Well, that was fast. After reports shared that the European Commission had approved Microsoft and Xbox’s acquisition of Zenimax Media, the parent company of Bethesda yesterday; today it is official. Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox said “today, we officially complete the acquisition of Zenimax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks. It’s an honor to welcome the eight incredibly talented development studios – Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, Zenimax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios – and their passionate global communities to the Xbox family. Now that everything is official, we can begin working together to deliver more great games to everyone.”
Talking about today’s news, Pete Hines, SVP of PR & Marketing said: “First, let me say that we’re not making any landmark announcements or changes right now. As we’ve all shared, the expectation is that Bethesda Softworks and our studios will continue as we have in the past, just with more support and resources than we’ve ever had before. Obviously, Game Pass has been an important initiative for Xbox, and we’ll be working on putting even more of our games into Game Pass than ever before. Beyond that? Stay tuned, we’re just getting started together.”
Celebrating today’s announcement, additional Bethesda games will be coming to Xbox Game Pass later this week. Phil Spencer also teased the future of this new partnership saying that Xbox consoles PC and Game Pass will be the best place to experience new Bethesda games including new titles in the future that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.
Phil Spencer said that more about what’s next for Xbox Game Studios will be shared later this year. There had been speculation that an Xbox event would take place later this month.