7) different platforms. Not including PC. Bethesda is only developing Starfield for Xbox Series X|S and PC.


Why are you comparing this to Cyberpunk again?

I'm just pointing out that games get delayed, all the time.
Halo Infinite was meant to release in November last year.
 

Quantum253

Member
Outside of Gamepass and others, would these two titles be enough to purchase a S/X? I'd have to see gameplay, but I jumped into PS3 becuase of Uncharted and never regretted it. I don't have the time to game like I used to, but if these titles offered a unique enough experience that could multiple the current benefits, I could see jumping into the Xbox ecosystem worth while.
 

kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
Saving this gif for when GoW comes to PC later this year.
That would be dope. Do you not want games to come to more platforms? Sony had yet to publish a first party title to PC day and date. I would be surprised if they released them in the first year honestly, but time will tell. Microsoft is committed to doing just that. This is not news.

Another genius has discovered Phil's Gambit. Your life will never be the same.
I don't understand what you mean.


Xbox just doesn't and apparently will never again have any exclusive titles. This can be spun however marketing people want, but it's the truth. For now PlayStation still has legitimate exclusives. For now Nintendo still has legitimate exclusives. PC will always have legitimate exclusives since there is no single owner of that platform. Even Stadia has a legitimate exclusive (for now).

I think once Xbox transitions to a Netflix but games like platform they will potential lock exclusive titles behind subscription services and paywalls, but they need to figure how to make it irresistible to enough players to not have people revolt. Just my two cents.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I still can’t believe there were people out there dumb enough to think Microsoft spent billions upon billions of dollars to put games on PlayStation and funnel money out of Game Pass.
Got to keep dream FUD going. Just like years back when people were claiming Xbox One is MS's last console so avoid it. Guess what gamers? MS is still around and more aggressive then ever!
 
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Optimus Lime

(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
That would be dope. Do you not want games to come to more platforms? Sony had yet to publish a first party title to PC day and date. I would be surprised if they released them in the first year honestly, but time will tell. Microsoft is committed to doing just that. This is not news.


I don't understand what you mean.


Xbox just doesn't and apparently will never again have any exclusive titles. This can be spun however marketing people want, but it's the truth. For now PlayStation still has legitimate exclusives. For now Nintendo still has legitimate exclusives. PC will always have legitimate exclusives since there is no single owner of that platform. Even Stadia has a legitimate exclusive (for now).

I think once Xbox transitions to a Netflix but games like platform they will potential lock exclusive titles behind subscription services and paywalls, but they need to figure how to make it irresistible to enough players to not have people revolt. Just my two cents.
Reaction GIF
 

Neolombax

Member
Starfield was expected as an exclusive on microsoft able platforms. Or you know, this could become another Tomb Raider and release on other platforms too but I'm not holding my breath. Disappointed to not see any gameplay at all for these 2 highly anticipated titles.
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
damn, hopefully my 2070s PC able to handle starfield, not going to buy a high end gaming PC for one game
 

Stuart360

Member
I still can’t believe there were people out there dumb enough to think Microsoft spent billions upon billions of dollars to put games on PlayStation and funnel money out of Game Pass.
It was always stupid reasoning. Yes games where a contract is already in place, but why on earth would they spend that much money to then put the game on competing platforms lol. Oh thats right, because 7.5bil is a huge amount, and they need Playstaion gamers to recoup that money. Yeah Microsoft probably spend that much on their Christmas party lol.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
It was always stupid reasoning. Yes games where a contract is already in place, but why on earth would they spend that much money to then put the game on competing platforms lol. Oh thats right, because 7.5bil is a huge amount, and they need Playstaion gamers to recoup that money. Yeah Microsoft probably spend that much on their Christmas party lol.

Actually if you paid close attention to Phil's wording it wasn't really clear. I think it's stupid not to be exclusive, unless Xbox is going full 3rd party.
 
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