Xbox has acquires Bethesda for £5.85bn

Microsoft who owns Xbox has acquired Bethesda, the games company behind super hits game titles including Doom, Fallout, Skyrim, and Wolfenstein, for £5.85bn ( $7.5bn) by paying the parent company ZeniMax Media.  Xbox has said that the publisher’s franchises would be added to its Game Pass subscription package for consoles and PCs which would help the forthcoming Xbox Series X more attractive than the Playstation 5, both due to launch in November 2020. Game Pass already gives players access to over 200 games. Microsoft includes first-party titles at the point of launch to those signed up to its “ultimate” package without further cost.

In the meanwhile, Sony has opted to charge players up to £70 for its own major releases and does not intend to include new titles in its Playstation Plus Collection service.

Bethesda’s work in progress projects like The Elder Scrolls6, Starfield, and other unfinished games as cross-platform titles will be affected by the takeover.

Phil Spencer, Xbox’s CEO said the two firms “shared similar visions for the opportunities for creators and their games to reach more players in more ways”.

Pete Hynes, Senior vice president at Bethesda Softworks said the deal offered “ access to resources that will make us a better games publisher and developer”.