Xbox head on ‘The Elder Scrolls VI’: “This deal was not done to take games away”

Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has recently spoken about what Microsoft acquiring Bethesda Softworks means for the upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI.

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Last month, Microsoft announced that it was in the process of purchasing Zenimax Media – the parent company of Bethesda – and since then, many Elder Scrolls fans have been wondering about future of the series on systems outside of PC and the Xbox family.

During a recent interview with Kotaku, Spencer said that he thinks its possible for the tech giant to “recoup” its investment even if Elder Scrolls VI wasn’t available on PlayStation systems.

Spencer then noted that the deal was “not done to take games away from another player base like that”. He added: “Nowhere in the documentation that we put together was: ‘How do we keep other players from playing these games?’ We want more people to be able to play games, not fewer people to be able to go play games.”

While Spencer did not directly reveal if Elder Scrolls VI – or other Bethesda-related games – would be available on Sony consoles, he did note that the tech giant would not have to ship the game on non-Microsoft systems for the Zenimax deal to be beneficial to the company.

“When I think about where people are going to be playing and the number of devices that we had – and we have xCloud and PC and Game Pass and our console base – I don’t have to go ship those games on any other platform other than the platforms that we support in order to kind of make the deal work for us. Whatever that means,” Spencer said.

Since Microsoft unveiled its acquisition of ZeniMax, there has been concrete information whether Elder Scrolls VI will be released for other systems. It was previously been confirmed that any upcoming PS5 exclusives from the company will be honoured. Bethesda’s original founder, Christopher Weaver, also noted that he believes Microsoft will “let Bethesda be”.

When the acquisition was announced, at the time Microsoft stated that all Bethesda games will come to PC and Xbox consoles as part of Game Pass, and other systems “on a case by case basis”.