XBOX ACQUIRED BETHESDA
                     XBOX 
ACQUIRED 
BETHESDA
INTRODUCTION
 Microsoft’s priciest video game acquisition, 
a $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda 
Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media, 
shocked the industry. 
 The deal puts Bethesda, one of the 
industry’s biggest publishers and owners of 
some of the most successful gaming series, 
under the Xbox brand. 
Source: theverge.com/
COMPANY PROFILE
  Xbox is a video gaming brand created and   Bethesda Game Studios is an American video 
owned by Microsoft. It represents a series of video game developer and a studio of ZeniMax Media 
game consoles developed by Microsoft, with three based in Rockville, Maryland. 
consoles released in the sixth, seventh, and eighth 
The company was established in 2001 as the spin-
generations, respectively.
off of Bethesda Softworks' development unit.
Source: Wikipedia Source: Wikipedia
OTHER STUDIOS
 The move adds eight more studios to 
Xbox’s first-party portfolio, including:
  Bethesda Game Studios (The Elder Scrolls, 
Fallout, and the upcoming Starfield)
 id Software (Doom)
 Arkane (Prey, Dishonored)
 MachineGames (Wolfenstein)
 Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within)
Source: MSN.com/
WHY DID BETHESDA SELL TO 
MICROSOFT?
 We’ll we have to wait for reporting on the 
motivations of individual board members. 
 However, the reason might be the publicly 
known about the state of Bethesda and its 
parent company, ZeniMax.
Source: YouTube
IS MICROSOFT A GOOD FIT FOR 
BETHESDA?
 It is a strange fit, going off Microsoft’s most 
recent acquisitions.
 Microsoft planned to create more games, albeit 
smaller ones, incentivizing players to maintain 
their Xbox Game Pass subscription with a reliable 
stream of new releases.
Source: usnews
WILL BETHESDA GAMES STILL 
APPEAR ON PS5?
 Microsoft will need to find a way to justify 
the humongous budgets of Bethesda’s 
biggest titles. That may mean that those 
games appear on the PlayStation 5. 
But if Microsoft finds huge success with 
xCloud and Game Pass on PC, it wouldn’t 
hold on PS5 releases being a priority.
Source: OC3D
WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 
ENTERTAINMENT 
 Microsoft was in the mix to acquire Warner 
Bros. Interactive Entertainment and its 
handful of exceptionally talented studios, 
including Rocksteady, Monolith, and 
NetherRealm. 
A Microsoft-Zenimax deal was almost locked  
two years ago, but fell apart. 
It’s obviously done now, though, and so the 
question flips: is it possible that Microsoft 
could’ve had both Bethesda and WB? Source: theverge.com/
XBOX IS NOW THE HOME FOR 
WESTERN RPGS
 PlayStation’s got Final Fantasy XVI, but if 
you like Western RPGs, Xbox is now the 
definitive home for those. 
 Every single one of those expansive RPGs 
will be available on Day One as part of your 
Game Pass subscription.
Source: Gameranx
ARGUMENT AGAINST XBOX GAME 
PASS IS NULL AND VOID
  There is no argument against Xbox Game 
Pass left. While some folks online bemoaning 
the lack of AAA games as part of the service, 
that is now dead and buried.
Source: LicenseToBlog
THANK YOU