June 23rd 2023.
It has been confirmed that Bethesda's upcoming Indiana Jones game will be an Xbox exclusive, even though that wasn't the original plan. According to Microsoft, the game was meant to be multiplatform, but it was Bethesda that decided to make it Xbox only.
The Federal Trade Commission's legal battle to halt the Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal has recently started. Microsoft is trying to present itself as an underdog. But, the court case is likely to bring some information to light that Microsoft wouldn't have wanted to share.
For instance, it has been revealed that Bethesda's Indiana Jones game was originally meant to be available on multiple platforms. Zenimax, Bethesda's parent company, had an agreement with Disney to make the game multiplatform. This changed after Microsoft acquired Zenimax.
Pete Hines, Bethesda's head of publishing, admitted that the agreement was amended and the game will be available on Xbox and PC only.
Phil Spencer, Xbox boss, and Matt Booty, Xbox Game Studios head, were also part of the discussion. Spencer wrote that the upside of the situation was that a game from Bethesda would excite everyone, but the downside was that a large part of output from Bethesda wouldn't benefit the Xbox community in any way.
He also suggested that Bethesda should look into console exclusivity for future titles, case by case. So why did they make Indiana Jones an exclusive? As per Hines, this was done to streamline development and save time, given they only needed to make the game for one console. They also thought that making the game available on Xbox Game Pass would help reach more players.
It is evident that Microsoft is not sticking to their promise of keeping games multiformat, as evidenced by the Indiana Jones game and Redfall, which had a PlayStation 5 version in the works until Microsoft bought Bethesda. Sony might use this as an example to oppose the Xbox Activision deal.
MachineGames is developing the Indiana Jones game, but no one knows when it will be revealed. However, Bethesda did confirm the news, saying that the game is in development and will be executive produced by Todd Howard.
It is safe to say that Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda has changed the game's original plans. This is a clear example of Microsoft taking games away from rival platforms, despite their claims of having no interest in doing so.
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