Being reasonable shouldn’t exclude wanting what’s best for your preferred platform. Without exclusive games and content, there’s literally no reason to ever own an Xbox, PlayStation or Switch because why would you? You would just buy the one console that has your preferred setup and maybe where your friends play on and that’s it. You wouldn’t need to even look at the other two because there would be no valid reason to do so.
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Because of Game Pass. The best bargain in gaming.
Playstation fans are pretty much a cult at this point, you’ve seen the reactions from a significant number of them when a game DARES not to release on their system or when Sony decided to release games on PC or The Show on Xbox. We should be glad most Xbox fans arent like that because that shit just makes us all look bad.
I do agree that Sony’s disregard for us and the constant moneyhatting of games that would have sold most on their platform did need answering and the purchase of Bethesda was that. I really wouldnt worry about the exclusive situation, everything and everyone is pointing towards exclusivity. Why would you put a system and subscription seller anywhere but your own system after all? The only people saying they wont be exclusive are fanboys in the media, concern trolls and people who just dont understand how actual business works and think that MS needs to get that money back ASAP. Future MMOs are the only thing that’s really up in the air
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Game Pass isn’t the be all end all to me. It’s great in general, no doubt but for me, I would just buy the Bethesda games im 100% all in on and simply skip those I don’t care about which is what I do with Sony’s games and games in general.
Also, for me it’s all about day one. Not six months or a year later. By then, I have already moved on. I played Gears 5 on Game Pass day one. Hivebusters back in January and just have Gears Tactics left. Until the other games I care about get released, I honestly don’t even touch it.
I agree in regards to multi-platform games and all the timed bullshit but if you’re the hardware manufacturer, you must have exclusive games and content that support your hardware. I have believed this since NES and my opinion will never change in this regard. For PC, it’s an open platform and not a competitor especially since every game is developed on a PC anyway. I see Steam and EGS as being competitors to each other but that’s a storefront as opposed to one of them actually owning PC as their own hardware.
Agree with the second paragraph completely. The money aspect is just ugh. Microsoft is a trillion dollar company and if anything, once you factor in development and porting costs, optimization, paying the employees to do all of that extra work, marketing, advertising, manufacturing, distributing the physical copies as well as retailers cut on those copies and Sony getting 30% of every physical/digital sale, at that money, the profit would be minimal and they wouldn’t be getting anyone into their eco-system and in turn, Game Pass.
Minecraft was bought under entirely different circumstances and reasons though
FWIW, I do expect the games to be exclusive but i still believe (and am ok with) some exceptions. Games lile Starfield, ES, Fallout better be exclusive.
Indiana Jones… depends on the contract. There might be other games in the works like that Doom 3 VR recently announced and the rumored Skyrim re-release. I am not going to make a big deal about it if they release those on other platforms.
i think most if not all will be only ones i have pause are the MMOs then again sea of thieves proved it will do just perfectly fine just on xbox and pc so im going ALL Exclusive show greedy sony they arent messing around make it harder for sony to moneyhat
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Their clearly is middle ground. Even the various users on the forum can’t land on exactly what should be happening. Varying from everything being exclusive, to some timed exclusivity and bits of both.
Hell even today we got an insider note that Skyrim anniversary edition would be multiplatform (if they are to be believed).
Exclusive content is important but this isn’t a question with an absolute answer. I bet a pair of reasonably comfortable socks that Xbox are not going to commit to an absolute status of exclusivity around Bethesda’s games. I have no doubts Bethesda will be leveraged for exclusivity, in just not sure of the degree it will be leveraged - it’s not really anything to do with being friendly, it’s to do with money and where development has already taken place.
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The Skyrim rumor though is for a 10 year old game that’s already been released everywhere. Plus, releasing an anniversary edition while having TES 6 be exclusive would be a smart move because it would get people who like Skyrim to jump into the Xbox eco-system to play TES 6.
If Microsoft doesn’t commit to the Bethesda games than I will always see them and Xbox as a joke because they obviously just don’t give a shit about their own fan base which in turn means, why should I care about them and more importantly, why should I give them my money?
The money aspects I disagree with 100%. Even if Wolfenstein III was fully completed for PS4/PS5, it should be cancelled. Pay those who work at Machine Games for their work on it and that’s it.
Microsoft spent $7.5B on ZeniMax. I seriously doubt that an extra $100M is going to make any difference whatsoever. Also, like Parris says, you don’t spend $7.5B just to keep everything the same. Microsoft could have paid $1-$2B and get every game day one on Game Pass for this generation while saving a shit ton of cash at the same time so if it was about the money, then why pay $7.5B to begin with? At this point, it’s not about the money.
In general, releasing the games on PlayStation would cost more money than what Microsoft would potentially make back. Development, porting, optimization costs. Pay everyone who’s working on the game extra money since they would be doing extra work that they shouldn’t have to, then you add in manufacturing, distribution and retailers cut for the physical edition. Add in the 30% cut Sony gets for every copy in general sold and most of all, you’re keeping potential consumers and users out of your eco-system and Game Pass because at that point, they’re not jumping into Xbox at all whatsoever which means you’ll lose far more in the short and long term as well as overall than what you would gain in PS4/PS5 sales.
