Phil Spencer implies The Elder Scrolls 6 will be exclusive to Xbox and PC

[Polycount]

Console wars: Virtually every Bethesda game is highly-anticipated to some extent, but after the overwhelming success of Skyrim in 2011, it's no surprise that everyone is eagerly awaiting the next Elder Scrolls title in particular. Will Elder Scrolls 6 top Skyrim? Or even Starfield? Unfortunately, it looks like only Xbox and PC customers will discover the answer to those questions if recent comments from Xbox Chief Phil Spencer are anything to go by.

When Bethesda was first acquired by Microsoft, virtually anyone who didn't own an Xbox or PC grew concerned. Would all future Bethesda titles be exclusives moving forward? Phil Spencer's reassurances at the time weren't very, well, reassuring. All he was willing to say is that potential exclusivity would be evaluated on a "case-by-case basis."

In a more recent interview with GQ, Spencer was willing to open up a bit more on Microsoft's plans in regards to the Elder Scrolls 6.

"It's not about punishing any other platform, like I fundamentally believe all of the platforms can continue to grow," he said. "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."

Spencer doesn't outright state that the ES6 will be an Xbox/PC exclusive, but given that Starfield will be, it's hard to read his words in any other light. If that is the case, Bethesda will alienate a huge portion of its player base. Moving forward, PlayStation fans will be forced to make a choice.

They can either join the other side -- through Game Pass, xCloud, PC, or an Xbox Series S and X -- or miss out on the next Elder Scrolls. Neither of those options is likely to be very appealing for diehard PlayStation customers, but Microsoft is probably relying on at least a few to bite the bullet.

Of course, there's also the possibility that Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 will both be timed exclusives. After all, some of Sony's biggest hits are finally migrating to PC, such as God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn. It is a little unlikely, admittedly, but at least there's precedent for big-budget exclusives crossing the platform divide eventually.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/92228-phil-spencer-implies-elder-scrolls-6-exclusive-xbox.html

 

[m4a4]

"It's not about punishing any other platform, like I fundamentally believe all of the platforms can continue to grow," he said. "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."

BS. It's all about getting back at Sony for the continuous studio purchasing for exclusives.

MS could easily go the more profit route here (like the have in other areas) and continue the series' platform agnosticism, but now they've gotta prove against Sony and the fanboys that they have the exclusives.....

Maybe it'll just be timed, maybe it won't. Lets hope neither are that petty for long...

 

[Dimitriid]

That's basically why he paid 7.5 Billion for. Sony does the same too with their own studios.

 

[Burty117]

Yet interestingly Sony is going the other route and are actually starting to release their first party games on PC.

Strange move to make considering they would make more money selling it on more platforms.

 

[QuaZulu]

Psh! What ES VI? All I saw was Skyrim landscape with some snow removed. Music was even Skyrim! At this rate its gonna be another decade before there's even a serious whiff. Nothing to get worked up about now. "Carry on, carry on, nothing to see here..."

 

[Lew Zealand]

There will be plenty of time before ESVI is released next decade to change this decision 8 dozen times.

 

[Uncle Al]

Certainly not a smart business move ..... a smart businessman plays to the market, no matter who's in it.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Get back to us when they make a good Elder Scrolls game. They've been crappy since Oblivion.

 

[tacobravo]

He is a fool to say no to more money

 

[amghwk]

Eventually they will release it for the PS. No one will avoid the huge user base of the PS ecosystem and lose the extra jackpot money that this can generate. Releasing TES VI for the PS ecosystem can provide them with at least half of the PC & Xbox combined revenue. MS is not stupid. This is a PR stunt. And the author of the article knows this.

 

[altsan]

Wow. The level of ps fans not happy with this is hilarious considering sony does this exact thing constantly. It's not like Sony is bringing their top first-party games to Xbox and why would they.

These are companies that are out to make money and while short-term thinking might say that more platforms are better, we should know that growing a platform is far more lucrative long term.

 

[GamerNerves]

It would be completely silly to not release a game this big and wanted on PS5. No possible hardware sales could ever compensate this. If this would happen, the most likely scenario would be that many PS5 owners would buy the game for PC instead of Xbox and play it maybe on less powerful machines like laptops perhaps.
In any case, has it ever been proven that exclusive games significantly boost the sales of the console in question, excluding more convincing launch date selection? I truly doubt this, since the vast majority of console gamers buy one console one time and that's it, and generally PC gamers do not want an additional platform either. The choice of which console is made upon features, price including online services and the current selection of titles, which is often vast enough without some exclusive titles of the competitor to satisfy. Yes, a minority exist who buy multiple machines, but they will not affect the revenue in any significant way.

