Xbox Boss Wishy-Washy on Whether The Elder Scrolls 6 Will Come to PS6, PS5

@MayaMousavi Microsoft can't even keep their own lies straight.

So what they're saying is when they officially announced Elder Scrolls 6 five years ago, it was literally a decade away?

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Yeah, I doubt this is coming to PS5. Microsoft didn't spend all that money to have everything continue the way it was.

They're going to want some sort of exclusivity deal to come out of the acquisition for more then just Starfield.

It won't.

It shouldn't either. This isn't a goddamn charity.

What will Xbox get from Sony?

Yeah I wouldn't hold my breath on it being on PS5 or 6. I think the whole "case by case" situation can be boiled down to "Anything that isn't a live-service game that was already on Playstation or Minecraft will be exclusive."

@Texan_Survivor This is honestly the best and most logical comment we will get on this thread for the duration of however long it stays up.

It's not, end of story lol. Well, unless microsoft leave console business and become 3rd party developers, like with their windows phone mobile os.

I always play elder scroll titles on pc though, so it's not a loss for me, it's not elder scroll without the modding community imo.

We already had our daily dose of Xbox BS. Maybe make it a weekly summary instead before everyone gets bored. Take your time figuring it out. I'll block all ads on your website until then.

I mean, Starfield is "built for the Xbox series X and S" Which means it's basically last gen for consoles, anyway 😼😼😼

So why not Elder Scrolls for current gen, hey Phil? Hey? Hey?

In rational terms, I honestly think they are waiting to see how the bought and paid for publisher exclusives do for them. If sales of gamepass and consoles don't skyrocket, they will still want, you know... money. And that money will be located in PS owners pockets.

It was obvious Bethesda games would be Xbox exclusive from now on anyone who genuinely believes that Microsoft were earnest about all the BS they spouted when the announcened the Bathesda is naive and foolish. When will people learn that this vile scummy company won't stop until they've acquired the entire industry

Microsoft execs can't even give straight non B.S. answers when they're testifying in court.

Do we want a profit is the main question. Since this exclusive war started, Microsoft has chosen to be Russia.

The smart think to do is to start saving up for a PC.

Obviously it won't ..and why should it

My guess here, in context with other stuff that Phil stated during these testimonies: Xbox will keep games exclusive so long they feel PlayStation is turning around and using money earner from games in locking games away from Xbox, or forcing them to lower their revenue (as was testified to have happened with CoD) to keep games on the platform, because continuing to support PlayStation feels as paying for their own executioner.

And yea, I also expect them to continue to buy studios and publishers until they feel that is no longer a threat.

Up to anyone to believe him or distrust him, but he seems to be sending a message that he would be willing to do a lot more multi-platform releases so long Sony stops trying to get third parties to ignore Xbox.

@YonkoBuggyTheClown They would actually have the game sell, since most people would be playing it on Game Pass, should that still be around when ES6 releases, of course. You never know, though, as Sony might have their own version of Game Pass by then, where games debut day one on the service, unlike the current service. Why buy a new game for $70, when you can rent it for two months for less than half of that cost? So, when you think about it, a new game will be losing $35-40 per unit, since that person will just decide to play it on Game Pass. Sure, MS is pocketing the cost of the subscription, but Sony didn't make a dumb decision to include new games day one on PS+.

Either way, we know it isn't going to come out on Playstation, so I don't get why he's trying to be vague about it with his answer. Hell, for all we know, Microsoft might not even be in the console business by the time ES6 releases, so who knows what will happen.

It should be exclusive. They own it and bought them for a reason.

Of course it won't.

But Phil Spencer is "PR Man"! He has the super power of never making any definitive statement!

Is that a yes? Is that no? It's a maybe! It's always a maybe! PR Man knows that he should never compromise himself and his company!

We all know they were full of ***** when they promised to keep them third party. I'm just confused why Bethesda is still Bethesda, why hasn't it been unified under Xbox studios?

