Microsoft has announced that it has agreed to buy ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion USD in cash.
The acquisition of ZeniMax Media will add a raft of the games industry’s top IPs to Microsoft’s portfolio, including The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dishonored, Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake franchises. It would be a major coup for Microsoft – and a source of contention for gamers – if future iterations of those franchises should be published exclusively for Microsoft consoles.
Phil Spencer, executive vice president, Gaming at Microsoft, said: “This is an awesome time to be an Xbox fan. In the last 10 days alone, we’ve released details on our two new consoles which go on pre-order tomorrow, launched cloud gaming in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and now we’re making another investment in the most critical part of our strategy: the games. Generations of gamers have been captivated by the renowned franchises in the Bethesda portfolio and will continue to be so for years to come as part of Xbox.”
ZeniMax Media’s Chairman and CEO, Robert A. Altman, added: “This is a thrilling day for this company, our employees, and our fans. We have enjoyed a close partnership with Microsoft for decades, and this deal is a natural progression of those years working together. The big winners today are our fans. We are continuing to develop our slate of AAA games, but now with Microsoft’s scale and entire Game Stack, our games can only get better.”
Both parties were keen to emphasise that, in the short term, it will be business as usual for ZeniMax Media. Microsoft’s press relase about the acquisition stressed that: “Bethesda’s structure and leadership will remain in place.” In a blogpost, Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks’ SVP, Global Marketing and Communications said: “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.”
One service that featured strongly in Microsoft’s announcement, unsurprisingly, was Xbox Game Pass – the press release said: “With the addition of Bethesda, Microsoft will grow from 15 to 23 creative studio teams and will be adding Bethesda’s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass. This includes Microsoft’s intent to bring Bethesda’s future games into Xbox Game Pass the same day they launch on Xbox or PC.”
ZeniMax Media, with roughly 2,300 employees worldwide and a large portfolio of development studios including, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios, is by far the biggest acquisition Microsoft has made as part of a recent studio-buying spree that encompasses the likes of Obsidian, Ninja Theory and Double Fine.
Whether those studios’ output will in future be restricted on console to the Xbox Series X remains to be seen; but Microsoft now owns a highly impressive selection of the world’s best developers under its Microsoft Game Studios banner.
