“You can’t wake up one day and say, ‘Let me build a game studio,’” Nadella said in an interview after the company announced its $7.5 billion cash purchase of ZeniMax Media, which owns several industry-leading game developers, including Bethesda Softworks and Id Software. “The idea of having content is so we can reach larger communities.”
That’s why Microsoft will consider buying even more video game companies in the future, he said, and why it continues to invest in its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Spencer also said Bethesda will run semi-independently, in an effort to keep the company building the games that brought it success in the first place. “It is about the culture of those teams,” he said. “They’re not about becoming us.”
It’s also why game companies will continue to be on Microsoft’s radar. “We’ll always look for places where there is that commonality of purpose, mission and culture,” Nadella said, noting that the Xbox team has worked with ZeniMax companies including Bethesda since the first Xbox was released in 2001. “We will always look to grow inorganically where it makes sense.”
God damn ! What did Phil Spencer do to Sataya . He is all in on gaming.
Just as I thought. For one they are too big to integrate completely into Xbox Games Studios, but this is the new Microsoft : A more hands-off approach and just let the creators create.
Thanks for sharing. I think Bethesda’s biggest problem has always been the board and the industry. The board is mostly comprised of non-gamers and forces games out unpolished to meet deadlines, harming the end result. And the industry itself, while supportive of Bethesda’s RPG efforts, tends to skew away from sales success for more niche titles like Evil Within and Dishonored. Those titles are fantastic and fit perfectly into the Game Pass strategy of giving people a reason to stay subscribed rather than buy, but not so well into the $60 (now $70) rat race of too many options and not enough money.
I had read that the studios would individually report to Booty and Spencer, but may be wrong. Either way, the buck does stop at those two and the board no longer has to worry about firm quarterly deadlines to the extent they did. Cash on hand is no longer a problem.
Semi-independence just means they won’t stifle creative freedom just like with every other XGS, MS won’t force any changes to projects
Still wonder what this is going to mean for publishing. Bethesda said they’d self publish current projects so Deathloop and Ghostwire will be under Bethesda for the PS5.
The real mystery is Starfield and TES6 and if they’ll be under the XGS logo?
I think they will both will be, especially if they are exclusive. My guess is “Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks presents a Bethesda Game Studios production.”
If Xbox decides to keep Starfield exclusive to Xbox and PC, imagine the headlines once the game gets properly revealed and with a release date. That will be fantastic for Xbox, for a change. And don’t underestimate true BGS fans, they will either get a Xbox or subscribe to Game Pass. On Youtube I saw multiple people saying they were considering getting a Xbox over PS5 because of Bethesda.
PS5 gets Deathloop and Ghostwire next year, while Xbox Series and PC get Starfield during the holidays. That would be something.
not a fan of buying up more publishers tbh, hope that shit is fucking done for. It seems like Zenimax was stalling so it might have made sense, but yeah that should be it. Individual studios, small to medium size are fine (asobo, dontnod, etc), but hopefully this doesn’t set a bad precedent.
the thing is Sony literally cannot afford that. It’s an open field for MS and MS alone at the moment, even though companies like Google and Amazon and Facebook are tryna get into the industry rn, they are still super far away to establish any mainstream presence, and that freedom MS have at the moment can run rampant.
! What did Phil Spencer do to Sataya 
. He is all in on gaming.
