Bethesda’s games may not be exclusive, according to Microsoft’s CFO

Since Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda was confirmed, there have been many theories about the future of the publisher’s games. Many studios are now part of Xbox Game Studios, but what to do with their licenses has been the subject of most debate. Exclusive or not, their arrival to Xbox Game Pass from the first moment is something that seems undeniable. Now, Microsoft’s CFO, Tim Stuart, would have opened the door to Bethesda’s games being non-exclusive.

It is clear that there is a conflict of interest between what the community “demands” and what is more profitable for Microsoft. There has been a lot of talk about whether games like The Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, DOOM, and others would be profitable if they were released only in the Xbox ecosystem. We cannot ignore that this includes PCs as well. And, in fact, it’s something that could be behind Stuart’s statements, as he talks openly about the exclusivity rights of these licenses.

In response to his statement, Stuart comments that “when we think about Bethesda, it’s going to be to continue to allow – I’ll say allow, but to continue to sell their games on the platforms that exist today, and we’ll determine what is seen over time and will change over time”, where it’s noted that there is interest in each project being able to offer the greatest possible benefit. But to avoid misunderstanding, Stuart also comments that “I’m not making any announcements about exclusivity or anything like that. But that model will change.

To justify this perspective, Stuart admits that “we are one of the first to actually support Minecraft, Roadblock, Fortnite on all platforms. So we really encourage multi-platform gameplay, simply from this perspective of, if it’s good for the game ecosystem, it’s good for us, the classic rising tide lifts all boats”. Because for Stuart, “Microsoft is a platform”, and when he talks about the ecosystem, it can be understood in very different ways depending on how you look at it.

The debate on the desirability of this agreement and how to manage its future projects is conflicting. It is clear that the community wants to be able to enjoy these games as console exclusives. And this is understood from the perspective that Xbox does not stick to Xbox consoles. It also has a significant market on PCs and with its arrival on Steam, it has been further strengthened. Considering that much of Bethesda’s gaming niche is actually on PCs, all this confusion about its arrival on other platforms may be a matter of understanding it one way or another. Phil Spencer said that in order for this deal to be profitable it was not necessary to launch Bethesda’s games on other consoles. Now, the bigger the market share, the bigger the benefits could be.

This is an important dilemma, although only time will tell if they really need to launch the games on Sony and Nintendo platforms, since another question that arises is that one of the clear advantages of this agreement is that it could determine that the games arrive with certain advantages to the Xbox ecosystem hardware, such as a temporary exclusive. An exclusivity that, depending on the expectation, could be either temporary or definitive. But right now it is impossible to predict what the decision will be for each project.