Microsoft acquired Bethesda to avoid Starfield becoming a PS5 exclusive

During the hearing between the FTC and Microsoft last week, we learned new details about the events that preceded Microsoft's decision to acquire both Activision and Bethesda. The biggest piece of news is that Bethesda was indeed in discussions to make Starfield a PS5 exclusive, which prompted Microsoft to go ahead and acquire the company outright. 

When Sony announced the PS5, two of its bigger year-one exclusives were coming from Bethesda, with the first being Deathloop from Arkane Studios and the second being Ghostwire: Tokyo from Bethesda's Japanese game studio, Tango Gameworks. Around this time, Sony was also negotiating for Starfield to skip Xbox, becoming a PS5 console exclusive.

Speaking on the witness stand during the FTC hearing this week, Xbox head, Phil Spencer, confirmed that this was the big news that sparked action, with Microsoft going on to acquire Zenimax media for $7.5 billion. Microsoft was concerned that by losing out on major games like Starfield, it may not even be able to hold on to its third-place position in the console market:

“When we acquired ZeniMax, one of the impetus for that was that Sony had done a deal for Deathloop and Ghostwire and pay, effectively, Bethesda to not ship those games on Xbox. So the discussion about Starfield when we heard that Starfield is 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”.

Spencer drives the point home further by stating the Xbox “has to secure content to remain viable in the business”.

A similar situation occurred with Activision, as it also came out during the hearing that Activision forced Microsoft into offering the company more favourable revenue splits on the Xbox store in order to get Call of Duty: Vanguard to launch on Xbox Series X/S alongside PS5.

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KitGuru Says: Bethesda had suffered some losses towards the end of the PS4/Xbox One lifecycle after a string of low-selling titles, including Fallout 76, Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Prey. Once the PS5 exclusivity deals were announced, it became pretty clear that the company was looking for new opportunities to stay afloat. 

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