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The middle ground is allowing other systems get DLC and not outright delisting Bethesda’s games from their stores. That’s what Mattrick would have done.
Xbox, PC and Gamepass users funded this acquisition. Is a man not entitled to the sweat off his brow?
While I think it’s a harsh stance that you have regarding the exclusivity, I can see a lot of people leaning towards your feelings. Xbox has a negative stigma attached to its developers and games that really needs to be addressed to shut this narrative down.
The reality is that we live in world where social media and optics are extremely important aspects to a product or services success. Microsoft made an enormous purchase, a purchase that can really change the perception and fortunes of the brand. IMO, it’s crucial that they capitalize on this opportunity and make it known the you really have to be apart of the Xbox ecosystem to play Bethesda games. Luckily, we’ll find out soon.
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Unless something changed dramatically since last October when Phil Spencer was interviewed after the announcement of the Bethesda acquisition, it seems that we are hopefully just wasting time and energy on this. He basically says it right here that the Xbox ecosystem gives gamers plenty of options to go play their games.
Putting the big future games from your game studios on PlayStation may net you a few “atta boys” from a game site story or some tweets from some PlayStation fans (many toxic ones will rightfully laugh at Xbox for the move), but that would be sorely short lived compared to the impact on not hitting target Xbox Game Pass subscription growth and trying to move more next gen console hardware which directly supports Game Pass growth too.
When asked by Kotaku’s Steven Totilo if Microsoft could recover the $7.5 million it invested in purchasing Zenimax without selling The Elder Scrolls VI on PlayStation systems, Spencer was confident. “This deal was not done to take games away from another player base like that,” he said.
“Nowhere in the documentation that we put together was: ‘How do we keep other players from playing these games?’ We want more people to be able to play games, not fewer people to be able to go play games. But I’ll also say […] when I think about where people are going to be playing and the number of devices that we had, and we have xCloud and PC and Game Pass and our console base, I don’t have to go ship those games on any other platform other than the platforms that we support in order to kind of make the deal work for us. Whatever that means.”
If the games that are multiplat are just like this I don’t really care honestly, good for a cash grab really, it’s not like someone would buy an entire console for a remaster imo.
I worry about this too, I swear I can already hear people typing their selling their Xbox if it isn’t exclusive.
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I agree that my stance is harsh but I have been gaming since NES and since the SNES/Genesis generation, I have owned between 2-4 consoles in every generation because there’s always been exclusives that I have wanted to play.
I don’t have a problem investing my money and time into any eco-system as long as they’re giving me valid reasons to do so.
Weirdly enough, I prefer to own more than one console and see what each side gives me. But of course, I must have valid reasons to own more than one console. I want to see Microsoft be competitive instead of just rolling over like a dead dog.
Social Media, especially the Gaming Media is a fucking joke because it’s ALWAYS one sided. The louder voice wins even though the louder voice is usually wrong. Microsoft can’t worry about Social/Gaming Media because it’s not about them. It’s about doing what’s best for your eco-system, your roadmap, your future and most of all, your fans.
Yes, definitely hoping we find out before the month ends. I really hope they don’t drag shit out because that tells me they’re A) going multi-platform or B) they don’t know what to do which is a concern in of itself.
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lol sony pony dreamcast guy thinks starfield will be on ps5 hes gonna be wrong in my opinion
If Xbox somehow does the unthinkable and puts the big Bethesda games on PlayStation then they at least owe the Xbox fan base an explanation as to why, and that would be comical at best using any type of logical reasoning. Xbox Blog Post - “We are excited to officially welcome Bethesda to the Xbox Game Studios family today. We apologize that we haven’t been able to talk about our plans until this process was complete, but we are excited to announce today that we will be bringing Starfield and the next Elder Scrolls game to our friends at PlayStation on day one so that as many fans as possible can continue to play these great games wherever they want. Of course these games will also be available on Xbox and Game Pass for those who may be interested in that option.”
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Starfield will be the easiest to make exclusive, I doubt it’s on any other platform.
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I agree it’s a new ip
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I was thinking about this earlier. I think that the whole reason this is such a major discussion is because Xbox was out front doing some “different” things such as putting first party games on PC (they do have the Windows OS so it really is their “platform” too) and such, but even Sony has been following along recently with some of this broader approach.
However, just because Xbox has tried to grow their ecosystem doesn’t mean that there really should be any credible question in this instance as to whether Xbox plans to keep most Bethesda games exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem going forward. It would be the oddest major acquisition by a platform holder in the history of such things to do otherwise. And such a move would in fact either maintain the status quo in the best case scenario or even arguably cause actual damage going forward due to continued questions regarding the Xbox longer term plans as a platform holder.
The CEO of Microsoft himself Satya Nadella has mentioned in multiple settings that they were focused on the “three Cs” of Content, Community and Cloud for their gaming ambitions. So spending 7.5 billion on Zenimax to turn around and put all of that major ‘Content’ onto a rival platform makes zero sense in any sane universe.
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