In case you missed it, the big news out of last week was the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda, by Microsoft and Xbox for $7.5 billion in cash. The acquisition brings several studios and important IPs into the first-party status for Xbox, including Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, and more. After the deal was announced, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was joined by Bethesda’s Todd Howard and Pete Hines on Major Nelson’s podcast to discuss the whole thing, and Spencer teased just what’s coming down the pipe from Bethesda.
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“I have the benefit of knowing the future roadmap and having some insight into the things that have been both announced and unannounced that the teams are working on,” Spencer said in the podcast. “It’s an incredibly exciting time for the work that Bethesda‘s studios are doing, as they continue with the craft of creating games and also thinking about how our medium of gaming continues to evolve and their role in that.”
Notably, it is known that Bethesda has both Starfield, a sci-fi video game, and the latest and greatest installment in The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls VI, in development. The fact that Spencer specifically mentioned unannounced titles is particularly exciting, of course. And that doesn’t even touch on upcoming Bethesda properties like, for example, Arkane Studios’ Deathloop.
Xbox’s acquisition of Bethesda is still subject to all the usual legal hurdles behind such deals, but Microsoft expects to close on it in the second half of the fiscal year 2021. This marks just the latest high-profile acquisition from Xbox with previous companies like Double Fine Productions and Obsidian Entertainment being acquired in recent years. The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are both set to launch on November 10th for $499 and $299, respectively. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Xbox right here.
What do you think of this acquisition? What do you hope to see from Xbox now that ZeniMax Media/Bethesda Softworks is part of the fold? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!
[H/T GameSpot]
