Warning: Speculation/Taleofmyassing
Sorry if somebody alredy posted about it, but I've still to make out this whole deal.
We know that MSFT bought Zenimax for 7.5 billion $, and that revenues where higher than 0.5 Billion $ per year ( I hope that someone with an account on some financial site can look up the exact amount for us), but let's suppose data are incorrect/outdated and it earns 1 billion $ per year, especially now that they have access to Microsoft's funds, development tools/infrastructures and marketing. It would then take approximatively 5+ years to grab back all of the initial investment, which should sound ok for such a big investment. Certainly not the best, minding the fact that I've purposely doubled revenues, but it could work. Unless.... Someone has the genius idea of platform exclusivity, at which point would cut down sales and, thus, earnings (it's hard to imagine them selling so many Xbox/GPs that PS ecosystem stops being a factor in sales, at least for some years).
So what is MSFT's plan to earn back those money???
1) Start selling games on all platforms like any third party publisher? (they already do with Minecraft)
2) This is a giant Troy Horse for gamepass, coming to PS next winter® ?
3) Sell exclusive games, at loss, until they obliterate rivals?
I'm starting to think even Microsoft doesn't know: as of right now, it's impossible to foresee how many next gen XBs and GPs are going to be in households in the next years. So they probably bought Bethesda firstly to generate buzz for XS's launch and GP, then, down the line, they will know if they'd rather sell those games as Xb exclusives, GamePass content or just like any other third party. But I don't see it fit to have all those games sold as exclusives, MSFT has still to grab those 7.5 billions back. Going third party is probably the way to go to earn as much money as possible, but also GamePass subscriptions would earn lots of money down the months. I suppose that an hybrid approach (some games sold regurarly, some launching on GP, some exclusives to XB) would be a way to find the balance for money/platform content. Again: It would be really great if someone with knowledge could clarify the situation on Zenimax's earnings.
For those who firmly believe in all Zenimax's games becoming exclusives: do the math, there are still many money bags missing!!