Phil Spencer Looking at Exclusivity
During a recent interview, executive vice-president of Gaming at Microsoft Phil Spencer suggested that some Bethesda titles may be exclusive to the Xbox platform. During the interview, he mentioned xCloud, PC, Game Pass, and the Xbox family of consoles, but didn’t mention PS4, PS5, or Nintendo Switch. While Microsoft still intends to honor the exclusivity deals that ZeniMax Media had in place before being acquired by them, they may lock future titles behind their various platforms. Xbox Series X/S releases on November 10th, with Xbox Game Pass joining the launch lineup.
“When I think about where people are going to be playing and the number of devices that we had, and we have xCloud and PC and Game Pass and our console base,” said Phil Spencer. “I don’t have to go ship those (Bethesda) games on any other platform other than the platforms that we support in order to kind of make the deal work for us. Whatever that means.” While we definitely expect to see the upcoming Bethesda titles such as Deathloop and Starfield on the PS5, we aren’t sure what to expect from the development powerhouse moving forward.
When talking specifically about Nintendo, Phil Spencer said, “We have a very good relationship with Nintendo. I think we see our work very synergistically, in terms of trying to grow the market. And it just makes it easy. Every conversation we have with them has really been easy.” While Phil Spencer doesn’t specifically mention any games coming to Nintendo Switch here, these conversations could lead to opportunities where both companies benefit.
Do you hope that Microsoft keeps Bethesda titles multi-platform or would you like them to secure some huge exclusives by keeping them on the Xbox family of platforms? Let us know in the comments below!