Can't say no because it further proves Sony point. Can't say yes cause then that's a lie. They are really planning on strong arming consumers into game pass because if they don't need game pass (MS) RELEASING multiplatform games that are already multiplat doesn't hurt them at all.

I love how all of a sudden Microsoft isn’t allowed to have console exclusives… I’m not defending them don’t get me wrong, even though the Activision deal wouldn’t effect me in the least as I haven’t played an Activision title in well over 10 years, but I don’t want it to go through just because I don’t want any of the big three to get that much power in the industry. But ever since this whole thing was proposed it seems like everybody is whining about Starfield being exclusive or Elder Scrolls 6 being exclusive. Is Microsoft getting God of War or Horizon or freaking Spider-Man? No. It’s fine for Sony to have big exclusives to help sell their console but now that Microsoft is finally getting good exclusives suddenly it’s unfair…

Like I said over at Pure Xbox, the only reason Microsoft is acting like they don't know whether games like Elder Scrolls 6 will be exclusive is so they can try to get the Activision deal through. "See, us buying these huge publishers won't keep major games away from players." Even though in 5 years or more when the game comes out anybody who only a PS6 won't be able to play it. At least if Microsoft is smart, as much as I'd hate to not be able to play it on PlayStation.

As much hate as Jim Ryan almost always rightfully gets, unfortunately this whole debacle with the Activision buyout has basically ruined Phil Spencer's reputation as well. While he's technically not lying really here, everything he has said lately during the court case has been to try and present Xbox in a way to get this deal through, when in reality they put themselves in this position starting over a decade ago and wouldn't have to buy huge publishers just to have exclusives.

Any corporate leader who would provide a definitive response to such a question when under similar legal and regulatory pressure would be forced to resign by the board, and rightly so.

The really amusing thing is that in terms of market value, the company to benefit the most from all this is neither Microsoft nor Sony, but rather Activision.

I mean its definitely exclusive. The ambiguity is 100% only to try and get the deal though

Isn't this a contradiction? He said a while back that Elder Scrolls 6 would be PC/Xbox exclusive.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2021/11/phil-spencer-the-elder-scrolls-6s-xbox-exclusivity-isnt-about-punishing-playstation

@Darthmoogle i don’t get why so many people don’t understand this!!??? So Sony buy a dev, give the dev team a credit card and say make us a new game. The devs get to work and voila!! We have TLOU 1 an 2, Uncharted 1-4, God of War, Ratchet an Clank, Horizon, Spiderman, Ghost of Tsushima, etc.
Microsoft buy an already huge dev and make 3rd party games exclusive. If Starfield, Redfall an Indiana Jones came to Playstation, then in 3 years we get a brand new Knight Rider game that is Xbox exclusive then that’s fine.

@Darthmoogle At least for me, I can't praise much of anything Microsoft has done lately to try to grow their library of exclusives as they could have been in a very similar situation as Sony if they weren't so inept for over a decade. They had severe momentum going into the Xbox 360 generation and squandered it all by just sitting there and doing nothing about their library of exclusives other than rely on a select few franchises. Now they are painting themselves as victims and that they need to buy Activision and Bethesda to compete when in reality they could still be right there with Sony if they didn't run Xbox like they had no idea what they were doing.

Sony grew their internal portfolio far more organically than Microsoft is attempting. Santa Monica (God of War) was created, Bend Studio has been Sony's since 2000, Guerrilla Games (Horizon) was bought in 2005, and so on. So, basically the biggest problem is how Microsoft is trying to fix their horrible mistakes from the past and how they shouldn't even be in this position. They can have exclusives, but again, they could have had plenty of exclusives and not have to buy major publishers to fix it.

While he's not wrong, it's also kind of foolish to think that Microsoft won't favor exclusivity on such a big game on their platform, whatever that platform actually is when it releases. While it's true that we don't know what "Xbox Next" or "PS6" look like, it's fairly safe to say they'll be like the consoles we have now, but better, just like every console generation before.

Also in cases like this anything other than a straight answer should be taken as the answer that makes them look the worst. IE: "Of course it'll be Xbox exclusive, we're not spending all this money for nothing."

