Though Microsoft has maintained since before its acquisition of ZeniMax was even finalized that it would decide the exclusivity of future Bethesda titles on a case-by-case basis, by now it’s become pretty clear that the vast majority of the company’s flagship releases will indeed be skipping PlayStation releases.
For instance, two major upcoming titles in Bethesda Game Studios’ Starfield and MachineGames’ Indiana Jones were both made exclusive to Xbox and PC after Bethesda’s acquisition by Microsoft was finalized- and as many would have expected, it turns out Microsoft has sacrificed significant unit sales for both games in doing so.
That’s as per court documents from the recent Microsoft vs FTC case (via Stephen Totilo on Twitter), which state that during his testimony, Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart revealed that both Starfield and Indiana Jones were forecasted to sell over 10 million units on PS5.
According to Stuart, Microsoft decided to cancel PS5 versions for both titles nonetheless, believing that it could “offset losses incurred from taking ZeniMax games exclusive through upside to Game Pass and increased console sales.” As per Stuart, Microsoft “needed fewer dollars in the short term to make up for the financial impact of exclusivity of ZeniMax games.”
The court ruled in Microsoft’s favour at the conclusion of the case earlier this week, though the FTC has now filed an appeal and is hoping once again to be granted a temporary injunction against the finalization of the proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Microsoft is currently also in the process of negotiation new terms for the acquisition with the CMA, though those negotiations are still at an early stage, and could still lead to new investigations, the CMA has said.
Had missed this from Xbox CFO Tim Stuart's testimony, but FTC says Microsoft had forecasted 10 million sales on PlayStation for "both Starfield and Indiana Jones" before taking them exclusive, deciding it could recoup through Game Pass and extra Xbox sales pic.twitter.com/5KdpDzKDZD
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) July 13, 2023
