Last year, Microsoft made a big splash when they announced that they were acquiring Zenimax Media, the parent company of Bethesda would become part of Xbox for 7.5 billion. This means that studios such as Arkane, Bethesda Game Studios, Machine Games, and more plus all of their games would all be become part of Xbox Game Studios. The European Commission has announced that they have approved the acquisition which means that its one step closer for Zenimax Media’s studios and games to be fully owned by Microsoft and Xbox.
“The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the combined entity’s limited market position upstream and the presence of strong downstream competitors in the distribution of video games,” The European Commission said in a statement. “The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure.”
After the acquisition has been completed, Microsoft will have 23 first-party studios. Microsoft has said that they will honor the commitments that Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo has with PlayStation. Both will launch on PS5 as a timed exclusive. Regarding future titles, Phil Spencer has said that games being exclusive to Xbox/PC or not would be a “case-by-case” basis. When the deal was announced, many have been wondering whether or not all of Zenimax Media’s games will be exclusive or not.
We may find out soon as there have been rumors that Microsoft is planning a “future of gaming” event later this month. The event is speculated to take place on March 23. That being said, Aaron Greenberg has spoken about a future event when he talked about a possible first look at the highly-anticipated Elden Ring that would take place at an Xbox event. He said that while there are always things in the works,” no event is happening anytime soon.
Whatever Microsoft plans are for their new catalog of games is something we’ll have to wait and see.