@Texan_Survivor They could try and make a deal for a new Gothic. Original Gothic games were janky as hell, but they have their audience in the WRPG scene. If they put in the work and the money, they can make a great Gothic game.
Only other way Sony can compete is to buy CDPR.

@Texan_Survivor making such a game takes ages. And even the best studios could fail to make it. Santa Monica has published some superb games, yet other projects were cancelled after years in development. There is no guarantee. Same with Scalebound and Platinum games.

So realistically speaking, they could hire a team to make it, create something decent but not as good as Elder Scrolls 6, have it come out in 6 years, by which time it will be too late, and if they fail, start again and wait another 6 years. If making a successful game was so easy, they would have done it already. Same with people suggesting they should just make their own COD. There is no guarantee it will turn out good and even if it does, the gaming community may not embrace it for a variety of reasons.

@Darthmoogle How many times does this need to be explained. It isn't about whether or not consoles are allowed to have exclusives, of course they are, and all of them do. The issue here is Microsoft buying up the biggest 3rd party studios who have a history of making multiplatform games. That in itself isn't the main issue either in all honesty, the bigger point of contention is that they are actively cancelling the release of games that were already deep in development and would have been released on PlayStation. So far we know about Redfall, Starfield, Indiana Jones, and you can probably add HI FI Rush to that as well seeing as it was in development for years before the acquisition.

That's the difference.

Phil Spencer says
“It’s so far out it’s hard to understand what the platforms will even be. We’re talking about a game that’s five-plus years away.”

Yet Matt Booty says "major AAA projects will now take anywhere from four years to six years to create."

So this kind of shows the terrible planning that goes on regarding game development at Xbox hq.

Or
One or both of these men is full of it.

@PixelDragon

Both are lying, but I at least can simpathize with sony because they actually made great games after the disastrous ps3 by their own merit. No buying publishers needed.

Geez what was the point of announcing it like what 2 or 3 years ago if it probably won't even be on this generation of consoles

Another thing of consideration: possibly, just possibly, Phil has not given up on Game Pass on PlayStation. And should Game Pass become available on PlayStation, they would start developing all future titles for PlayStation.

Now, before anyone argues the usual "Sony would be stupid to allow Game Pass on PlayStation", keep in mind that realistically, Game Pass on PlayStation would not include third party titles. It would not be any different from EA Play, it would only include XBox Game Studios games, ZeniMax games, and eventually Activision/Blizard games (assuming this is not blocked, and lets face it, it wont be blocked), and anything else they acquire or create in years to come.

If, by the time Elder Scrolls 6 happens, Phil has managed to get Sony to let them have the EA Play treatment, then the game will indeed be available on PlayStation.

It's very smart of the FTC to ignore Microsoft's words about gaming for all and wanting player choice and focus on their actions, which show the opposite.

Elder Scrolls 5 on every system ever and Elder Scrolls 6 on just one plus PC.

Phil is absolutely full of it. If their acquisition does go through I bet my bottom dollar cod etc will be Xbox exclusive after the 10 year deal.

That’s only in place to convince regulators they’re not being anticompetitive.

@Futureshark or more like Phil knows exactly what platforms it’s intended for but doesn’t want to answer as he knows it will go against his ”we want all games on all platforms and as many people to play” crap.

@Darthmoogle @YonkoBuggyTheClown There is MLB The Show and Destiny 2 / Marathon which are being kept multi-platform in perpetuity, as far as I know. Games with a legacy on the Xbox side have been kept there so far. I suppose it’s arguable whether The Elder Scrolls constitutes a PS legacy franchise. Probably not, because I think it’s just Skyrim they got. And I do realize there’s a difference with MP and SP games, so there’s a slight difference there too.

The point is, for me, that I'm not going to be buying an Xbox any time soon and with stuff like this, it makes me less likely to want to in the future.

I don't like being blackmailed into using an Xbox to play games that have been multiplatform for a while (at least since Oblivion and Fallout 3).

