Well, this was news we didn't expect to see.
Late Monday morning it was annouched by Microsoft, mere hours before preorders were available for the Xbox Series X that an agreement was made to acqruire ZeniMax Media. A deal worth $US 7.5 billion in cash will be finialised once we move into the 2021 finical year.
So what does this all mean exactly?
Microsoft now owns all subbranches of ZeniMax Media, some of these studios include Arkane, Tango Gameworks, MachineGames, id, and oh a little studio called Bethesda.
Titles such as Elder Scroll, Fallout, Quake, DOOM, Wolfenstien, and any other titles that come out of these studios will now be exclusively XBOX titles.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer said how Xbox's Game Pass will be benefited from this purchase
"Just as they took the bold first steps to bring The Elder Scrolls franchise to the original Xbox, Bethesda were early supporters of Xbox Game Pass, bringing their games to new audiences across devices and have been actively investing in new gaming technology like cloud streaming of games." Spencer said.
We will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC."
XBOX owners will now be able to play and purchase these games from Microsoft Game Pass. Microsoft will hope that this includment of new exclusive titles will bring more and more players to the XBOX.
It'll be interesting to see how this will affect the pre-order sales for the XBOX Series X and how many games Microsoft will allow to be able to be purchased on Playstation.
Either way, it's a wonderful time to be a gamer.
XBOX's Press Release
Bethesda's Press Release
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