We already talked about it when Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media a few months ago. Although it wouldn't directly imply that Bethesda Softworks' upcoming games would be exclusive to Xbox consoles it was quite clear that Microsoft wouldn't let escape the opportunity of securing more players for its platforms one way or another. The future of licenses like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, or DOOM will follow the steps dictated by the new owner. This fact has recently been confirmed by Xbox lead financial officer Tim Stuart, who has said that the company would prefer any Bethesda's upcoming game to be either first or better or best” on Xbox platforms.
Although this can be considered normal it may be a problem for some players that expect to play games like The Elders Scrolls VI or Starfield on Playstation. Tim Stuart's statement does not mean that all those games are going to be exclusive to Microsoft's platforms. That is something that he also clarified later.
“That’s not a point about being exclusive. That’s not a point about we’re being — adjusting timing or content or road map. But if you think about something like Game Pass, if it shows up 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. So again, I’m not announcing pulling content from platforms one way or the other, but I suspect you’ll continue to see us shift towards a first or better or best approach on our platforms.”
Obviously the involvement of Microsoft in the development of such games means that they will get some benefit out of it. It is yet to be seen if that benefit is going to come in the form of limited-time exclusivity or maybe the addition of extra features for those games on Xbox. Whatever the case is, it's nothing new, as it often happens with other franchises and platforms. We will have to wait to know how this policy is going to affect specific games in the future.
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