It’s been a huge couple of days for Microsoft, with its recent acquisition of the gaming company Bethesda and the Xbox Series X/Sbreaking pre-order sales records. Given that Microsoft and Bethesda are both so big, plenty of people in the games industry have their thoughts to weigh in on the sale, including the founder of Bethesda himself.
Since news of the acquisition broke, fans and analysts have been intent on finding out what is a Microsoft property now and what isn’t, and big names likeTodd Howard himself have spoken about the mergerand what it means for both companies' future. Many players are curious about how Microsoft will addressBethesda’sThe Elder Scrolls 6and theFalloutseries, especially in relation to the games' performance on Xbox consoles.
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Christopher Weaver is Bethesda’s founder and was one of the Executive Producers of the originalThe Elder Scrollsgame. Although Weaver doesn’t directly control any of Bethesda or parent company ZeniMax’s operations anymore, he still has some thoughts about theMicrosoft/Bethesda mergeras well as the future of next-gen consoles, which he shared in an interview with Inverse. Weaver describes the acquisition as “extremely interesting,” and compliments his brainchild, Bethesda, as having a ton of experience with entertainment.
Weaver notes that a lot of video games companies, includingMicrosoft, are thriving in the pandemicdue to high numbers of video games sales, and says that this merger could benefit both companies as Bethesda brings Microsoft its experience and creativity, and Microsoft brings Bethesda its funding and resources.
Bethesda’s founder seems confident in Microsoft’s abilities to let Bethesda do its thing in creating good games, and shouldn’t overstep its bounds when it comes to games in popular franchises likeThe Elder Scrolls, and that general good practice is to keep executives out of the creative process until the product nears release. This merger shouldn’t come as a surprise, according to both Weaver and Todd Howard, who claim that Bethesda has had a very good relationship with Microsoft for over twenty years.
Phil Spencer, head of the Xbox brand, saysMicrosoft is concerned with more than just console sales, and it looks like this Bethesda acquisition is an attempt to have even more skin in the production and development game for video games, so to speak. The merger is already serving Microsoft well, as the Xbox Game Pass is seeing a massive increase in value ever since the news of the Bethesda acquisition broke.
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