Only when customer is upgrading to a new console, to the next-gen model, there is a chance to make him buy the other platform, but after that, the company needs to wait till the next generational shift before having another chance. Mid-gen refreshes change this fact though and it is actually a realistic possibility, that the customer who has bought for example PS5 first, wants the improved Xbox Series X/S model next to play all possible games of the current generation, depending on the level of improvement offered of course, but without major improvements there will be no sales and no exclusive title will change this, though a clever timed exclusive might work if it is released at the same time with the refreshed console model.

After considering these realities, you will realize it would be a very bad move financially to not release TES VI on PlayStation at all. So, I call this news bogus as well.

EDIT. sorry for edits

 

[hahahanoobs]

It would be completely silly to not release a game this big and wanted on PS5. No possible hardware sales could ever compensate this. If this would happen, the most likely scenario would be that many PS5 owners would buy the game for PC instead of Xbox and play it maybe on less powerful machines like laptops perhaps.
In any case, has it ever been proven that exclusive games significantly boost the sales of the console in question, excluding more convincing launch date selection? I truly doubt this, since the vast majority of console gamers buy one console one time and that's it, and generally PC gamers do not want an additional platform either. The choice of which console is made upon features, price including online services and the current selection of titles, which is often vast enough without some exclusive titles of the competitor to satisfy. Yes, a minority exist who buy multiple machines, but they will not affect the revenue in any significant way.

Only when customer is upgrading to a new console, to the next-gen model, there is a chance to make him buy the other platform, but after that, the company needs to wait till the next generational shift before having another chance. Mid-gen refreshes change this fact though and it is actually a realistic possibility, that the customer who has bought for example PS5 first, wants the improved Xbox Series X/S model next to play all possible games of the current generation, depending on the level of improvement offered of course, but without major improvements there will be no sales and no exclusive title will change this, though a clever timed exclusive might work if it is released at the same time with the refreshed console model.

After considering these realities, you will realize it would be a very bad move financially to not release TES VI on PlayStation at all. So, I call this news bogus as well.

EDIT. sorry for edits

"...the most likely scenario would be that many PS5 owners would buy the game for PC instead of Xbox and play it maybe on less powerful machines like laptops perhaps."

lol. No. Just no.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Consoles are for children, considering the 17+ rating on Skyrim, everyone should be playing ES6 on PC.

 

[Dimitriid]

Certainly not a smart business move ..... a smart businessman plays to the market, no matter who's in it.

A smart businessman plays to please his shareholders and board of directors, not the market. Now if both things can be won over that's ok but it's not about making money, it's about making *all* of the money for them and for that to happen, sometimes that implies sabotaging your competitors.

Such is the nature of the console wars we've been witnessing for over 30 years (All business actually, but relevant to consoles in particular)

 

[Watzupken]

BS. It's all about getting back at Sony for the continuous studio purchasing for exclusives.

MS could easily go the more profit route here (like the have in other areas) and continue the series' platform agnosticism, but now they've gotta prove against Sony and the fanboys that they have the exclusives.....

Maybe it'll just be timed, maybe it won't. Lets hope neither are that petty for long...

There is nothing wrong here. Neither Sony nor MS are charity companies if you have not realised. If they buy a game studio over, you can be somewhat sure that games from that game studio/ developers will never end up on competitors' console.
The problem for Xbox is that by enabling the same game on PC, there is little reason to buy a Xbox. Sony played it smart by porting games over the PC after a few years, when the game is offered at a steep discount on their store. So in a sense, it somewhat protected the interest of the console. Nonetheless, it will still result in people losing interest in PS because as long as I don't mind waiting for the PC port, there is no to little reason to get a PS5 now.

 

[m4a4]

There is nothing wrong here. Neither Sony nor MS are charity companies if you have not realised. If they buy a game studio over, you can be somewhat sure that games from that game studio/ developers will never end up on competitors' console.
The problem for Xbox is that by enabling the same game on PC, there is little reason to buy a Xbox. Sony played it smart by porting games over the PC after a few years, when the game is offered at a steep discount on their store. So in a sense, it somewhat protected the interest of the console. Nonetheless, it will still result in people losing interest in PS because as long as I don't mind waiting for the PC port, there is no to little reason to get a PS5 now.

