Microsoft Buys ZeniMax

Last week, Microsoft’s $7.5B acquisition of multimedia corporation ZeniMax was finalized. This brought the major game publisher Bethesda, best known for their Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, into the Xbox family. The acquisition also includes Id Software (Doom), Avalanche Studios (Rage), ZeniMax Online Studios (Elder Scrolls Online), Arkane (Dishonored, Deathloop), MachineGames (Wolfenstein and an upcoming Indiana Jones game), Tango Gameworks (Ghostwire: Tokyo), Alpha Dog (Wraithborne) and Roundhouse Studios (Prey).

Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, announced that previous exclusivity deals will be honored and game communities will be supported, regardless of platform. Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, for example, are still set to be PS5 exclusives. It’s worth noting that Xbox owns Minecraft, yet it continues to thrive on all of its platforms. He further explained that this acquisition adds more titles and value to the Xbox Game Pass service.* Phil Spencer has committed that all of Microsoft’s first party titles will be available on Game Pass, including new releases, and this naturally extends to the ZeniMax acquisition. To mark the occasion, Xbox made 20 games available on Game Pass on Friday. (Some were already available to Xbox Game Pass, but not PC Game Pass.) Additionally, five titles were revealed to support the new “FPS Boost” feature on Series X/S, which boosts framerates from 30 fps to 60 fps and grants HDR support to older titles. This included Dishonored: Definitive Edition, Fallout 4, Skyrim: Special Edition, Fallout 76, and Prey.

I celebrated this weekend by playing some old favorites (Fallout 4, Fallout ’76, and Fallout New Vegas) and trying Dishonored for the first time. To say that I am a fan of Fallout is a bit of an understatement. So far, I really enjoy playing Dishonored, a game I now regret not playing before, so much that I might even write up a review! I can’t wait to get more information on future releases like Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI, though I suspect they won’t be available for a few more years. I’m also curious to see if Xbox/Bethesda will resume any R&D with VR, as both have a history with the technology. In the meantime, I am thrilled to have all these games available on Xbox!

*Xbox console owners are required to pay a monthly subscription fee for online gaming and other benefits, called Xbox Live, though PC gamers are not. Both console and PC gamers can subscribe to Game Pass, a separate benefit that grants them access to a huge library of Xbox titles, across both platforms, and the xCloud streaming service. Savvy customers subscribe to “Xbox Ultimate” which includes both Xbox Live and Game Pass.