If you were on the fence about which new video game console to pre-order, maybe this will push you over the edge.
Microsoft is acquiring ZeniMax media in a $7.5 billion cash deal that brings Bethesda Softworks into the Xbox family. Even if you're not familiar with Bethesda by name, you probably know some of the big series it publishes, like Doom, Fallout, Wolfenstein, and Elder Scrolls.
Microsoft confirmed the acquisition in a Monday morning announcement, with just over 24 hours to go until the Sept. 22 start of Xbox Series S and X pre-orders. There's no other way to characterize it: This is a power move. As Microsoft and Sony line up and make their case to games-loving consumers on which console to buy in 2020, the Bethesda acquisition amounts to a mic drop.
The deal was hailed on both sides as one motivated by a shared interest in democratizing access to games. On the Xbox side, this is evident in Microsoft's work on developing Game Pass, in offering streaming via xCloud, and in creating a framework for Minecraft – which the company acquired in 2014, another blockbuster deal – to exist and support cross-play on all platforms, even competing ones.
"Over the years I’ve had many deep conversations with the creative leaders at Bethesda on the future of gaming and we’ve long shared similar visions for the opportunities for creators and their games to reach more players in more ways," Xbox boss Phil Spencer wrote in Microsoft's announcement.
Bethesda, meanwhile, was one of the first publishers to successfully bring game mods into the console space and Xbox is where that effort originally started. The feature that allows people to expand their game by downloading free, fan-made creations is something Bethesda has embraced for a long time in PC releases.
As Microsoft and Sony line up to hawk new consoles, the Bethesda deal amounts to a mic drop.
In a complementary post from Bethesda, longtime creative lead Todd Howard echoed Spencer's sentiment. "We share a deep belief in the fundamental power of games, in their ability to connect, empower, and bring joy. And a belief we should bring that to everyone - regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you play on. Regardless of the screen size, the controller, or your ability to even use one," Howard wrote.
This "all games everywhere, for every player" approach has been a theme of Xbox's growth beyond hardware in recent years. Many Game Pass titles are also available on PC and they've been that way for a while. The launch of xCloud on Sept. 15 was also big, effectively turning any Android device with a strong internet connection into a portable Xbox.
While there's surely more to be revealed as the news settles in, Microsoft has already confirmed that the acquisition means Bethesda's library is coming to Game Pass. What's more, new Bethesda releases, like the upcoming Starfield, will be available for subscribers on the day of their release, just like any other Microsoft-published title.
This doesn't mean the Bethesda brand is going away, however. The publisher's longtime marketing chief Pete Hines said as much in a post of his own addressing the news. "[T]he key point is we’re still Bethesda," Hines wrote. "We’re still working on the same games we were yesterday, made by the same studios we’ve worked with for years, and those games will be published by us."
Xbox will always be the home of Halo and Gears of War, plus Forza, Fable, Ori, Crackdown, Sea of Thieves, and State of Decay. But recent moves by Microsoft have done much to secure an even stronger lineup of games and series' developed in-house, to compete with monster PlayStation exclusives like Uncharted, The Last of Us, Horizon, Spider-Man, and, most recently, Ghost of Tsushima.
In 2018 at the annual E3 trade show, Microsoft made a splash when it announced the acquisition of multiple studios, including the teams behind Hellblade, State of Decay, and Forza's popular "Horizon" line of games. Just a few months later in that same year, Microsoft also purchased a pair of studios known for their RPG chops: Obsidian Entertainment, developer of 2020's The Outer Worlds, and inXile Entertainment, the team behind the just-released Wasteland 3.
Amanda Farough, co-host of the Virtual Economy podcast and co-founder of the F-Squared consulting firm, told Mashable that this strategy of buying big names is a viable alternative to building new studios from scratch. It seems to be working out.
"Microsoft's approach has clearly been to build, not buy, its first-party studios and it has been laudable. The Zenimax acquisition is the latest in a long line-up of smart buys for Xbox Game Studios, standing alongside the Mojang purchase in 2014 at $2.5 billion," Farough said.
"This purchase will allow Xbox to lean into its powerhouse IP, which will include franchises like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Dishonored, and the upcoming Deathloop. As an extension of that, the value of Xbox Game Pass, which is already titanic, is just that much more enticing with Bethesda swimming in the same sea."