Great work, Phil. You had no good games, so you just took everyone else's rather than creating your own.

Phil Spencer is the kind of guy that tries to rent the public park and stop other kids playing on the playsets.

But why keep it from PS ?
Don't they want money, considering ps5 have absolutely trounced xbox in sales.
It's like walking down the street and seeing a bag of money, more than you'd ever make..and just say nah I'm fine with what I have...doesn't make any sense

@MattBoothDev Tell that to Xbox users that wanted to play Final Fantasy 16… that’s also a series that has been multiplatform for a number of years yet the latest game is PS5 exclusive. I tend to remain mostly neutral between Sony and Microsoft. I have both consoles so I can play all the best exclusives. I have no loyalties to one or the other (though I do vastly prefer the Dual Sense controller), but I keep seeing so many entitled people showing up saying these games shouldn’t be exclusive but those same people defend PlayStation exclusives. Strong exclusive software encourages competition don’t be loyal to a company

It's so ridiculous to defend Microsoft really. They are the ones who ***** up themselves. And instead of taking lessons and trying to be better they are just being spoiled rich kid and think they can "buy" being better. Even Zenimax acquisition was ridiculous comparing to anything Sony has ever done in terms of exclusivity but this ABK is whole another level. Lies of P as some people said for months.

If you like jrps get PS5. If you like wrpgs get Xbox.

If you like everything, you know what to do.

Honestly I just hope Microsoft do not get the Activision deal done.

All that company and phil have done is lied and are buying up the biggest publishers.

They are taking games away from gamers and yet literally fighting a battle explaining that this will help give more gamers opportunities.

Yet they fail to see that we aren't all dumb buying up the most successful third party publishers who basically put their games on everything anyway.

The British and American governments are right to block the deal.

The rest dont care because money talks. Esp Europe, they made the European Union to literally squeeze money out of all their members for their own greed.

@MattBoothDev you say you don't want to be blackmailed into buying an Xbox. But Xbox & PC users don't want to be blackmailed into buying a Playstation either & Sony has been far more aggressive when it comes to 3rd party exclusivity. It sounds like to me most people's complaints against Microsoft here is that its a larger company that can counter most threats. If this was Sony buying Square Enix or CDPR you'd all be cheering.

@Darthmoogle I hear you. 100% not a fan of this stuff either.

@cragis0001 to be honest if Sony bought SquareEnix now I'd have less of an issue then if they'd bought them before Embracer bought a load of their IP. SE are a hell of a lot smaller now. But, regardless, you're dead wrong. I wouldn't need cheering. Neither console manufacturer should own a large part of the publishing space.

At the end of the day, it's consumers/gamers that suffer

There's no way ES6 skips PlayStation. Sony consoles outsell Microsoft by more than a 2:1 ratio, there's absolutely no way they're going to leave a pile of money that large on the table. Starfield is one thing, it's a new IP and Xbox desperately needs a system seller. But keeping ES6 off PS would be financial suicide.

I’m honestly going to take that as it won’t be coming to PS. I’m not a fan of those games but I know it’ll suck for a lot of PS gamers.

I'm not holding my breath. I bought a series S so i won't have FOMO

Can we not all just accept that console exclusives exist? Companies do deals with other companies. Companies outright buy other companies. Microsoft does it. Sony does it. Everyone does it and has been doing it for decades. Playstation fans don't get Xbox exclusives. Xbox fans don't get Playstation exclusives. The absolute d*ckheadery that comes out of fans from both camps is legitimately insufferable - yes, you're mad you can't play a thing; deal with it - and both Pure Xbox and Push Square stoke the arguements and toxicity with their lopsided and pandering "reporting".

@GodofCapcom Then don't start with the nonsense that Sony has exclusives and everyone should be able to enjoy games.

And that shows part 2 why MS should not own Activision Blizzard. They will pull COD the second they get the chance.

And are probably just as reliable as Ticketmaster that made promises and broke then the second the ink was dry.

