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Xbox Director Phil Spencer said he believes Bethesda’s development teams will be “very, very critical” of the platform owner’s future.
Microsoft announced plans to acquire ZeniMax Media and its game publisher Bethesda Softworks for $ 7.5 billion in September, with the deal expected to be completed in early 2021.
Discussing Xbox’s plans for the year in a new Xbox podcast, Spencer said he was excited to complete the acquisition “so we can start working as one business.”
“I’m excited about 2021 and Bethesda is a big part of it,” he said.
“2021 is when we get final approval. I feel really good about it: everything is on the right track. Then we’ll start to really come up with some of the planning that we can do with them. Right now we’re really not comfortable with them as they continue to do the job they do because we don’t own them yet.
Reflecting on the surprise announcement of the deal last September, Spencer said he was happy to see the positive reaction from Xbox fans, “and probably more important to me right now is the Bethesda teams, because these teams are going to be very, very critical of our future progress, ”he said.
“I can’t wait to close it so we can start working as one company. I’m incredibly excited about Starfield and a lot of other things, some announced and some unannounced that they’re working on. I just think they’re going to be an amazing addition to our studios.
Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media will allow Xbox Game Studios to grow from 15 to 23 development teams.
Employing some 2,300 people worldwide, Bethesda Softworks studios include Bethesda Game Studios (Fallout, Elder Scrolls), id Software (Doom), ZeniMax Online Studios (Elder Scrolls Online), Arkane (Dishonored, Prey), MachineGames (Wolfenstein), Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within), Alpha Dog and Roundhouse Studios.
“When I think of our RPG ability with Obsidian, inXile, the work that Playground is doing that is now available with Fable, and with what Bethesda can do… that’s a huge ability,” Spencer said.
“I think about our FPS capability with Id, 343 and the work we can do… it doubles the size of our proprietary studios when Bethesda joins, which is pretty amazing to think about.”
He added: “And the geography: I think about where they are, which is important because I want to have teams from different places in the world.”
Following the announcement of the acquisition, Spencer said Microsoft will honor existing PS5 exclusivity agreements Bethesda has in place for games such as Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.
However, Xbox CFO Tim Stuart said in November that Microsoft wanted future Bethesda games to be “either the first, or the best, or the best” on Xbox platforms.
“What we’re going to do in the long run is that we don’t intend to just remove all Bethesda content from Sony or Nintendo or whatever,” Stuart said.
“But what we want is that we want this content, in the long run, to be the first, the best or the best or choose your differentiated experience, on our platforms. We’ll want Bethesda content to appear the best on our platforms.
“Yes. It’s not a question of exclusivity. It’s not a question of us – adjusting the timing, the content or the roadmap. But if you think of something like Game Pass, if it does. presents 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.
“Again, I’m not announcing to be removing content from the platforms in any way,” Stuart continued. “But I suspect you will continue to see us evolve into a first or better or better approach on our platforms.”
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