This is such a backwards way of thinking about the gaming industry. Bethesda legend Todd Howard has made some of the dumbest comments I’ve ever heard as he actually justified Starfield’s exclusivity through Zelda and Nintendo.
Todd Howard has fallen to the dark side.
Bethesda development chief Todd Howard recently sat down for an interview with CNBC to promote the Xbox-Bethesda purchase and Bethesda’s newest IP, Starfield, yet he made some extremely stupid comments by ACTUALLY comparing The Legend of Zelda’s Nintendo exclusivity with Starfield’s Xbox exclusivity. And, to be honest, this statement epitomized the backwardness of the gaming industry nowadays.
Okay, I don’t want to sound like I’m a Todd Howard hater or that I don’t respect the guy as that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Even though Bethesda games are some of the buggiest, wackiest games of all-time, Todd Howard’s talents as a video game designer, planner, and creator cannot be questioned as he’s been one of the lead designers on some of the most legendary games, such as Morrowind, Doom, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Skyrim, and Fallout 4, of all time.
Moreover, his leadership of Bethesda these last two decades or so has been one of the main reasons why Bethesda has helped revolutionize and elevate the ARPG/RPG genre of gaming as one of the pinnacles of the industry. So, with my sincere praise for Howard out of the way, I have to say that he sounded like a complete moron in this CNBC interview.
For those who haven’t seen the interview, Howard and Xbox CEO Phil Spencer were on CNBC to promote Microsoft’s (and Xbox by extension) $7.5B purchase of Bethesda, how Microsoft isn’t a monopoly and isn’t taking over the gaming world through brute force (and the same goes for Sony…but they do it through subtly and intrigue), and to advertise and promote the new staple of the “Xbox Exclusive” catalog in Starfield.
And, we can have a whole day’s worth of conversations and discussions over Starfield, the pros and cons of the game, and whether or not Bethesda is dropping (or raising) it’s past legendary standards within this title, but that’s not the point of this article. The point of this article is to point out how dumb this quote from Todd Howard is: “”I do also think people attach brands to certain games. When you think of Zelda you think of the Switch and I think there are times when that can be a real benefit.”
First off, I don’t necessarily disagree with what he’s saying in the purest form of the quote as he’s right about linking The Legend of Zelda to the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo, while he’s also correct about games having benefits being associated with certain brands.
Hell, any game that came out of Bethesda prior to the Xbox takeover used to have this same effect as even though you knew it was going to have bugs and only be 90% polished (the final 10% polish comes from the modders), the game was still going to be a masterpiece in storytelling, open-world mechanics, worldbuilding, creativity, and scope.
Yet, that’s not what he’s referring to here.
What he’s really saying is how Microsoft buying up half the gaming industry and exclusivize it through the company’s extraordinary financial muscles is perfectly fine given how games like The Legend of Zelda are exclusive to Nintendo and the Nintendo Switch.
And, even though he really has to say this as he’s now an employee of Microsoft and Bethesda is no longer an independent studio (even though it really wasn’t before either but had far more say with Zenimax as its owners), he’s leaving out one EXTREMELY key piece of background to this comparison: The Legend of Zelda games were DEVELOPED BY NINTENDO!
(Nintendo-The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom-Official Trailer #3)
Obviously, it’s perfectly fine for Nintendo, the developer AND publisher of The Legend of Zelda, to keep Zelda and all their other classic titles, such as Super Mario Bros., Wii Sports (when the Wii was still the main Nintendo console), Kirby, Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, etc. because THEY DEVELOPED and PUBLISHED them for THEIR OWN CONSOLE (aka: the Switch)!
If they wanted to release their games on other platforms, such as the Xbox and PlayStation, that would also be fine as it’s within their right to choose how and where to publish their games.
That’s not the case with Microsoft, Bethesda, and Starfield.
Microsoft BOUGHT Bethesda and the rights to publish all of its games due to how successful Bethesda was in the gaming industry and how poorly the Xbox was selling compared to the likes of the Nintendo Switch and Sony’s PlayStation. There’s no other reason Microsoft bought Bethesda than greed and fear of being overcome due to their lack of creativity and ingenuity against Sony and Nintendo, which is where this entire argument falls flat on its face.
But, honestly, I think Todd Howard knows this, yet is unable to say anything as an employee of Microsoft who wants to keep his job. It’s as simple as that.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Bethesda Softworks/Microsoft) (Starfield Official Gameplay Trailer – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Nintendo) (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #3 – YouTube)
