With the acquisition of Bethesda, it’s a matter of time that historic franchises such as Fallout and The Elder Scrolls make their appearance on Xbox Game Pass.
Pete Hines, head of marketing at Bethesda, has hinted that during a podcast with Xbox’s Major Nelson, Phil Spencer, and Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard.
“One of the early mantras that I learned from Todd [Howard] was, ‘We want as many people as possible to play our games.’ It’s a lot of damn work, and a lot of your life you put into making something, so I want as many people to have a chance to experience something I created as possible,” Hines said.
“[Xbox] Game Pass is a great tool to do that,” he added. “So, having more of our back catalog, having all of our back catalog…it’s sort of whatever Phil [Spencer] decides to do and when…but I think it’s great. It’s been great for us. We love to see people play our games, and I can’t wait to see how it continues to grow.”
The label’s back catalog includes several classic masterpieces such as the isometric Fallout games, which could perhaps be ported over consoles and reach Xbox Game Pass on PC quite easily.
Bethesda has already released several titles across Xbox Game Pass in the past, such as Fallout 76, Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, with some of them which have left the service in the past but are likely returning soon.
As announced with the reveal of the acquisition, all the new games from Bethesda are coming to Xbox Game Pass on the day of their original release, and that includes The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield, and its back catalog will soon be covered as well.
The biggest question now is whether or when Bethesda games will become Xbox and PC exclusives going forward.
The publisher has several triple-A much-anticipated releases on the way, including The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield, which have thought to be multi-platform, next-gen productions since their original reveals.
However, with Microsoft acquiring Bethesda, things could change in the future, similar to what has happened with Deathloop from Arkane Studios and GhostWire Tokyo from Tango Gameworks, which have recently been re-announced as PS5 timed console exclusives.