When Microsoft bought Bethesda last year, it raised questions about which consoles their future games would end up on. It’s not a huge drama for us in PC land, Microsoft already offer most of their new stuff to us and the Xbox lot. But for PlayStation owners, the drama has arrived. Phil Spencer says he sees The Elder Scrolls 6 as a PC and Xbox exclusive, the same as Starfield.
“It’s not about punishing any other platform, like I fundamentally believe all of the platforms can continue to grow,” he told GQ. “But in order to be on Xbox, I want us to be able to bring the full complete package of what we have. And that would be true when I think about Elder Scrolls VI. That would be true when I think about any of our franchises.”
Some of those franchises already have existing deals with Sony, mind you. Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo were set to be timed exclusives on PC and PS5 since before the acquisition, and Microsoft stuck with that. Going forward, I suppose Arkane and Tango’s future games might be glued to PCs and Xboxes though.
GQ also tried to get a little more info on TES6 from Bethesda director Todd Howard. He doesn’t say much other than, “We’ve been designing”, and that they’re trying to make it a “decade game”. I’m pretty sure they already know how to do that though, you just release as many new editions as you possibly can with a handful of improvements and additions every few years, right? Right?
Even Howard’s own son is bored of waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6. I sure hope the kid has a PC or Xbox.
The GQ interview was done as part of Xbox’s 20th anniversary, which Microsoft celebrated last night with the surprise early release of Halo Infinite’s free online multiplayer.
