Microsoft wants future Bethesda games to be first or best on Xbox, says CFO

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/microsoft-wants-future-bethesda-games-to-be-first-or-best-on-xbox-says-cfo/

Speaking at the Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference last week, Xbox chief financial officer Tim Stuart discussed how Microsoft intends to handle the release of Bethesda Softworks games once the Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Doom publisher becomes a first-party company.

...

“What we’ll do in the long run is we don’t have intentions of just pulling all of Bethesda content out of Sony or Nintendo or otherwise,” Stuart said (transcribed by Seeking Alpha).

“But what we want is we want that content, in the long run, to be either first or better or best or pick your differentiated experience, on our platforms. We will want Bethesda content to show up the best as — on our platforms.

“Yes. That’s not a point about being exclusive. That’s not a point about we’re being — adjusting timing or content or road map. But if you think about something like Game Pass, if it shows up best in Game Pass, that’s what we want to see, and we want to drive our Game Pass subscriber base through that Bethesda pipeline.

“So again, I’m not announcing pulling content from platforms one way or the other,” Stuart continued. “But I suspect you’ll continue to see us shift towards a first or better or best approach on our platforms.”

Who's surprised? Raise your hands!

Not surprised, complete PR answer.

And you missed the most important line

"“So again, I’m not announcing pulling content from platforms one way or the other,”"

We are in the same space as we were in when the acquisition was announced. We literally don't know what they are going to do with their newly acquired IPs. The only thing that is certain, is PC and Xbox.

Sure if you cut off the rest of his answer

"But I suspect you’ll continue to see us shift towards a first or better or best approach on our platforms.”

This is their intention. Whether they'll doing that or not is yet to be seen.

True, but it's a PR answer that leans toward a potential approach that's likely to happen.

Surprised? I predicted it.

As I said, everything about the acquisition tells me Sony and Nintendo were not on Microsoft's mind when they bought Bethesda. They bought Bethesda to ward off Google and Amazon, not to compete with Sony. Letting their games go to other consoles after a timed exclusivity period would not hurt the real focus of their strategy, which is Game Pass.

He gave a non answer. I doubt he can even give any real details about a deal that isn't even done yet. All that you can glean from this is they'll prioritize their platforms, which was a given in the first place.

Been saying these games will come out on PS, probably as timed exclusives for Xbox first. At least that's sure what it sounds like he's saying.

Well certainly not a surprising comment. It also wouldn’t surprise at all to see them put all future Bethesda content on their own platforms ie. Xbox and PC either. They want people in their ecosystem so making that the only way to play those games makes perfect sense.

He said not pulling content, so by that i take it he means the Bethesda content that is already for the PS4/5 & Switch.

He clearly says that they want to use Bethesda content to drive Game Pass sales, and they can't do that by giving Sony any of the new games.

Really what Spencer should have said when he announced the buy out is that they can't talk about anything in relation to Bethesda until the sale goes through, that way you wouldn't get so many mixed messages.

I'm still in the camp that they won't go to the PS5. Time will tell.

@i_p_daily: "But what we want is we want that content, in the long run, to be either first or better or best or pick your differentiated experience, on our platforms."

How can a game be "first", "better", or "best" without being on other platforms?

Edit: "He clearly says that they want to use Bethesda content to drive Game Pass sales, and they can't do that by giving Sony any of the new games."

Yes they can. Playing a game for free if you already have gamepass vs paying $60-$70 is definitely a way to draw gamers to gamepass.

Lol, You are going to be really sad when these games aren't on PS5.

Well Android is not their platform now is it?

Also how do you grow GP using Bethesda's content by putting your games on PS?

This is not confirmation either way, but you and others are celebrating it as confirmation.

Until MS comes out and says all future Bethesda games are coming to PS5 then that thinking is a fallacy. Like i said time will tell.

First is fine as long as it's not permanent exclusive.

@i_p_daily: I edited my reply... but like I said, gamepass day one vs $60-$70 is enough to get many people on gamepass.

@fedor: Not really. Never played a doom game. Only played a little of Skyrim and hated it. Never played any fallout game.

Oh, well you won't miss them then if they aren't on PS.

That statement doesn't say anything about platforms that are not theirs. You are trying to read more into it than it is actually offering.

The problem is that if they give cows access to the games on the PS5 they are never going to switch over, cows have shown by the lack of complaining that you guys are happy to pay now US $70 for games, we call you cows for a reason.

