Bethesda apologized for Starfield’s exclusivity, but did they need to?

This story about making games exclusive to one brand, boiled down, in 1:54 minutes.

What’s the fuss?

Gamers finally got a glimpse of the highly-secretive sci-fi RPG (role playing game) Starfield at Xbox’s E3 presentation. The reveal that the the game will only release for Xbox and PC has left PlayStation fans hung up to dry.

The situation

Famous for its IPs such as Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Wolfenstein, Bethesda Games Studios has a storied history of putting out the hits.

• However, the studio has very much relied on its existing franchises to bring in the big bucks.
• For the first time in 25 years, Bethesda is taking chance on an entirely new IP — Starfield.
• Originally teased in 2018, fans got more details of the “Skyrim in space” such as its release date which is set for next November.

Among these details was confirmation that the game would only be available on the Xbox and PC platforms.

• Apparently, this frustrated PlayStation fans enough that the studio issued an apology via interview.
• But given that Microsoft, who owns the Xbox and PC operating systems, purchased Bethesda earlier this year for $7.5 billion, should we really be surprised?

Boiling it down

Games from Bethesda have largely been available for every single console on the market.

• Gamers held a glimmer of hope that Microsoft would allow future Bethesda titles to be released on PlayStation, especially when Microsoft honoured a pre-merger agreement to make Bethesda’s future game Deathloop be a PlayStation exclusive.
• The decision to make Starfield exclusive to Microsoft-related platforms not only dashes these hopes, but signifies that Bethesda’s future titles likely won’t make their way to PlayStation like they once did.

A major influence on a player’s decision of which platform to dedicate their time to is what games are exclusive to that platform.

• Microsoft has always struggled with having quality exclusive games, which is a major factor to why their Xbox One only sold half of the units Sony’s PlayStation 4 did.
• Their massive purchase of Bethesda is no doubt to remedy this issue.

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Originally published at https://www.boilitdownnews.com.