Microsoft shocked the world back in 2020 when they made the surprising purchase of Bethesda.
The renowned publisher is perhaps best noted for their titles such as Elder Scrolls and DOOM but has multiple projects in the works.
Now, there could be a brand new event held by Microsoft this month where we hear more plans for how the two will work as one.
Here's all we know.
Latest News
Xbox Game Pass Welcomes 20 Bethesda Games
The following games will now be available across console, PC, and Android:
- Dishonored: Definitive Edition
- Dishonored 2
- DOOM
- DOOM 2
- DOOM 64
- DOOM 3
- DOOM Eternal
- Fallout New Vegas (Console only)
- Fallout 4
- Fallout 76
- Prey
- Rage 2
- The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (PC and console only)
- The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (PC and console only)
- The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
- The Elder Scrolls: Online (PC and console only)
- The Evil Within
- Wolfenstein: The New Order
- Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Xbox Roundtable Discussion
Microsoft will hold a "Bethesda Joins Xbox" roundtable discussion on YouTube at 6 PM GMT today.
Head of marketing at Xbox, Aaron Greenberg, was keen to stress that the event is "NOT FOCUSED ON NEWS/REVEALS, but a great chance to learn more about the teams & people at Bethesda" via his Twitter account earlier today.
You can watch it below:
Event Coming March 11?
According to GamesBeat, it appears that Microsoft will publish a video on Thursday, March 11, that will explain what the ZeniMax deal will mean for Xbox gamers, specifically Game Pass subscribers.
Allegedly, the company will confirm, as expected, that all "contractually eligible" Bethesda games will launch on Game Pass, as well as other titles joining the service soon.
Interestingly, Bethesda will apparently still hold its own E3 conference in June.
Date
According to the report from GamesBeat above, the event will occur on March 11 - that's this Thursday.
We'll update this if we hear more.
What To Expect
It sounds as though any event will be focused on games that are already announced, so don't expect a third DOOM to be revealed.
Still, that's not to say there's not plenty to be excited about - particularly if you're a Game Pass subscriber. It sounds as though Microsoft will reaffirm its commitment to launching Bethesda Game Studios on day one into Xbox Game Pass.
Expect a few Game Pass additions to come soon, with a few gaps in the Bethesda portfolio.
Here are a handful of games that aren't part of the service just yet, although some have been in the past:
- Dishonored
- Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
- DOOM (2016)
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360)
- The Evil Within
- The Evil Within 2
- Fallout 3
- Fallout 4
- Prey
- Wolfenstein: The New Order
- Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
- Wolfenstein II: New Colossus
Report
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, recently spoke on the Xbox podcast and touched on an ample amount of topics, including the future of Xbox and Bethesda.
Spencer noted the following:
I’m excited about 2021 and Bethesda is an important part of that
2021 is when we’ll get final approval. I feel really good about that: everything is on track. We’ll start then really getting to some of the planning that we can do with them. Right now we’re really hands-off with them as they continue to do the work that they’re doing, because we don’t own them yet.
These comments by Spencer are also fueled by claims from Jeff Grubb, a games journalist who noted the following on his new podcast which can be viewed here:
I think this is one of the milestones for Microsoft before E3, where once the deal closes they will talk about it in a big way
I don’t know if it will be a full, Direct-style event, but they will make note about it and they will talk about it extensively, explain what it means for everybody and talk about the immediate future of both companies becoming one. So yeah, expect that to happen sometime in mid-March
So, it appears that they are gearing up to hold some sort of event where Bethesda is the main star; and there are an ample amount of games that fans want to see talked about if this show eventually happens.