Pretty much my thoughts as well, and MS making this move won't make me purchase an S/X. I just won't play Bethesda /Zenimax titles if they no longer come to other platforms.
I feel like I can say with absolute certainty that Microsoft doesn't care if devout Playstation fans don't play Bethesda games, because in actuality for every one of those there are thousands of regular Playstation fans that
will care, and
will play these games on some form of the Xbox ecosystem.
And the goal isn't to make you purchase XSX|S when they're telling you that you can play these on PC and mobile via xCloud. This is one thing I don't think people here understand when talking about hardware sales.
I am just confused how shareholders/microsoft will think like lets just let a couples of million in sales go by not letting it on the switch and PS4/PS5. I get what they are going for, but it is a big risk. The games could also not sell wel or just suck. I dont know the latest numbers, but Skyrim Sales where like 86% on consoles the first two years. The first edition sold like 4 million on PS4, that would be a lot more by now. And the same goes for the switch.
Shareholders and investors seem incredibly pleased with their direction as the acquisition made their stock jump a pretty hefty jump. And with what their CEO is saying (which is unprecedented because their CEO never commented about Xbox like this before leading to "concern" about the state of Xbox in Microsofts eyes), plus what Phil just said, I just don't understand where the confusion lies.
PS5 sales for Bethesda games will be
chump change to Microsoft compared to their vision for the Xbox ecosystem, and XGP is already soaring even before EA Play or Bethesda acquisition was announced. Again, that % cut that Microsoft will receive from potential PS5 sales will be
peanuts. They're known to be a long term company and don't need to jump for very short term profits. Look how long they've been harping about cloud and all the memes it generated when now everybody is focused on cloud and the prediction of Google/Amazon entering the game via cloud actually came true.
And I mean, are we really going to talk about "what if these games dont sell well?" Not only does that seem unlikely, but XGP proves that devs don't have to worry about sales to be successful. TES6 will sell insanely well, regardless. And "what if these games just suck," seems incredibly farfetched when you look at their pedigree. You also have to realize that Microsoft knows alot more about the state of these games development as well as unannounced games. They didn't just make a blind acquisition. Just like Sony was trying to moneyhat Starfield potentially two years away; they've seen things behind the scenes we haven't, and were obviously impressed.
