Microsoft has recently made the headlines with their acquisition of gaming company Zenimax Media, which is the parent company of the gaming giant Bethesda. for $7.5 billion.
The deal will give Microsoft’s Xbox games division exclusive ownership of top-selling games including “Fallout,” “The Elder Scrolls,” “Doom,” “Quake,” “Wolfenstein,” “Prey” and “Dishonored.” Microsoft is bolstering its exclusive games in a bid to compete with Sony’s Playstation which has a huge collection of exclusive titles. Microsoft will be adding Bethesda’s franchises to its Xbox Game Pass cloud based service, which already has more than 15 Million subscribers.
In addition to Bethesda, Microsoft will be expanding from 15 to 23 creative studio teams. The deal is Microsoft’s biggest ever in the gaming industry.
This is happening as the console wars heat up with the impending launch of the new generation Xbox (Xbox Series X )and Playstation (PS5). New iterations of Xbox are set to launch on November the 10th Set to ship Nov. 10, these are the Xbox Series S (for $299) and the Xbox Series X ($499).
All this is happening after Microsoft lost out on its bid for TikTok. The ZeniMax-Bethesda acquisition shows that CEO Satya Nadella remains focused on growing the consumer side of the Microsoft experience.
