Key figures from Xbox and Bethesda gathered in a roundtable live stream earlier today. They discussed what Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda will translate to in the near and far future.

Xbox head Phil Spencer spoke more about what exclusivity will mean for Bethesda games moving forward. While Microsoft will continue to release Bethesda games due to “existing contractual obligations”, their ultimate goal is to “deliver great exclusive games on platforms where Xbox Game Pass exists”.

He said:

“I’m going to try to be as clear as I can because that’s what I, I just think it’s fair.

So obviously I can’t sit here and say every Bethesda game is exclusive because we know that’s not true.

There’s contractual obligations that we’re going to see through as we always do in every one of these instances.

We have games that exist on other platforms and we’re going to go support those games on the platforms they’re on.

There are communities of players.

We love those communities and we’ll continue to invest in them.

And even in the future, there might be things that have either contractual things or a legacy on different platforms that we’ll go do.

But if you’re an Xbox customer the thing I want you to know is this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists and that’s our goal.

That’s why we’re doing this.

That’s the root of this partnership that we’re building and the creative capability we will be able to bring to market for our Xbox customers, it is going to be the best it’s ever been for Xbox after we’re done here.

What does that mean? Only Xbox consoles (Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X) and PC have access to Xbox Game Pass. PlayStation and Nintendo consoles like PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch do not. This essentially all but means that these platforms that don’t support Xbox Game Pass will not receive future “exclusive” Bethesda games.

For now and in the near future, games like Tango Gameworks’ Ghostwire Tokyo and Arkane Studios’ Deathloop will still be released as PS5 titles with timed exclusivity.

However, the future might as well be all Xbox for Bethesda games. If Sony does that for their owned studios (Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man and more), nothing is stopping Microsoft and Xbox from doing exactly the same thing.

In other related news, 20 Bethesda games will be on Xbox Game Pass tomorrow.

Stay tuned on Kakuchopurei for the latest news and updates. You can watch the live stream Xbox Bethesda live stream below (which is still ongoing at the time of writing):