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Microsoft acquires Zenimax, parent company of Bethesda

Microsoft made a monster move today, announcing the acquisition of Zenimax Media. That’s right, Bethesda is now part of the ‘Xbox family’.

Joining the stable

Who saw this one coming?

And yet here we are on a Monday morning, announcing that Microsoft has acquired ZeniMax Media. As mentioned above, that means that Bethesda is now a part of the Xbox-company. And that presumably means that The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, and tons of other huge games are now a part of the Xbox group.

Phil Spencer broke the news today with a statement that you can read here. Going forward from there though, several Bethesda bigs also issued commentary on the deal, including Pete Hines.

While Spencer doesn’t mention PS5-exclusives like Deathloop in his statement, Hines does. Though it needs to be pointed out that he also says very clearly that nothing is going to change for the teams at ZeniMax in terms of making games.

So what does that mean? Likely it means that the games that are signed as exclusively PS5 releases (for example) will remain so, as those deals are done. However, I’d expect to see ports at some point to the Series X, and absolutely expect to see sequels appearing on the next Xbox. As for stuff like Doom Eternal on the Switch, I’d say there’s a chance that’ll get canned.

In any event though, the news remains massive. Bethesda creates some of the biggest games out there presently, and for Microsoft to add them to their stable is nothing short of a blockbuster move.

It’s going to be extremely interesting to see what’s next.

About Jason Micciche

Jason's been knee deep in videogames since he was but a lad. Cutting his teeth on the pixely glory that was the Atari 2600, he's been hack'n'slashing and shoot'em'uping ever since. Mainly an FPS and action guy, Jason enjoys the occasional well crafted title from every genre.

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