{"id":118299,"date":"2020-09-21T13:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T13:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/370520"},"modified":"2020-09-21T13:22:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T13:22:00","slug":"microsoft-buys-zenimax-media-and-the-elder-scrolls-dev-bethesda-for-7-5-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/09\/21\/microsoft-buys-zenimax-media-and-the-elder-scrolls-dev-bethesda-for-7-5-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft buys ZeniMax Media and The Elder Scrolls dev Bethesda for $7.5 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft is moving to acquire Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in cash.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a huge statement of intent from Microsoft, which will now be able to count <em>The Elder Scrolls<\/em> and<em> Fallout <\/em>developer Bethesda among its first-party studios.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The planned acquisition&nbsp;will include all of ZeniMax&#8217;s publishing offices and development studios, including Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bethesda franchises including <em>The Elder Scrolls<\/em>, <em>Fallout<\/em>, <em>DOOM<\/em>, <em>Quake<\/em>, <em>Wolfenstein<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Dishonored<\/em> and more will also be included in the deal. The company&#8217;s current structure and leadership team will remain intact.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft has revealed that all of Bethesda&#8217;s franchises will also be added to Xbox Game Pass for console and PC, making the subscription service a more tantalizing proposition as we head into the next console generation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With the addition of Bethesda, Microsoft will grow from 15 to 23 creative studio teams and will be adding Bethesda\u2019s iconic franchises to Xbox Game Pass,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/2020\/09\/21\/microsoft-to-acquire-zenimax-media-and-its-game-publisher-bethesda-softworks\/\">reads a press release<\/a>. &#8220;This includes Microsoft\u2019s intent to bring Bethesda\u2019s future games into Xbox Game Pass the same day they launch on Xbox or PC, like <em>Starfield<\/em>, the highly anticipated, new space epic currently in development by Bethesda Game Studios.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>ZeniMax chairman and CEO Robert Altman said the deal is a &#8220;natural progression&#8221; of its long running partnership with Microsoft.&nbsp;&#8220;This is a thrilling day for this company, our employees, and our fans. We have enjoyed a close partnership with Microsoft for decades, and this deal is a natural progression of those years working together,&#8221; he commented.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The big winners today are our fans. We are continuing to develop our slate of AAA games, but now with Microsoft&#8217;s scale and entire Game Stack, our games can only get better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The transaction is expected to close in the second half of the 2021 fiscal year, subject to customary closing conditions and the completion of a regulatory review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft is moving to acquire Bethesda Softworks parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in cash.&nbsp; It&#8217;s a huge statement of intent from Microsoft, which will now be able to count The Elder Scrolls and Fallout developer Bethesda among its first-party studios.&nbsp; The planned acquisition&nbsp;will include all of ZeniMax&#8217;s publishing offices and development studios, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}