In its ongoing battle with the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Microsoft has made a revelation that’s sure to disappoint PlayStation owners. The company has said that three future games from its 2020 acquisition, Bethesda, will be exclusive to Xbox and PC.
This has come to light through the filing of a response by Microsoft’s lawyers to the FTC’s lawsuit against its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. While the names of the games have been redacted, they most certainly include Starfield, which is coming in 2023.
The other major Bethesda game in development right now is, of course, The Elder Scrolls 6 so that could be the second game Microsoft’s talking about. As for the fourth one, it could be any future Bethesda title, including an Indiana Jones game or even Fallout 5, for that matter.
The FTC has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in response to the latter’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal, valued at $68.7 billion in cash, could be the largest video game acquisition in history.
It would give Microsoft ownership over Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and Candy Crush franchises. With its already strong kitty containing all of ZeniMax Media’s franchises, the company could create a big monopoly in the video game market, the FTC has argued.
In its response, Microsoft has said that ZeniMax’s first two new games were, in fact, released on PlayStation. And while the three Bethesda games will be Xbox and PC exclusives, the firm says that ongoing games like Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online will also continue to get updates on PlayStation.
Microsoft also mentions that there has already been an announcement that Call of Duty games will indeed be released on other platforms.