"What we’ll do in the long run is we don’t have intentions of just pulling all of Bethesda content out of Sony or Nintendo or otherwise. But what we want is we want that content, in the long run, to be either first or better or best or pick your differentiated experience, on our platforms. We will want Bethesda content to show up the best as – on our platforms.
Yes. That’s not a point about being exclusive. That’s not a point about we’re being – adjusting timing or content or road map. But if you think about something like Game Pass, if it shows up best in Game Pass, that’s what we want to see, and we want to drive our Game Pass subscriber base through that Bethesda pipeline.
So again, I’m not announcing pulling content from platforms one way or the other. But I suspect you’ll continue to see us shift towards a first or better or best approach on our platforms."
Well, this certainly is unexpected. Especially after what has been said previously.
But I would think he wouldn’t just say this without Phil knowing. So I guess he got some kind of go ahead?
Personally I wouldn’t understand this approach because you can be sure as hell Sony or Nintendo wouldn’t have. But I’m not a business. Now watch all these YouTubers make a video about this, lol.
This. Why are people still making stories about this? When the deal is finalized, they’ll comment about all of this. Until then, it’s all bullshit being pushed for clicks. Seriously, I wish people would stop this nonsense.
Are we sure he is not talking about the games that are already timed-exclusives for the PS5 or games that released before they were bought by Microsoft? The wording of the article is weird.
Correct, all these hot takes should be ignored; frankly it’s irresponsible of the media to keep hitting this point when it legally puts Microsoft in a bind if they answer in a way that can be misconstrued prior to the completion of the acquisition. I have no doubt that the games will be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem; Phil’s messaging has already implied as such and you don’t spend that much money to put the titles on your competitor’s platform if you don’t need their user base to make up the cost (which they don’t).
I have no idea. To me it doesn’t seem like it’s only about Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo.
It would just be kinda weird. So games from all the other studios will stay Xbox exclusive but they make the exception for Bethesda games? Is it that unprecedented that these games would just stay inside the Xbox ecosystem, exactly like Phil strongly hinted at many times?
I believe the games will be exclusives, but they do not want to seem “anti-consumer.” Since the last interview with Phil made it pretty clear that they did not need to put the games on other platforms to make the money back. And Phil is over this Tim dude, so whatever he says goes.
I read the article twice, it’s more or less the same statement. “Wait and see.”
Microsoft really need to be quiet. Have a stock answer for this question - case by case basis and stick to it. This really is not helping anyone. There is literally no point in a 7.5BN deal if you just end up with gamepass games. It wouldn’t drive anyone to gamepass it wouldn’t help Xbox position gamepass any better than it already is - so I really can’t see these games not being exclusive. I can see some being timed for a year especially the big guns like ES6. Possibly. But I still think most will be exclusive. But MS really need to stop trying to talk about it.
Nothing they say convinces me they put their games on at the least Playstation consoles without sony giving them a major concession they want, namely allowing either gamepass or xbox live connections in the game. They’ve been on record these acquisitions are about gamepass and bolstering that, this interview snippet doesnt really change that much, I also would note every interview and statement right now is during a period where they are still in active process of buying bethesda, and where development pipelines for a very good few amount of games aren’t likely changing any time soon.
I’m also gonna agree that people here as enthusiasts are reading too much into every interview comment when nothing about their plans or what they have said has changed.
“First of all, I would like to say that we haven’t acquired ZeniMax. We have announced our intention to acquire ZeniMax. It is going through regulatory approval and we don’t see any issues there. We expect early in 2021 the deal will close. But I say that because I want people to know, I’m not sitting down with Todd Howard and Robert Altman and planning their future. Because I’m currently not allowed to do that, that would be illegal . Your question is completely inbound, but I get a lot of questions right now: “is this game exclusive? Is this game exclusive?” And right now, that is not my job in regards to ZeniMax. My job is not to sit down and go through their portfolio and dictate what happens.”
I think they should just stop talking about it until the deal is done.
