This is why the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard acquisition can’t go through. In a response to the FTC antitrust filing against the company, Microsoft tried to reason they aren’t building a monopoly by saying only three upcoming Bethesda will be Xbox exclusives.
Does this revelation really surprise anyone?
It was obvious from the minute Microsoft bought Bethesda for $7.5 billion back in 2021 that the fate of multi-platform games would be killed off quicker than Arvel the Swift when he tried swindling the Dragonborn. And I’m a little surprised this news hasn’t come out sooner with the tyrannical-like moves Microsoft has been making in the gaming world.
For as long as I’ve been alive, Microsoft and Sony have been the two biggest names in the gaming as each company owns the two most popular, beloved, and used gaming consoles in the market.
Sure, there have been competitors in recent years, such as the Nintendo Switch from Nintendo, and PC gaming has always been extremely popular, but nothing has been able to compete with Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox in the gaming console market.
Thus, a delicate balance was created as game developers from all over the world have been engineering and tailoring their masterpieces to fit the requirements of the latest console releases of the Xbox and PlayStation, while also making their games available to the latest gaming PCs. But, for the purpose of this argument, I’ll just focus on the games made for Xbox and PlayStation.
Of course, there were always exceptions to this precedent as Sony and Microsoft had gaming studios of their own and were responsible for exclusive releases of some of the most popular games of all-time on their, respective, consoles, such as The Last of Us series (PlayStation), God of War series (PlayStation), Uncharted series (PlayStation), Gears series, (Xbox) and Halo (Xbox) series.
Yet, for the most part, gamers were able to play their favorite games on the consoles they felt suited their needs and wants. It was a relatively healthy balance for gamers and the video game industry as a whole.
But now Microsoft is on the verge of destroying this healthy balance.
Prior to the Activision Blizzard purchase, Microsoft completed their 23rd acquisition of independent game studios purchases by buying ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks. And, with the purchase of Bethesda, Microsoft was given the keys to owning some of the most famous franchises of all-time in the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Wolfenstein, and the highly anticipated Starfield.
Those are some pretty renowned games and series Microsoft now has unlimited control over, right? Well, you should also know that the company bought out the studios that made Minecraft, Devil May Cry series, Forza series, and Wasteland series, which are all games not affiliated with Activision.
If you add the Activision deal, that will include games like Call of Duty series, Diablo series, World of Warcraft series, Candy Crush, and Overwatch series.
Oh, and just to top this list of unbridled monopolistic greed off, Microsoft would own two (itself and Activision Blizzard) of the five biggest gaming studios in the world. That may not seem like a lot, but when you consider the fact that these two companies would combine for app. $25B in revenue/year and that no other company owns more than itself in the Top-10, you’ll see why this level of greed is rather obvious and malignant.
(Bethesda Softworks-The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim-Anniversary Edition Trailer)
Still, the worst part of this entire situation is that gamers who prefer PlayStation, which is about 110M users, will either be forced to give up their PlayStations or their favorite games as the newest Bethesda, Activision, and realistically all of the Microsoft-owned titles will be “Xbox exclusives” by the companies own admission.
And, seeing as the three latest games in development at Bethesda are Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6, and a brand-new Indiana Jones title, it would seem likely that at least two of these games will not be available to 110 million gamers because of Microsoft’s ruthless pursuit of monopolizing the gaming industry.
If I had to guess, I’d say Elder Scrolls 6 and the Indiana Jones game will be two of the three titles that will become Xbox exclusives given how much popularity and critical acclaim the, respective, franchises will bring to Microsoft and Xbox.
See why this FTC antitrust lawsuit must succeed?
Images Source: Featured Image: (Bethesda Softworks) (The Elder Scrolls VI – Official Announcement Teaser – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Bethesda Softworks) (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition Trailer – YouTube)
