Hammer announcement from Microsoft: The company is buying Bethesda and Zenimax.
This means that games from the "Elder Scrolls" and "Fallout" series as well as many other titles are included in Xbox Game Pass.
Pre-orders for the Xbox Series X and Series S * have begun.
Microsoft has given fans a good reason to really look forward to the next-gen console.
Because on Monday, the company surprisingly dropped the big bomb:
Microsoft is buying Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax
.
Bethesda is the publisher of games like "
Skyrim
", "
Fallout
" and "
Doom
".
In combination with in-house games such as “
Halo
” and “
Gears of War
”, the Xbox Game Pass and the Xbox Series X have literally become the most attractively priced offer for gamers overnight.
Microsoft paid $ 7.5 billion for Zenimax and Bethesda
Microsoft has put on the table an incredible sum for the acquisition: Whole
7
,
5 billion
-
dollars
.
With this fee, Microsoft receives Bethesda
including the associated studios
.
These include:
Bethesda Game Studios
("The Elder Scrolls VI", "Fallout", "Starfield")
id software
("Doom", "Quake")
Arkane Studios
("Deathloop", "Dishonored")
Zenimax Online
("The Elder Scrolls Online", "Fallout 76")
MachineGames
("Wolfenstein" series since 2014)
Tango Gameworks
("The Evil Within", "Ghostwire: Tokyo")
Roundhouse Studios
(formerly Head Studios; "Rune 2", "Brink", "Prey")
Alpha Dog Games
("MonstroCity: Rampage")
Xbox Game Pass: Microsoft is expanding "Netflix for games"
This is one of the biggest acquisitions and not just in video game history.
For comparison: Disney bought the rights to "Star Wars" in 2012 for $ 4.05 billion.
The fact that Microsoft is investing almost twice as much to buy Bethesda
illustrates the company's strategy
: A membership program needs sufficient content.
This is exactly what has been questioned about Xbox Game Pass in the past few weeks and months.
But the announcement of the Bethesda acquisition came right on time just before the start of pre-orders for the Xbox Series X - a clever move by Microsoft.
The Xbox Game Pass will in
future include every game from Bethesda and the studios listed above
, including the eagerly awaited “
The Elder Scrolls IV
” - at no additional cost for subscribers.
And that is exactly why Bethesda is so valuable to Microsoft and so interesting to gamers.
Bethesda games exclusively for Xbox and PC?
+
"The Elder Scrolls VI" will be the next offshoot in the successful RPG series.
© Bethesda
It is still unclear whether hotly awaited games like "
The Elder Scrolls IV
" or "
Starfield
" will not appear for the Playstation 5 at all.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently emphasized that the strategy is not to offer games exclusively for platforms.
These should be made available to as many people as possible, regardless of whether they are playing on the Xbox Series X, an older console or on the PC.
It is still unclear whether this also applies to the consoles of the competition.
Games like "The Elder Scrolls IV" or "Starfield" may no longer appear for the Playstation 5 at all.
It is more likely, however, that these titles will be available exclusively for Microsoft's gaming platforms and only some time later for other consoles.
Also read
: Xbox Series X games: These games appear for the Microsoft console.
Xbox Game Pass
Even if the games for Xbox Series X and PS5 are launched at the same time, the Xbox Game Pass is much more attractive here, as subscribers get access to PC and console for around 13 euros a month.
Meanwhile, Playstation fans must expect that new AAA titles will cost up to 80 euros.
How exactly Microsoft will proceed remains to be seen.
According to Bloomberg, the Bethesda takeover should be finalized by the second half of fiscal 2021.
The colleagues from ingame.de also report on the Bethesda takeover of Microsoft.
(Ök) * tz.de and ingame.de are part of the nationwide Ippen digital editorial network.
Also interesting
: PS5 or Xbox Series X?
For whom which console is best suited.
Source: Microsoft press release
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