Bethesda On Xbox Exclusivity: We'll Decide What Makes The Best Sense

There's been plenty of discussion in recent weeks about whether Microsoft intends to make Bethesda's future games exclusive to the Xbox platform following its acquisition of ZeniMax Media, and speaking in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Bethesda director Todd Howard shed a little more light on the situation.

We say "little", because ultimately Howard revealed the company "hasn't gone through all of that, to be honest", reiterating that the details of the deal between Microsoft and ZeniMax are still being finalised for now.

"We do view it, and always have by ourselves, on a case-by-case basis. We'll do that as part of Microsoft as well. They've been pretty open on other platforms and not just within Xbox. This is an outside perspective, but if you go back ten years at Microsoft, you wouldn't expect them to have a full Office suite on an iPhone either.

Despite not being able to detail any specific plans, Howard later pointed out that Bethesda has worked on exclusive deals with Xbox or Microsoft for every Elder Scrolls game to date, and in different ways every time.

"I can't really project where things will be except to say we've done those sort of exercises ourselves as an independent. If you look at every Elder Scrolls game, there has been some exclusivity on Xbox or with Microsoft. We've partnered with every game. Morrowind was basically a console exclusive, Oblivion was a long timed exclusive, Skyrim's DLC was exclusive for a long period of time.

We'll decide what makes the best sense for our audience when the time comes, and I can't really project today what that looks like."

Intriguingly, GamesIndustry.biz highlighted to Howard that it would be "hard to imagine" The Elder Scrolls VI being an Xbox exclusive, to which he reportedly smiled and simply agreed, offering no further comments.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has been asked multiple times about this topic over the past few weeks, most recently telling GameReactor that until the deal with ZeniMax has closed in early 2021, it's not his job (and he's not legally able) "to sit down and go through their portfolio and dictate what happens."

Have Todd Howard's comments changed your opinion on this? Give us your thoughts down below.

[source gamesindustry.biz, via gamereactor.eu]