Starfield was nearly a PS5 special prior to Microsoft purchased Bethesda
Ultimately, Bethesda’s Starfield came dangerously close to being a PS5 exclusive.
According to notes taken by Kotaku’s Ethan Gach on the Microsoft v. FTC case, Xbox Game Studios CEO Phil Spencer revealed that one of the reasons Microsoft went after Bethesda (via its parents’ business ZeniMax) in 2020 was to deliberately prevent that from happening.
To what end? For Xbox to compete “against the market leader…[and] stay commercially viable,” in Spencer’s opinion, the company needed to do whatever it could.
He also mentioned that by that time, Sony had already paid Bethesda to turn Arkane’s Deathloop and Tango Gameworks’ Ghostwire Tokyo into PlayStation 5 exclusives (until they weren’t), and that the company was ready to go 3 for 3. Spencer remarked, “We can’t be in a position as a third-location console where we’re more behind.
It’s not too surprising to hear that Microsoft made that move to prevent three consecutive games from being exclusive to Sony for a year or more each, as IGN remembered rumblings ofStarfieldbeing a timed PS5 unique just months before the Microsoft acquisition in 2020.
Sony and Microsoft are 2 sides of the very same special coin
In addition to Bethesda, Sony has also made dubious moves in the past to restrict some games from being available on Microsoft platforms. One of the best is the PC-only yet Xbox One-compatible Last Fantasy 7 Remake by Square Enix. The year 2024’s Last Fantasy VII Rebirth is expected to achieve the same success.
It was also revealed that Spider-Man would be a PlayStation 4-exclusive DLC character prior to the 2020 release of Marvel’s Avengers.
Throughout his testimony, Spencer casually confirmed that Sony implemented a similar offer for Square Enix’s Last Fantasy XVI, which released earlier today as a heavily touted PS5 exclusive.
The lifeblood of every gaming system is its library of exclusive titles, and Microsoft has responded to Sony’s business practises in kind. Starfield isn’t coming to PlayStation (at least, not anytime soon), and Microsoft has actively blocked PS5 versions of Arkane’s Redfall and MachineGames’ Indiana Jones. It has the potential to accomplish the same for The Elder Scrolls 6 and The Outer Worlds 2.
While it comes as no surprise that both major companies are engaging in the same anticompetitive practises, it is interesting to see them both try to frame the other as guilty of the crucial things they have both actively done multiple times.
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