Here’s Why Microsoft Is Keeping Quiet About Bethesda

C’mon, I just wanna know if I can play the new Elder Scrolls 6 on my PS5.

Back in September, we were all rocked by the news that Microsoft had in fact bought out gaming developers Bethesda in an effort to win this season's battle of the consoles.

In an eye watering $USD7.5 billion deal, Microsoft bought out ZeniMax and its subsidiary Bethesda taking with it games like The Elder Scrolls 6, Deathloop, Fallout and Ghostwire. This deal was actually the second biggest gaming buyout in history, following closely behind Tecent’s $USD8.6 billion purchase of developer’s Supercell, the guys who make Clash of Clans.

While many were sold on the Xbox Series X because of this trade, a lot of us were left wondering if we would still get the chance to play Fallout or The Elder Scrolls on our PCs or PlayStation consoles.

Initially, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that they would stick to promises that were already made for some games, but didn’t indicate what would happen with games released after those promises.

Since then there have been a lot of questions surrounding Bethesda’s games and if they would be available to play on rival consoles. Microsoft has been very quiet about the whole thing since the announcement and avoided answering any of these questions, but there’s a good reason why.

As it turns out, Phil Spencer can’t say much or anything of substance because of legal issues surrounding the deal.

Spencer told GameReactor that he can’t actually say anything because, technically speaking, Microsoft has only announced their intention to buy ZeniMax and Bethesda; it isn’t actually finalised yet, and isn’t expected to be until early next year.

New Phil Spencer interview

- more acquisitions coming to push Game Pass
- thinks Xbox lacks strong E-rated content
- can't really comment on Bethesda questions since it's illegal for him until early 2021
- wants to see more SP games from first-partyhttps://t.co/At30gxpdkx pic.twitter.com/xZcaoPMN5k
— Nibel (@Nibellion) October 26, 2020

“First of all, I would like to say that we haven't acquired ZeniMax. We have announced our intention to acquire ZeniMax. It is going through regulatory approval and we don't see any issues there. We expect early in 2021 the deal will close," he said.

"But I say that because I want people to know, I'm not sitting down with Todd Howard and Robert Altman and planning their future. Because I'm currently not allowed to do that, that would be illegal.”

Now this doesn’t mean that there are any issues within the deal itself, it just means that it’s literally illegal for Spencer to actually say anything, so we’re gonna have to wait a little longer for the goss (damn).

Keeping all that in mind, it makes sense that Microsoft and ZeniMax aren’t saying anything just yet. It looks like all their focus is just on getting the deal sorted and finalised rather than discussing what games will and won’t be available.