Xbox has confirmed that three upcoming Bethesda games will be exclusives. Xbox has been heavily criticized for its lack of high quality exclusive games over the last decade or so. While it did really well during the Xbox 360, things slowed down quite a bit during the Xbox One era. The console released with some enjoyable launch titles like Dead Rising 3ย and even Ryse: Son of Rome before introducing the world to Titanfall as an Xbox exclusive. It was a great start, but suffered when games like Halo 5 underwhelmed fans and there was a lack of exciting new IP exclusive to Xbox. The platform holder has since begun buying developers and publishers to have a wider array of great first-party games, such as the upcoming Starfield from Bethesda.
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As part of a larger filing to counter the FTC’s lawsuit against Microsoft for its acquisition of Activision, there were a lot if interesting pieces of information. One of the more noteworthy pieces of info revolves around how Microsoft claimed that it has continued to support online games like The Elder Scrolls Online on PlayStation as a way to prove that it plans to support Call of Duty on other platforms. However, it did note on page six of the document that it plans to keep three upcoming Bethesda games exclusive to Xbox and PC. The names of these games were redacted, but it can be assumed that these are Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI, and possibly Redfall,ย Indiana Jones,ย or Fallout 5. It was noted that these games are intended to be alone or in small groups, therefore they don’t need multiple platforms to connect a large base of players for multiplayer.
It seems like Microsoft intends to keep the major online franchises on all platforms, but will keep single player games exclusive. This not only ensures that it gets exclusive titles for its library, but also isn’t restricting games that are played better with friends from all platforms. Only time will tell if this is applied equally to every game, but it does seem to align with Microsoft’s philosophy.
What do you think of Xbox’s defense against the FTC lawsuit? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.ย
