Starfield is going to be one of Microsoft"s biggest first-party launches ever for its Xbox Series S and X consoles when it is released in September. However, it looks like that the sci-fi RPG could have been an exclusive, at least for a while, for Sony"s PlayStation consoles.
Windows Central, reporting from Day Two of the current court battle between Microsoft and the US Federal Trade Commission, stated that Xbox head Phil Spencer, under questioning from the FTC"s lawyer, said that Microsoft had heard a few years ago that Starfield could skip the Xbox platform.
Spencer stated this was one of the reasons why Microsoft decided it was time to buy more developers to secure first-party content for Xbox consoles. That resulted in the company buying several developers, and also the 2021 deal to buy ZeniMax Media, which includes Starfield"s development team Bethesda Game Studios.
While it"s not a complete confirmation that Sony wanted Starfield as a PlayStation exclusive before Microsoft came in and bought ZeniMax, it"s certainly very likely. Sony did have a signed one-year PlayStation exclusive deal for two ZeniMax games, Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo. Those agreements were kept even after Microsoft closed the deal to purchase ZeniMax.
While Starfield will now be an Xbox exclusive for consoles, The Verge reports that Spencer would not confirm that Bethesda Game Studios"s next game, The Elder Scrolls VI, would also be an Xbox console exclusive, He stated, "It’s so far out it’s hard to understand what the platforms will even be at this point."
The FTC is asking the judge, in this case, to put a preliminary injunction on Microsoft"s plans to acquire another game publisher, Activision Blizzard, before the previously agreed-upon deadline of July 18. The FTC is trying to prove such a deal would curtail competition in the console game industry.