The US & EU Approve Microsoft’s ZeniMax Acquisition

Well, it is official: Microsoft has become Disney. Ok, that’s a bit hyperbolic and makes it sound like Bethesda (and others) is Lucasfilm in that comparison, but I think I am right in equating the two. However, the deal for Bethesda seemed to be worth more to Microsoft than Star Wars and Indiana Jones meant to Disney. The former was a $7.5 billion deal, and the latter was a $4.05 billion deal. Equally, the deal also exceeded that of the mid-2014 deal to purchase Minecraft developer Mojang for $2.5 billion.

Of course, this deal includes more than just Bethesda from the ZeniMax Media deal, but that’s where the puns… fallout. I hate myself too, don’t worry. However, both the European and U.S. exchange commissions have approved the largescale acquisition of the publisher and its developer/publishing subsidiaries. This includes titles such as Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Dishonored, Rage, Prey, the upcoming Deathloop, Quake, The Evil Within, and Wolfenstein, to name a few. This is ignoring the upcoming titles such as Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI, Wolfenstein III from this recent reboot, and the as yet untitled Indiana Jones project.

This bolsters the already large first-party offerings under Microsoft’s Xbox banner. Now it plays host to developers such as id Software, Bethesda, Arkane, Machine Games, Tango Gameworks, and more. In a statement made by the European exchange commission, they stated: “The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the combined entity’s limited market position upstream and the presence of strong downstream competitors in the distribution of video games.” They went to on state, “The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure.”

To celebrate the confirmation of the acquisition, Phil Spencer mentioned when speaking via an Xbox Wire post that yes, with the inclusion of the publisher/developer branch “some new titles in the future […] will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.” The word that should be underlined before some get very angry is “some,” not all. Of course, we’re speaking of far down the line when there are new titles to be announced and shown, but it would be hard to believe they’d do this to the likes of Fallout. Yet some honestly believe they would in a perverse “Microsoft/Xbox hates me and me alone” mindset. We can only take Spencer on his word, for all that is worth to you.

If you are someone not on the side of the long-dead “console wars” yelling about how this is the end of humanity and happen to have Game Pass, it might be good news for you right now. Spencer also noted that the games available on the Xbox One & Series X/S currently will be coming to the Game Pass later this week, with more details yet to come. Several games are already or were previously featured on the system, including Fallout 3, which is a great way to get into the older games in the series.