MS needs to keep Zenimax exclusive

As a long term, long suffering Xbox player, I will be kinda pissed at MS if they put Bethesda games on PS5.

I get ones that they have already done contracts with, but ones that arnt already signed off on, they shouldn’t go anywhere near the PS.

Does MS think Sony will be putting GOW on XSX? Or GOT? Spiderman?

Absolutely no way. I don’t know what type of person you would be to give your opposition your product, to help them sell their product, while they give you nothing.

I don’t care if the game will be on GP, as I don’t use it. I’m a stupid loyal customer who shells over the cash for the game I want to keep.

And let’s be REAL here, if MS put TES, or Doom 4, or Rage 3 on PS, there is then no reason or principle not to also put Forza, Halo, Gears, Hellblade and the entire first party games on PS as well. I mean, they will be on Game pass, and MS can get more money.

At that point MS is just another EA, or Activision. And maybe that’s the direction. Maybe MS intends to move out of hardware and just do software like Sega before them.

Because why would any Sony people get an Xbox when they can play every third party game, and every MS game, as well as the Sony first party games, when you will have them on the PS5.

Game pass and putting your games on PS is the end of your ecosystem. You are just another publisher.

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They likely will after Deathloop and Ghostwire. Starfield and TES6 have only had teaser trailers and have never had formal announcements on what platform they’d be on. They could of been Switch exclusives for all we know. Of course probably not but since they were never technically announced for any platform, Microsoft is under no obligation to release them on PS5

Now had they been announced for Xbox/PS5/PC and then MS canceled the PS5 version? That would be a massive shit show and PR nightmare

Lucky for them they haven’t so making it PC/Xbox technically wouldn’t be taking anything away from Playstation.

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I agree, I don’t see the overall benefit in releasing games on PS if no deal has been struck yet. I think maybe any GaaS would benefit from multiplatform as they live and die by the userbase.

Exclusives are what drives consumers to your product so keep your exclusives to yourself and people will pick up on the 3 diff routes MS have for you to play their games. This whole leaving money on the table argument is daft and can be said about any title. Stick Spiderman on Xbox for an extra 10 mill sales.

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This attitude really bothers me. Why does Playstation have to be Microsoft’s opposition? Phil Spencer has said multiple times that three healthy platform holders is good for the business. Microsoft has the money and the influence to lead the industry into a better position. We have already seen that with cross play and game pass. What I want as a customer is great games to play. I don’t care who else gets to play them, especially if I can play with them using cross play. Timed exclusives are a terrible part of the business that I would love to disappear. I would very much like to see the barriers between consoles broken down further, and pc too come to that. Add keyboard support and let me play age of empires and crusader kings on my Xbox.

Why? Because MS has some 50 million people like me who has stuck with them. If this goes the way of MS putting games on the PS, then what that says is that MS are happy for PS owners to have the choice of all games including their on the one PS5 they buy, but me as a loyal MS customer can go kick rocks and pay for a PS5 if I want to play Sony games. In fact what MS is telling me to do is NOT buy a XSX, but buy a PS5 where I will have access to all the games.

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That’s the entire purpose of an acquisition, to expand your platform and releasing content outside of your platform is counter productive to that goal. Sure they’d make money off of sales but that’s also short term thinking rather than getting some investing in your ecosystem which is better for long term growth

If Xbox didn’t care about exclusivity they wouldn’t have bought any of these studios and could of just money hatted timed exclusives or even day one game pass games. They clearly want exclusive content to drive Xbox sales and Game Pass subscriptions.

Personally I don’t care about exclusives if it means more in Game Pass. If others who prefer a different platform want to pay full price, its not something I’ll ever care negatively about.

That said, I expect the big games to be exclusive. This was a strategic purchase to drive subs. Game Pass isn’t on Playstation. Late in a gen is one thing but letting everyone know what platform these games will be on prior to a single console being sold will move the needle and result in more subs. This was a strategic purchase meant to bolster Game Pass first. It’ll have ripple effects and more 3rd party devs will hesitate on moneyhats (or ask for more money) if they realize the sales gap will be closer.

I’m over the whole tribalism list wars thing and I wish gamers would stop rooting against each orher over plastic preference. That said in this instance keeping their games exclusive may actually benefit Xbox gamers in indirect ways based on what I just stated.

