Over the weekend, it was confirmed by Microsoft and Bethesda that the upcoming sci-fi game from the Maryland-based studio, Starfield, would be exclusive to Xbox and PC. Naturally, this upsets PlayStation owners who had been playing Bethesda games for years. The company's SVP of Global Marketing & Comms, Pete Hines, apologized to PlayStation yesterday during an interview with GameSpot.
Speaking with GameSpot's Tamoor Hussain, Pete Hines apologized to PlayStation fans who were looking to play the next Bethesda IP (the first new one for Bethesda Game Studios in 25 years) on their platform of choice.
"If you're a big fan of the stuff we make and a game that we're making is no longer available on your platform, I totally understand if you're unhappy, or pissed, or whatever," Hines to GameSpot during the livestream.
"I don't know how to allay the fears and concerns of PlayStation 5 fans other than to say, well, I'm a PlayStation 5 player as well and I've played games on that console, and there's games I'm gonna continue to play on it. But if you want to play Starfield, PC and Xbox. Sorry. All I can really say is 'I apologize,' because I'm cetain that's frustrating to folks. But there's not a whole lot I can do about it."
The fear that circulated when Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda and its studios, for $7.5 billion was this would mean that franchises like Starfield or even established IPs like The Elder Scrolls would no longer grace Sony's platform. This was confirmed by Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, once the acquisition was complete. Bethesda was bought to bring exclusives to the Xbox platform. While we have no information as to what future releases in established cross-platform IP will mean long term, Microsoft is still honoring exclusivity deals made with Sony and Bethesda before the purchase, namely with Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop.
Starfield was shown off a smidge during the Xbox + Bethesda E3 2021 press conference over the weekend, giving a glimpse in-engine with an alpha trailer. Keep in mind, in-engine doesn't mean gameplay, so the final product could look and feel very different from what we saw, but it does start to paint that early picture. If you were hoping for The Elder Scrolls VI news, that was absent from E3 2021 this year.
