Microsoft has made official the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Game Studios, iD Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios. All the game development studios and their IPs will now be integrated into Xbox Game Studios.
“Our goal is to give these teams the best foundation for doing their greatest work and to learn from them as we continue to build Xbox into an inclusive platform for all players,” Phil Spencer, head of Xbox and executive VP of gaming at Microsoft, said on a blog post.
“This is the next step in building an industry-leading first-party studios team, a commitment we have to our Xbox community. With the addition of the Bethesda creative teams, gamers should know that Xbox consoles, PC, and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games, including some new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.”
In a different statement, Pete Hines—SVP of PR & Marketing at Bethesda Softwork referred to the acquisition as “the beginning of a new chapter”, an emotional video was released as part of the beginning of a new chapter of Bethesda and the videogame industry.
“First, let me say that we’re not making any landmark announcements or changes right now,” Hines told Bethesda fans. “As we’ve all shared, the expectation is that Bethesda Softworks and our studios will continue as we have in the past, just with more support and resources than we’ve ever had before.”
Xbox confirmed that their next step is building an industry-leading first-party studios team, as the commitment of putting players at the center, and as expected, it was also confirmed that some new titles in the future will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.
In recent news from Microsoft, the tech giant has created a new division called Vault, a subsidiary of Xbox that will oversee ZeniMax Media’s assets.
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