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One thing I see when people are hoping for Bethesda’s games to remain multiplatform is to bring up the fact that Minecraft is on every device. But if you look through all of the statements that have happened today, don’t you think Phil or Pete would have explicitly said their games would remain multiplatform? If you look back during the Minecraft acquisition, Phil spencer was quick to confirm that the game would remain multiplat but with Bethesda they haven’t.

This leads me to belive that the majority of games that are made by bethesda in the future will in fact be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. When Phill says games coming to other consoles will be case by case it really could just mean their service based games like FO 76 and ESO will remain multiplatform while every other game will be exclusive.

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If they can get xCloud going strong as a SmartTV app and a PC app and (dare I hope) an iOS app by the time Starfield, Doom 3, Deathloop 2, etc. are ready to go? Then yeah. No reason to put them on PlayStation or Switch. People can play them on xCloud if they won’t use an Xbox or PC.

It’s not the Minecraft deal. Minecraft was bought pre-Game Pass. Was a very different kind of purchase. It wasn’t a strategic purchase meant to forward a specific business initiative the way Zenimax is. Strategic purchases serve a different purpose and their value doesn’t need to be measured directly. If Microsoft could have their cake and eat it too, they would. They likely know thats not possible and they’ll make these games exclusive to create more value for their platform which leads to more consumers reaching the ultimate destination, Game Pass Ultimate.

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I disagree with the premise. They can easily continue bringing the games to multiple platforms.

Having a choice between GP day1 or 80€ is more than enough to set them apart.

They will.

No,it isn’t. They will keep the games Xbox ecosystem exclusives anyway, no PlayStation version for next elder scrolls, fallout, doom e.t.c.

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I was simply trying to emphasize the avoidance that Bethesda and Xbox seem to have in regards to talking about whether the games will be exclusive or not. I just feel like an acquisition of this magnitude would include a statement in regards to where the games will be released.

I completely agree that these two acquisitions are different scenarios. I am also well aware this acquisition’s goal was to bolster the game pass library, but putting your games on PlayStation seems to be counterintuitive to gaining more game pass subscribers. I would have believed that the games would remain multiplat if game pass was on PlayStation but it’s not. For the time being, I think it would make more sense strategically to only release games in the Xbox ecosystem to have a higher chance at getting new game pass subscribers as well as new consumers sticking with Xbox in the long term.

Yeah they COULD…they could also put their other games on other platforms. How come Hellblade 2 isn’t on the PS5? How come Avowed isn’t on the PS5?

Clearly MS sees value in exclusivity.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see the value in exclusivity too. All I’m saying is that GamePass as a value proposition just went up sky high, so it is a differentiator in itself by now.

I don’t see them bringing any of the major titles (Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Starfield) to the PS5.

While Microsoft has been pushing the idea of making games more accessible, they still want you to access those games through their ecosystem. The accessibility comes from the flexibility to play through Xbox, PC and Xcloud.

Some of the big franchises they’ve acquired can help sell millions of consoles and I don’t see why Microsoft would skip on those potential sales or Game Pass subs.

The case by case basis that Spencer mentioned refers to exclusive deals already in place and the live services (ESO, Fallout 76) that are already on other platforms in my opinion.

We saw “smaller” games like Ori and Cuphead move to other consoles - and maybe games like those do go multi platform after their Xbox release - but I personally believe you’re living in a fantasy land if you think the next single player Fallout or Elder Scrolls game will be on anything outside the Xbox ecosystem.

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The “put it on other platforms to make more money” argument is really flawed. By that logic Sony and Nintendo may as well start throwing all of their games on other platforms. The value is getting people into your ecosystem. These guys don’t just make money off first party, they make money off third party sales too. Someone who buys an Xbox because they want to play Bethesda games now that aren’t available on the PS5, is also likely to buy non first party games that MS will get a cut of. If someone buys a PS5 and buys Cyberpunk, AC Valhalla, Call of Duty then MS won’t get a penny from that sale.

Plus keep in mind there are probably people who aren’t interested in game pass but will stay pay full retail $60 for Xbox first party games. They’d pay 60 bucks for Fable, Avowed, Elder Scrolls, Doom etc because they aren’t interested in a subscription service.

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I agree for the big blockbuster games. But late ports for smaller franchises? Bring them to Switch and Playstation 5 too, if the development effort is worth it.

Except for Steam and maybe GoG

Exclusivity is important in the industry and since Microsoft wants Game Pass subscriptions, it would make no sense to launch games on the Playstation.

It is not without reason that sony spends a lot of money on temporary games.

I believe that Microsoft now understands how this works.

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