During the latest of many hearings for the FTC’s current case against Microsoft, Phil Spencer, the big honcho of Xbox, went on record stating that the main reason for Microsoft buying ZeniMax Media, the holding company that owns Bethesda Softworks, was to ensure that Starfield would be able to come to Xbox instead of becoming a PlayStation exclusive.
Phil Spencer also said that this fear was because Bethesda had previously signed timed exclusivity deals with Sony for two other games, which kept them from being available on Xbox for over a year after the titles were first released.
“When we acquired ZeniMax one of the impetus for that is that Sony had done a deal for Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo… to pay Bethesda to not ship those games on Xbox,” Spencer said, via The Verge. “So the discussion about Starfield when we heard that Starfield was potentially also going to end up skipping Xbox, we can’t be in a position as a third-place console where we fall further behind on our content ownership so we’ve had to secure content to remain viable in the business.” – Phil Spencer
Phil Spencer also said in court that releasing games on both consoles handed money to Sony that Sony then used against Microsoft:
“Every time we ship a game on PlayStation… Sony captures 30% of the revenue that we do on their platform. Then they use that money, among other revenue that they have to do things to try to reduce Xbox’s survival on the market. We try to compete, but as I said, over the last 20 years, we’ve failed to do that effectively.”
When the courts then asked what Microsofts plans would be for The Elder Scrolls 6 and if the title would be exclusive to Xbox and PC, Phil Spencer remained vague. He stated that he was unsure which platforms the game would launch on and that it was challenging to nail down at this time.
Since Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media, the first Bethesda game to skip PlayStation was Redfall. Still, that game did little to put Microsoft above Sony, with Phil Spencer going as far as to apologise for the game’s disappointing launch personally.
What do you think about all this? Will Microsoft try to keep The Elder Scrolls 6 as an Xbox exclusive? Let us know in the comments.