Dont make Sony the bad guy when you are the worst how many times are they fined in Europe. That made it even more strange for me Europe accepted it straight away.

It's so cringe. Sure the future is always uncertain, but Microsoft definitely know if they currently PLAN to release it on playstation or not, the embarrassing dancing around the question shows that they aren't obviously.

@KilloWertz I agree!! And what kills me is some people act like they care about them and trying to do what's best for them. Their not! Their trying to do what's best to get your money. This is not about gamers thats foolish and a immature mentality to even think they care about gamers. They run a business and just like any business it's about what gets you to pull out your wallet. I will say when it comes to not pretending and trying to be everybody's friend to save face Jim Ryan don't do that and he owns it that he is indeed a business man. Phill Spencer on the other hand I just can't stand never have a pure snake in the grass and that wants to be everybody's Bro! He is just a master minapulater! I also hope this deal don't go throu it would be nice for once in America in decades that money can't buy you success but instead of hard work like using the resources they got to build a respectable brand of first party exclusives.

Oh the gaslighting...
Let me answer for him.
No, it will not.

@Triumph741 Western RPG's will be on the PS5 as well.
The only thing that won't is Bethesda ones.

FTC got battered by MS today big time!

Getting less and less likely the FTC can win with toilet paper thin arguments.

@MidnightDragonDX To be fair this far out means it's been developed enough to run on a PC, no optimizations yet for any consoles. That means even Xbox Series consoles. There is a chance ES6 likely will be for the generation of consoles only AFTER Series X and PS5. It's not hard to understand what this all means it's still undecided/plans not 100% set.

@Nem Not 100% true, Bethesda have said they still want to bring new & old games to Nintendo & PlayStation platforms "when it makes sense".

Microsoft/Bethesda could calculate ES6 would make more money to NOT miss PlayStation, like COD.

The biggest issue that riled Microsoft up was the news that Starfield was set to be exclusive to PlayStation consoles so they decided to chance a buyout of Bethesda to get the game AT ALL. Then the time it took to finish Starfield was too much for them to consider to still releasing it for PlayStation unfortunately.

It could be we will have to see some big Bethesda games on Playstation in the future. I'd hate for PS5 to miss everything new, especially RPGs.

@Lexluther23 I understand why people thought that about Phil Spencer for a while as he presented himself in a very good way for a while when he took over Xbox. I believed it to an extent at one time, and I'm not even saying he's a horrible person. He very well could be a nice guy, but at the same time he still spews complete BS, especially with almost everything he has said in regards to the Activision buyout.

As for whether the buyout should be allowed to go through or not, a part of me doesn't think they deserve to have the deal go through. The problem is another part of me thinks it might be for the best as Microsoft could just in turn go out and buy another huge publisher/developer to try to compensate for not getting Activision/Blizzard. I don't play anything by them, so it wouldn't be a loss to me, but who knows who the other company could be. In the end, I just want this to be over either way. It's been an absurd process on so many levels.

@Texan_Survivor Absolutely. They should and I hope they do. We're in perfect agreement. I just have my doubts as to when and if they'll succeed. Also, remember a lot of former members of legendary studios form new studios that fail to produce exceptional games for some reason.

As far as I'm concerned, they should have tried years ago. You can't rely on third parties. If you want a certain genre (RPG, fps), ask your studios to make it and, if they fail, ask them to try again.

@KilloWertz I also.agree with that... I do enjoy black ops on scale of 2 out of time of 10 of my time when I game. It wasent even a thought when I bought my ps5 or my built my latest pc rig. I've always thought Sony could come up with their own thing that would be way better then cod. Cod has went to the past and to the future of warfare amd back again the only place it has not went yet is space. I wouldn't miss it at all. But I do belive just like movies and music a following is earned by hardwork of the artist invovled. To me its like Microsoft trying to buy up all of Warner Brothers records just because their to sorry to go out here and find their own music artist and they ones they do find that was a one hit wonder they just get rid of them. Everything they have showed me since Phil took the job is they can't create lighting in a bottle twice that they clinge to one or two of the 360 and original xbox ips to get them through the storm halo is one of them and it should had ended with reach. They can't even get a live action show right of the halo game. Microsoft is in depths of entertainment that they know nothing about and think buying every up is going to force their way to the top. Sony knows entertainment they have produced movies and music for years and video games. Microsoft is a software company trying to monopoly its way to the top in areas it don't know nothing about or even in touch with its gaming community.