You need a reason to move, exclusivity is that reason, and i'm not talking about selling the PS5, i'm talking about buying an Xbox also to play the games on...oh wait i forgot cows all have superior PC's to the SeX...

even if this was the case you would still be subscribing to GP lol.

what? So what does a first or better or best approach on our platforms mean? If they were leaning towards exclusivity, this part of the sentence would make no sense.

"...best approach on our platforms".

The best approach may turn out to be not to release on other platforms.

Wonder if they will have the devs intentionally nerf PS5 versions.

That literally can be taken as a move towards focusing solely on their platform. This ambiguity is the same since they announced the acquisition. I really don't care which way they go because the most important portion is not in question and that is PC and Xbox support. I will leave Sony fannies to speculate on ports.

Keep hope alive........

Sony needs to pay, that's all. No more movie games.

Imagine wasting 7.5 billion buying a publisher, and still being wishy washy on where to place that content. 😂 Sometimes I feel this is a lame form of antagonizing.

Imagine someone on forum who doesn't run a multi trillion dollar company believes he knows best.😂🤣

Imagine spending 44k posts carrying water for said trillion dollar company. 😂

Bethesda was waste of money their ips are not what they used to be in the ps3 and x360 time. They should have invested that money in expending their team they have now and buying few smaller developers and investing that money in new ips. All they accomplished is losing the millions of fans of Bethesda games on the PlayStation platform if their games go exclusive to pc and Xbox.

Ok Phlop Spencer.

@Pedro said:

Ok Phlop Spencer.

Okay every X-alt on the board. We can probably boost that to 80k when we count all your sock accounts

Sounds about right

They will go exclusive, no Q about it

They will obviously come day one in gamepass then 6 months to a year on ps5.

Cool, but I think their games are amongst the shittest in the industry.

regardless. if Xbox hating cows want to play these games they pay

your MS bitches now

hah

They probably have to be wishy washy until next year when the deal is competed and they actually own the studios.

I'm sure that's when Phil will tell the other platforms to go f themselves.

Imo they have a multitude of viable approaches, so anything we'll say it just unfounded speculation.

Now, if I was MS I would absolutely keep most games multiplatform, with occasionally the odd exclusive. Having Bethesda games on Playstation would be a way to have PS users financing Gamepass and on top of that the most effective marketing for Gamepass in it self. Are you a Playstation user? Fine, you can get our games at $70 a pop or you can subscribe to the service. It's a win win. And on occasion maybe make a title exclusive just for those players playing hard to get.

I really don't see the point of making those games exclusives in the short/medium turn. IF Gamepass eventually becomes big enough then that's when you start to be more aggressive with exclusivity.

For Xbox/PC fans it's....

:P

@ghost_of_phobos: I agree.

I could be wrong about this but I thought MS was in talks with Sony adding Game Pass onto PS5? (Nintendo) I would assume Phil will still get a cut out of it when GP is available to all platforms thus adding Bethesda games as well. Sounds like a smart move of a loophole.

@BenjaminBanklin: It is known that unlike you Phlop, I don't do alts. Only losers like yourself participate in that activity.😂🤣

@ghost_of_phobos: Yep, this is exactly what I think will happen too.

MS is going to need to sell these games somewhere at some point. Playstation market is huge and attractive with the raised software price. If things don't change much, xbox is not competitive enough its hard to ignore Bethesda games on playstation. It makes sense they will use them to compete first.

Not a biggie but I see this too much, it's an old mindset when it comes to MS. Xbox/PC is where MS is now so it's all not contingent on Xbox sales, it's Xbox/PC sales combined.

Just saying. that's a big factor this gen when compared to MS's previous gens when it comes to MS 1st party games and sales. Throw GamePass subs and xCloud in the mix and it really is far from black and white. ;)

Another blow up in Lems faces. As long as they come to PS5, there's no reason to have a series X. Get ready for another rough generation Lems.

Stop calling me Phlop, dumbass. I don't need an alt to confront anybody on this board. It's just video games, broke brain. Anybody that disagrees with you is not me. You're all the way fucking weird

They want to entice people to the value of a $15/month subscription that includes their first party games or they can pay $60 a game to get it elsewhere.

At best, they should hope they work.

@SecretPolice:

It has been Xbox/PC for MS for a while now. Yet there still a stubborn console market out there that playstation occupies the biggest software share. If that does not change its hard to ignore. Technically the deal is meant to change things make MS compete more in the packaged console market. Think of it this way even sony sees that they need to put there games on pc. These days its hard to give up potential sales. There communication seems to acknowledge that. If what they have is enough they would be very clear when it comes to the deal. They have not been consistence.