Microsoft Acquires Zenimax Media (Bethesda)

[Marcello]

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Welcoming the Talented Teams and Beloved Game Franchises of Bethesda to Xbox

Today is a special day, as we welcome some of the most accomplished studios in the games industry to Xbox. We are thrilled to announce Microsoft has entered into an agreement to acquire ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

As one of the largest, most critically acclaimed, privately held game developers and publishers in the world, Bethesda is an incredibly talented group of 2,300 people worldwide who make up some of the most accomplished creative studios in our industry across Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios. These are the teams responsible for franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, DOOM, Dishonored, Prey, Quake, Starfield and many more.

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We will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. One of the things that has me most excited is seeing the roadmap with Bethesda’s future games, some announced and many unannounced, to Xbox console and PC including Starfield, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/21/welcoming-bethesda-to-the-xbox-family/

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Why Microsoft Is the Perfect Fit

And if you haven’t had a chance to read what Phil Spencer and Todd Howard shared in their posts this morning, be sure to check them both out.
When you work at a place as long as I’ve worked at Bethesda – just a month short of 21 years – you see some things. Chief amongst them is change. When I started, Bethesda was not much more than a handful of people. The team working on Morrowind fit in a couple of offices, and there were probably six or seven of us spread across everything else.

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But the key point is we’re still Bethesda. We’re still working on the same games we were yesterday, made by the same studios we’ve worked with for years, and those games will be published by us.

So why the change? Because it allows us to make even better games going forward. Microsoft is an incredible partner and offers access to resources that will make us a better publisher and developer. We believe that means better games for you to play. Simply put - we believe that change is an important part of getting better. We believe in pushing ourselves to be better. To innovate. To grow.

And, we have a long history of working with Microsoft. Our companies share many of the same basic principles. We believe in a culture that values passion, quality, collaboration, and innovation. When I think back to the first time we decided to shift from being a PC-only developer and make Morrowind for the original Xbox, it was a move that countless people said would never work…nobody on consoles wanted a game that big and complex. But Microsoft believed in us and so did you. And now RPGs of all shapes and sizes are hugely successful on consoles.

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I believe in the people I work with. I believe in the company we have created together. I believe in the communities that have formed around the games we make. And I believe today’s announcement is just the next in a long line of changes in our history that will lead to bigger and better games for all of us.

Pete Hines
SVP, Global Marketing and Communications

https://bethesda.net/en/article/1iLtcvwY6Nb1GeKADyDUEX/why-microsoft-is-the-perfect-fit

More at both links

Purchased for 7.5 billion Dollars. (3x as much as Mojang/Minecraft! Nearly double Lucasfilm!)https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1308028640488292352?s=20https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1308028640488292352?s=20

Wow, never expected Microsoft to acquire such a big company. And once current agreements are over it means stuff like Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Doom will be Xbox/PC exclusives. Crazy.

Personally, I'd have preferred a Japanese company like Level 5 for Microsoft as it's an area they're sorely lacking. Level 5 hasn't exactly been making the best decisions as of the last few years, so it'd be nice before they die. Though, I guess they did get Tango with this purchase.

[KHCast]

Microsoft basically is wanting to be video games Disney, and I’m groaning. They were on a role lately in regards to customer friendly practices, so this...is definitely a combo breaker that goes against all that talk about wanting to break down walls. 
 

I can only hope this will be like Minecraft, where all the games are still distributed on all systems going forward, but idk. Then again, personally, I’ve had a hard time giving a shit about Bethesda’s actual output lately, so I’ll eventually get over this.

[Blue Blood]

I don't play any Bethesda games, and I haaaaaaaaaaaate this. It's such a shitty thing for consumers. Bethesda is a huge company, serving people on all platforms. This acquisition is totally unnecessary, and just adds to the list of franchises/brands that Microsoft has effectively taken away from the rest of the gaming world. 

[Conando]

I’m kind of viewing it as the inevitable conclusion when Sony and Microsoft started throwing money around for console/timed exclusives. Anti-consumerism begets more Anti-consumerism.

[KHCast]

God if I hear one more person get defensive about Microsoft and be a corporate shill and go “it’s just business stop complaining” to me for criticizing this, I’m gonna break something. I’ve gotten that so many times over the last 24 hours, I’m baffled we as a gaming community were even able to rally against bad anti-consumer practices like microtransactions, lootboxes and one time online passes.