"There's so many competition regulators that have to give us the go ahead before we're willing to tell people it will be exclusive"

@PixelDragon or…. The cheaper option… get an Xbox…?

@Triumph741 or get an Xbox as well as your PlayStation?….

As mentioned in the Starfield thread,that "Gamer" Phil Spencer is acting in the same prerehearsed wishy washy double speak spin like he did prior to the Zenimax Bethesda buyout under oath is no surprise.

What is a concern is the presiding judge overruled the line of questioning from the FTC when it tried to press Phil Spencer on previously 3rd party games away from COD published by Activision continuing to get PS versions like Diablo...it would've presented the perfect opportunity to highlight his public statements like "game by game basis",or "we're not about taking games away from other players/platforms" bs & contrasting his actions in cancelling PS versions of Redfall,Starfield etc.

As it is,even his "under oath I say there will be a PS version...a PS5 version of COD"..note he didn't guarantee how many future versions,nor anything beyond current gen,or indeed beyond the current deal Sony has with Activision...you need to sift through Gamer Phil's legal bs spin to note what he doesn't say just like when they were waiting for the Zenimax buyout ink to dry!

There is zero chance of Elder Scrolls getting a PS port. Gamer Phil loves to portray the persona of pro gamer but Microsoft's history of flexing its money & strong arm tactics in every other area of operation be it Windows,Office,Azure,A.I etc speaks for itself.

I think I'll start investing in a gaming PC so that I can keep up with the shifting landscape of MS exclusives. I have a feeling that might be my core platform in the next three to four years or so, since a number of Sony games and all (as far as I'm aware) MS games usually end up on PC anyway.

@Lexluther23 Sony could easily. They have made FPS games in the past that are easily superior to current Call of Duty (older Call of Duty during the Xbox 360/PS3 era was genuinely great for a time) like Killzone 2 and 3 or the Resistance games. At least from a single player perspective, but they could easily have Bungie work on the multiplayer side of things and have another studio develop the single player portion if they wanted.

The problem is Sony doesn't seem to care to develop their own FPS games at all anymore, evident by how they let both of their major FPS franchises die without any sign of either being resurrected.

The other problem being Call of Duty. They could release a game of a solider sitting on a porto-potty pooping in the middle of a battleground, and as long as it has Call of Duty in the name millions would buy it. Anything Sony would create at this point, regardless of quality, would only sell a fraction of that. It's an unfortunate fact with society at this point, but I do still think Sony should try at this point regardless. They became like Xbox in a sense and just relied on a proven already established franchise in Call of Duty and let other franchises die in the process.

@LightningLeader Xbox can. It's how they are going about it and how their own incompetence is why they even need to. Most of Sony's exclusives are from developers they have owned for a long time, and even a handful of developers they created themselves. Microsoft completely squandered all of their momentum from the Xbox 360 generation, relying on a handful of established franchises that they milked to near death, and are now in turn buying up huge publishers. All that and how they are artifically painting themselves as the victim here when it's mostly their own incompetence that has put themselves in this position, not just Sony's aggressiveness.

"Your honor, PlayStation was going to make Starfield exclusive, so we had no choice but to buy the entire publisher and make all their future games exclusive."

• Good guy Microsoft.

Just release the game on all platforms it's not rocket science 😂

@Texan_Survivor This is the only real way to handle this.

I for one am not bothered if any more elder scrolls games dont release on the playstation. I played morrow wind on the pc (did not really like it) and i played oblivion on the xbox 360 (loved it) and i bought the anniversary edition on the pc (loved it even more). I bought skyrim on the ps3 and i really struggled with it because it was piss poor performance wise. The pc version was where it was at and still is (sorry but the ps5 native version is a cheap ass lazy port). I'm fed up to the back teeth of all this bethesda crap and to be honest i think we are better off any way as all bethesdas games are over rated bug ridden messes..

