Bethesda Is Showing Its Strength in Microsoft’s Portfolio and That’s Really Encouraging, Says Phil Spencer

On September 21st, 2020, Microsoft announced it had reached an agreement to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of renowned publisher and developer Bethesda, for $7.5 billion. The deal was finalized in early March 2021. However, Microsoft had to wait until this year to get its first exclusive games from Bethesda due to prior limited-time console exclusivity agreements signed with PlayStation for Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop.

Speaking in an interview published a few hours ago on IGN, Microsoft Gaming CEO said he was really encouraged by the strength that Bethesda is finally going to show within Microsoft’s portfolio.

Redfall and Starfield are really important games, every first-party game that we’re building is. In terms of the growth of Game Pass, it’s been steady. And as we’re adding new games and sequels to games, we see the continued growth. Sometimes, the growth is in games that we expected, and then every so often a Vampire Survivors or now a Hi-Fi Rush comes along and creates its own excitement. So sometimes you can predict the games that are going to drive excitement, and sometimes you get surprised. And I like that about our industry — that great games can come from many different places.

For us, we obviously closed the ZeniMax acquisition a couple years ago, seeing that Bethesda, ZeniMax being the parent company, is shipping a Hi-Fi Rush, shipping Redfall, has the Elder Scrolls Online update, shipping Starfield…that these games are coming this year. And we’ve started the year off with our first launch into Xbox and PC, Game Pass. I’m just really encouraged by the strength that Bethesda’s going to show in our portfolio, and we’re starting to see it already in 2023, and that’s exciting.

Indeed, this year’s Xbox lineup seems to be largely carried by Bethesda studios like Tango Gameworks (whose surprise release Hi-Fi Rush is doing amazingly well after the shadow drop at the Developer Direct), Arkane (Redfall now has a launch date of May 2nd), and BGS with its massively anticipated new IP Starfield.

Other Bethesda studios could be gearing up to unveil their own projects at some point in 2023. MachineGames has been silent for nearly four years now after releasing Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot. The studio is known to be working on a new Indiana Jones game, although in late 2018, Bethesda VP of Marketing Pete Hines also pretty much confirmed Wolfenstein III.

Roundhouse Studios hasn’t shared anything since its foundation in late 2019, and no leaks appeared to indicate what they might be working on. id Software could be cooking up something ready to show in the near future, too, since almost four years have passed from the launch of Rage 2 and nearly three from DOOM Eternal. Last but not least, ZeniMax Online Studios has been building a new IP for about five years.

Which of these upcoming Bethesda games are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments.