One of the biggest gaming deals ever happened just last month when Microsoft plopped $7.5 Billion in cash to acquire Bethesda Softworks along with all of its studios. An immediate question back then was whether some or even all of Bethesda’s titles like the next Doom, The Elder Scrolls VI, the next Dishonored, and others will ever be seen on other consoles like the PS5, with the answer vaguely being a “case by case basis”.

Microsoft spending a huge amount of money only to get these games appear on other platforms seemed counter-productive to the point of the acquisition, and in a recent interview with Kotaku, Phil Spencer speaks about and clarifies some lingering issues and questions.

One of the biggest questions in the interview was very direct and straight to the point – “Is it possible to recoup a $7.5 billion investment if you don’t sell Elder Scrolls VI on the PlayStation?”

Spencer answered concisely “Yes.”

Spencer continues by saying “I don’t want to be flip about that. This deal was not done to take games away from another player base like that. Nowhere in the documentation that we put together was: ‘How do we keep other players from playing these games?’ We want more people to be able to play games, not fewer people to be able to go play games. But I’ll also say in the model—I’m just answering directly the question that you had—when I think about where people are going to be playing and the number of devices that we had, and we have xCloud and PC and Game Pass and our console base, I don’t have to go ship those games on any other platform other than the platforms that we support in order to kind of make the deal work for us. Whatever that means.”

It’s interesting to note that while the “documentation” was not to deprive the other players from playing these (Bethesda’s) games, Spencer quickly shifts to say that they don’t need to ship the games to other platforms to make the deal work. Then again, with the millions of Game Pass Subscribers who will be enjoying these titles day-and-date on the service, it’s not hard to imagine this deal going any other way.

Microsoft have built expertly-engineered machines in both the Series X and Series S, giving players a valid reason to pick up the console coming into the next generation. These consoles will boast of a wide selection of fully optimized launch titles and with the possibility of all of Bethesda’s titles being exclusives, the future of Xbox is looking brighter than ever.