Why is this important you may ask?
This represents one of the biggest deals in video game history and brings one of the worlds biggest publishers into the Microsoft Game Studios family. It also means a great deal for players as well, as it’s hard to find a gamer who hasn’t heard of, or played, a game from the Fallout or Elder Scrolls series amongst the rest of their IP’s such as Prey, Dishonoured or Wolfenstein. This deal will give Microsoft the ability to add these fine games to it's Game Pass offering it to players on a more permanent basis rather than the temporary basis that some games end up with.
This purchase will also increase the number of Studio Teams under the Microsoft umbrella from 15 to 23. This is an interesting fact to note as while these teams are based within Microsoft’s subsidiary’s, it means the experiences gained from each can be used to enhance the other’s games. Plus, we could also see other studios working on the main Bethesda franchises (Please let Obsidian make another West Coast fallout game, just saying).
The history between Microsoft and Bethesda is not a new one, as in recent years the Xbox was one of the first launch platforms to allow mods within Fallout 4 on Xbox One. This was a major turning point for the game as it reduced the gap slightly between the PC and console versions offering the console players the freedom to add more to their experience, just as their friends on PC.
It would not be just this shared developer experience, but consider back when they were developing Morrowind for the Xbox. Bethesda had to find a way to be able to cope with the size of the game on Microsoft's older console, and for this, the Microsoft team showed them how to restart the console, while keeping the game running so the user wouldn’t
Bethesda SVP, Global Marketing
and Communications Pete Hines be aware. This new technique allowed them to be able to clear out the memory on the console to keep the game running; although to the player, it just felt like a long load sequence.
Both companies share some of the same principles as communicated with us by SVP, Global Marketing and Communications Pete Hines when they made THIS announcement about the merger on the Bethesda website.
Overall, none of us know what the future will hold for both Microsoft, Bethesda and us as players. Will we still see the stellar releases of games similar to Fallout 4? Will we keep getting new IP’s being developed which intrigue us like Prey and Starfield? I certainly hope so, as these are the things that make it enjoyable to watch what Bethesda and Zenimax do, especially as there are very few companies with as much experience in wide, open world RPG games as they have.
All I would ask, is please ensure we are continuing to be entertained by some of the strange quirks we see from Bethesda games. They always give us a laugh and can be as enjoyable as the unbuggy experience.
After all, is it really a Bethesda game if there is not at least one game breaking bug?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
WRITTEN BY Chris Wilkinson
EDITED BY Silek