Not being able to play a game sucks, but it's the business. However I really think it's gonna be a pain when the final game in MachineGames Wolfenstein trilogy is exclusive.

A new game is more acceptable

It wont, there you go. There are other games out there. Go support those.

@kuu_nousee Oh my sweet summer child. Bethesda doesn't have a say.
Microsoft bought Bethesda and is trying to buy Activision to stifle competition. They are not for making unit sales, they are to corner the market and give consumers no choice. At that point comes the money making where they raise prices on their online only services once you have nowhere else to go. That is the ultimate plan. They don't want to compete or make money from game sales. They want to remove competition and charge exorbitant prices for subscription services with no alternative. They want a monopoly.

I am surprised you buy into the corporate speak. They aren't being honest.
ES6 will be an exclusive. Believe it. They don't care that it will sell millions less, just like Starfield will. They care that it isn't on rivals hardware or services.

@Northern_munkey They are buggies. That's why I play them on pc because the mods fix alot of it amd increase the games longevity .

I mean I don’t expect it to. PlayStation always got the worst version Bethesda games. Skyrim on PS3 had unacceptable latency and framerate issues. Skyrim and Fallout 4 on PS4 and PS5 has the worst mods (You can thank Sony’s anti-modding policy for that one). Plus Xbox always bought DLC timed exclusivity. So it’s not the biggest loss.

Still as someone who is currently obsessively trying to 100% Skyrim on every platform I’d be happy to see it on PS5 too. Even if it would be a vastly inferior version (Again, because of Sony).

I don’t like Xbox hoovering up studios but where Bethesda is concerned better them than Sony who just never seemed to “get” why Bethesda games have such a long life

@Nem Interesting how so many people believe what you believe: Microsoft is here to end competition. They just want to stick around in the gaming space in a platform capacity, they were last to launch of the 3 still in the console making business.

As far as Bethesda doesn't have a say, they are just like Bungie at PlayStation. They both do (they are outside the Xbox and Playstation structure) and can both release games to other platforms. Not sure why this isn't more known. Will Sony/Microsoft ask them to make exclusives sometimes too? Sure from both companies.

Buy into the corporate speak? No, I'm more in the logical camp. When I said "could" or "consider" happen that means can not all will for games coming to other platforms. As far as Bungie they are bringing Marathon to Xbox. Also Microsoft stated in court the plan for The Outer Worlds 2 still isn't set either, which means it could come to PlayStation. And Obsidian is within the Xbox Games Studios structure unlike Bethesda too.

My point is just like Microsoft is having to testify here in court about games that are in flux and they don't have definite answers yet, mostly due to development cost/time so how do you tell a court/FTC/Sony/the world your plan when a game is 2-5 years away? You're also borderline giving away your business plan in court for Sony to have and plan accordingly for the rest of PS5s life to navigate easily to gain even more ground on when to launch their exclusive games. Sure that's the risk Microsoft is willing to take this generation but for them it seems worth it for Activision (imo it isn't worth the time for Microsoft to do this as COD, Warcraft, StarCraft & Diablo are aging IPs that will slow down sooner than later).

Would it be nice Sony and Microsoft both had to go to court at the beginning of a console generation and tell us what games will definitely be exclusive for their consoles? Yeah it actually would so people didn't get confused and waste money on an unnecessary box. Unfortunately that's just not how the world works.

Your right there is a bunch of corporate speak and confusion in which Sony & Microsoft wants people guessing what to buy.

@kuu_nousee There is no belief. We know. Microsoft has done it in nearly every other market they are on. To see the gullibility on your view makes it anything but logical. It's more "naive". A complete disregard of Microsoft's actions during It's existance.
Both Microsoft and Sony can exert their dominance in the companies just like Kotick's ABK does on Blizzard. They merely have to enforce new policy and fire whoever is not a "yes man".