The excuse he gave is what is BS. I don't have to like that it's made exclusive (won't affect me, but will affect friends), but doesn't mean I also can't call it out as I see it.

And MS doesn't care about hardware sales. They make the majority of their profits on the software/services. If you buy it on Xbox or PC (or better yet sign up for Game Pass on either platform), why do they care?
Also, Sony's approach just looks like they want to try double dipping. Feeling more like a remaster...

 

[dangh]

Nothing surprising here. Just blocking established ip from playstation is kinda bad move. Pity ms could not really provide good games from their previous internal studios except Forza and gears (halo is long gone).
Anyway, hope this one will play well on steam deck. And can't wait for valve to release their linux distro.

 

[AMN3S1AC]

Eventually they will release it for the PS. No one will avoid the huge user base of the PS ecosystem and lose the extra jackpot money that this can generate. Releasing TES VI for the PS ecosystem can provide them with at least half of the PC & Xbox combined revenue. MS is not stupid. This is a PR stunt. And the author of the article knows this.

Sony seem quite happy to miss out on Xbox gamers with Last of Us, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, etc

 

[AMN3S1AC]

It would be completely silly to not release a game this big and wanted on PS5. No possible hardware sales could ever compensate this. If this would happen, the most likely scenario would be that many PS5 owners would buy the game for PC instead of Xbox and play it maybe on less powerful machines like laptops perhaps.
In any case, has it ever been proven that exclusive games significantly boost the sales of the console in question, excluding more convincing launch date selection? I truly doubt this, since the vast majority of console gamers buy one console one time and that's it, and generally PC gamers do not want an additional platform either. The choice of which console is made upon features, price including online services and the current selection of titles, which is often vast enough without some exclusive titles of the competitor to satisfy. Yes, a minority exist who buy multiple machines, but they will not affect the revenue in any significant way.

Only when customer is upgrading to a new console, to the next-gen model, there is a chance to make him buy the other platform, but after that, the company needs to wait till the next generational shift before having another chance. Mid-gen refreshes change this fact though and it is actually a realistic possibility, that the customer who has bought for example PS5 first, wants the improved Xbox Series X/S model next to play all possible games of the current generation, depending on the level of improvement offered of course, but without major improvements there will be no sales and no exclusive title will change this, though a clever timed exclusive might work if it is released at the same time with the refreshed console model.

After considering these realities, you will realize it would be a very bad move financially to not release TES VI on PlayStation at all. So, I call this news bogus as well.

EDIT. sorry for edits

The same could be applied to Sony and all their big exclusive games. We won't be seeing god of war, last of us, ratchet and clank on xbox any time soon.

 

[AMN3S1AC]

Yet interestingly Sony is going the other route and are actually starting to release their first party games on PC.

Strange move to make considering they would make more money selling it on more platforms.

Yet interestingly Sony is going the other route and are actually starting to release their first party games on PC.

Strange move to make considering they would make more money selling it on more platforms.

Nott really...more like they are following Microsoft's lead. Only difference is MS release their exclusives day 1 on PC....while Sony offers up last gen efforts to fund new game development and lure potential new customers who don't wanna wait 2,3, or 4 years for the next instalment to be released on PC.

 

[George Keech]

Yet interestingly Sony is going the other route and are actually starting to release their first party games on PC.

Strange move to make considering they would make more money selling it on more platforms.

That's not really comparable as Microsoft also release on PC, if they started to release games on Xbox and Switch then that would be them going the other route.

Currently once Sony start to fully support PC (Day on releases) then they are on equal footing

 

[George Keech]

I don't get how this is news, Maybe I'm stupid but who didn't think that apart from games with existing relationships with Sony, everything going forward would be
console exclusive to Xbox.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Well, considering that all ES games benefit from (and sometimes REQUIRE) modding, I don't know why anyone would play ESVI on a console... PC is the only true way to enjoy an ES game.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Wow. Don't you guys remember the good old gaming days when consoles dominated....NES, SNES, Sega Genesis....(sure, I played some games on the PC back then, but most kids I knew had consoles, same as me so that is what we played)

Man, I really enjoyed playing Super Mario Bros on my Genesis, it was so awesome that any game was available on every single system back in the day. I wonder what caused them to change this?

Spoiler

If you can't figure out that I'm being sarcastic, I have no words for you.