It is no secret that Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax and Bethesda caught everyone by surprise. Some projects, like Arkane's Redfall and Bethesda's Starfield were already in the works at the time of the acquisition and as you likely expect, were planned to release on PlayStation consoles and Xbox. 

In an interview with IGN published this week, Redfall director, Harvey Smith, talked a little about the exclusivity surrounding Redfall, confirming that the game would have been a multiplatform release before Microsoft acquired the company: “We got bought by Microsoft and that was a huge sea change. They said, ‘No PlayStation 5. Now we're going to do Game Pass, Xbox and PC.”

Given that this was the case for Redfall, it was likely the case for other projects that were already in development, like Starfield. None of this should come as a surprise though. While Microsoft is open to multiplatform releases for certain franchises, I think the company always planned for brand-new IPs to become part of its exclusive games arsenal.

Redfall will be releasing for PC and Xbox Series X/S on the 2nd of May. Bethesda will be launching Starfield for Xbox Series X/S and PC in September.

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KitGuru Says: I've seen some pretty insane reactions to this quote floating around the web today, but I don't think anything scandalous was revealed here. Redfall is a new IP and Microsoft needs exclusives to drive Xbox sales and Game Pass subscriptions. 

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