(I really should change this to Bethesda Softworks, not Bethesda Game Studios).
Have a feeling this will be light for a while, Lol. Bethesda sometimes goes through more quieter periods like this. We've gone from having Indiana Jones, Deathloop, Elder Scrolls VI, Starfield and Ghostwire announced to just Elder Scrolls and Indiana Jones. Bethesda in recent history as well prefers to have a shorter announce-release marketing cycle.
I do think they've done their part for Xbox though, aside from 2022 being light on both parties, Bethesda did great in 2023 with Hi-Fi Rush and Starfield (Quake II if you want to count that). Two GOTY's Imho. Starfield and Forza Motorsport should be good until early 2024 but I think this will be where Bethesda goes into a relatively quiet period for releases while they've been popping off the past couple years.
I think we could if we're lucky get ID Software next year though and then Zenimax/Indiana Jones in 2025. Especially on ID's part as Phil was heavily hinting about it at the June showcase, as if it's close to being revealed. But XGS is filling 2024 quite nicely already with Flight Sim 2024, Towerborne, Avowed and Hellblade 2 thus far with more unannounced so only one thing from BGS will be fine.
I do think Bethesda Softworks regardless of being apart of Xbox or not should acquire/have acquired more though, they always seemed pretty small to me, not just in employee size but studio size, I believe Zenimax is among the smallest in both metrics of all the major publishers. I would like to see Zenimax acquire a studio or two under Xbox.
Their last acquisition or studio creation was in 2019 and those were Roundhouse (seems to be a small support studio) and Alpha Dog (very small mobile studio). Bit surprised they didn't jump onboard the acquisition craze during the pandemic. Would like to see them add another original AAA or two along with further support networks for BGS.
