Microsoft acquired Bethesda knowing Starfield was going to be a PlayStation Exclusive

In the latest case between the FTC and Microsoft, the head of Xbox Phil Spencer shared some key reasons behind the acquisition of Zenimax Media. During the most recent hearing, Phil shared that Sony continuously pays competitors to skip the Xbox platform and by acquiring Bethesda this would compete with Sony.

One of the reasons they acquired Bethesda was that Sony was going to get exclusivity with Starfield and it would skip Xbox.

“When we acquired ZeniMax one of the impetus for that is that Sony had done a deal for Deathloop and Ghostwire to pay Bethesda to not ship those games on Xbox,” said Spencer.

“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.

Microsoft ended up acquiring Bethesda for $7.5 Billion and have been trying to close a deal to acquire Activision for $70 Billion, but it’s been a tough road as there’s been a lot of fight against that deal. In recent FTC vs Microsoft news, a statement shared from Microsoft reveals that Xbox officially “lost the console wars”.

Starfield will be releasing September 6, 2023 for Xbox Series XlS, Xbox Game Pass and PC.

Source: The Verge