"Earlier in the court hearing, the executive had said that Microsoft bought Bethesda in the first place to block Sony from securing timed console exclusivity on Starfield."

Buying exclusive content (a game or DLC) is an standard all console manufacture's have done this for generations. But what is out of the norm is buying a publisher to actively hurt your competition, this information could hurt Microsoft deal and rightfully so.

@LightningLeader

"Why is Xbox not allowed exclusives? Where's all the outcry over ps exclusives coming to Xbox?"

Microsoft just like Sony have always have had exclusives, wether Microsoft has published 1st/2nd party exclusives or brought 3rd party exclusives they've always had exclusives. Sony does release game's on other platforms like Xbox for example.

What Spencer means by "not understanding the platforms" is that he hopes to have Game Pass on PlayStation by the time TES6 releases.

Microsoft is a software and services company first and foremost. The hardware is a bump on the way, and the Xbox division would actually love to become just that: a software and services brand.

Sure, Sony would not allow GP on PlayStation as long as the Xbox console exists. But if Microsoft drops the machine, why wouldn't they?

It's pretty simple - the answer is "No, it's not coming to PlayStation, obviously, but we won't say that definitively right now because we're trying to convince the courts to let us buy Activision and we don't want to admit (yet) we're buying them to turn everything exclusive because that might prevent the deal from going through. Ask us again after the deal is closed."

@TheCollector316

"Your honor, PlayStation was going to make Starfield [temporarily] exclusive, so we had no choice but to buy the entire publisher and make all their future games [permanently] exclusive."

Fixed it for you.

@MattBoothDev no I agree consumers do suffer. The regulators need to be more tougher on all acquisitions as Microsoft is only reacting to what it's competitors are up to.

@cragis0001 I mean, no?

Microsoft aren't reacting to what their competition is up to because neither Sony nor Nintendo have bought an entire publisher (Zenimax) and attempting to buy another (ActivisionBlizzard).

Neither Sony nor Nintendo are in a position to spend $69bn on acquisitions. Sony's operating revenue is $8bn. Sony's market cap is $80bn. Microsoft are trying to spend almost the same amount of cash that Sony is worth.

If you mean acquisitions of studios, it's worth considering that they do fall under the scrutiny of regulators and they're passed because a single studio is small scale in terms of affect on the market and industry.

So if Microsoft are reacting to the competition in terms of the competition buying studios and development teams, then the correct reaction would be a similar purchase of a studio, not an entire publisher that owns several studios.

That and Sony didn't start buying up things like Housemarques (a single studio) or Bluepoint (another single studio) or Bungie (again...) Until Microsoft started getting the cheque book out.

There's just no justification for this that's possible. The fact is that Microsoft is a juggernaught in this industry and with the Microsoft fortune behind it, it could spend Sony and Nintendo out of business. Hell, they've even said as much, as has come to light over these court proceedings.

This deal should be blocked, or, Xbox needs to split from Microsoft to prevent anti-trust and anti-consumer issues arising.

@MattBoothDev Microsoft have said many times they see other companies as competitors like Amazon, Google etc. So Microsoft is reacting to it's competitors as I'd imagine when it comes to acquisition they'd class Tencent, Embracer & others as competitors.
Why don't you start at the beginning of the original PlayStation as it answers two points. Sony on its own started there tale when it came to gaming with buying a publisher. Psygnosis. & Before you complain gaming was different beast then? Yes it was but what they payed then was still a lot of money & it made PlayStation No1 in less than 2 years in the EU/US. Sony did then what Microsoft is doing now which was buy up what it needed to compete which was studios, talent & 3rd party exclusives. Don't believe for one second Sony is any different than Microsoft as they patted themselves on the back very well when Atari collapsed & Sega announced they were finished in consoles. I don't believe Sony is going anywhere but previous management always warned that poking the bear was unwise.

Sony bought Psygnosis before they even had released the PlayStation and before we even had Windows 95 😂 getting ridiculous now