Lol if MS is holding a big event and selling merch it has to be exclusive right? Like imagine how embarrassing an event would be just for the games to be multiplatfirm. 

It all actually comes down to "profit" vs "engagement" decision. Microsoft can make more money by going the exclusivity route but they will inevitably lose a chunk of potential player base. Not all Bethesda games players will switch from Playstation to Xbox/PC so they will obviously be left out in the future.

Github is still a mystery to me in terms of how it makes money. From all that happened after acquisition it is actually bound to earn even less money unless I miss something. Even private repos are now free for everyone while they always were hidden behind paywall before MS acquisition.

But let's get back on topic, such comparison is not really correct as it seems, because MS didn't significantly change the way GitHub or LinkedIn make money. In Bethesda's case we talk about potential cut of one of it's revenue streams and most likely the largest one. I can be wrong but Bethesda games sells the most on Playstation. It's a risk and a huge change on how the bought out business operates. But if I were to guess, Microsoft still hasn't decided what to do with Bethesda, so I personally don't anticipate a clear answer on "exclusivity" question during this rumoured March event. I'm not a Microsoft exec but clearly this point of time is not the best one to make such decisions for various reasons.

Don't see why stuff currently in development has to be multiplatform if the platforms aren't currently announced (Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6, Wolfenstein III, etc.) The only concern there would be "Do we want to annoy the developers by scrapping some of their work?" but the work would be small, Bethesda is primarily a PC developer and game development is built through PC then ported to consoles. Plus it wasn't Microsoft's money spent on porting to Playstation so Microsoft is not 'losing' anything by cancelling the PS version.

The only way the purpose of the acquisition being day one Game Pass releases makes sense is if the acquisition was a defensive one (preventing Sony, Amazon or Google from getting them), it makes absolutely zero sense otherwise to acquire a company that has almost as many employees as XGS as a whole, taking on thousands of employees to pay, funding the huge AAA's, just to put them onto Game Pass when they could have done that without acquiring the company and it would have cost them far less both in the short term and long term.

I'd agree that Game Pass would still be pushed either way but not to its full potential, for example, if you continue to release Starfield or Elder Scrolls on Playstation consoles, I can guarantee that is missing out on millions of potential Game Pass customers, they'll be hardcore Elder Scrolls fans who would definitely buy an Xbox if it was the only place to play Elder Scrolls however, they won't swap if it still releases on Playstation consoles, they aren't going to fork out buying an entire new console (or PC) which costs hundreds, just so they can get Elder Scrolls cheaper, people are very happy with paying full price for games, Lol.

They'll also stick to Playstation out of convenience, laziness, brand loyalty or as I said above, they simply don't want to buy an entire new platform just to play a game for cheaper, making them exclusive for lack of a better term would force them into the Xbox ecosystem.

If Microsoft's ultimate goal is Game Pass then making all of Bethesda's titles exclusive to Xbox ecosystems is the only way to go (PC is different as it's an open ecosystem, vast majority of folk are running Windows, if you can play Elder Scrolls on your PC then the odds are very high you can simply take a few clicks (at no cost of buying new hardware) to get Elder Scrolls on GP PC).

It'd be like Disney still releasing stuff on Netflix, it'd make no sense.

They'll miss out of Playstation revenue but we don't know how much it would increase GP Subs if they were exclusive, how much they'd increase XBL Gold subs, how much they'd increase Xbox console sales, how much they'd increase 3rd party revenue now that more people are in the Xbox ecosystem, etc. Thinking about it in terms of "They'll lose Playstation revenue" is short sighted because if they get even a million Playstation users to swap to Xbox, there is multiple ways they can make money of them now that they're in Xbox's ecosystem.

Also, Microsoft doesn't need to do anything to 'help pay the cost of the acquisition' Lol. They literally make back the cost of the acquisition in profits every quarter, their last quarter profits were like, $14bn? 

Moreover, this acquisition was done entirely through cash, of which Microsoft has about $120bn cash sitting in the bank, I can tell you that investors would much rather Microsoft actually use that cash rather than just having it sit there, the money made via Bethesda will be greater than the money made via interest of $7.5bn just sitting there in the bank and that is what Microsoft will be focused on, not making back the whole $7.5bn.

You have to spend money to make money.

And no, investors aren't going to suddenly be concerned about Xbox, I've watched a lot of these quarterly reports and investors barely ask about Xbox or its profitability, Lol, as of right now Xbox is pretty insignificant to Microsoft's revenue/profit as a whole but Satya is giving his 100% support to growing Xbox.

Also Microsoft tends to overpay for stuff a lot, case in point, Github was acquired for $7.5bn and yet has never profited as a company but Microsoft has other goals than simply short term profit, Github is huge in the software world, developer mindshare is what Microsoft is more interested here than pure profit, Microsoft have been recently trying to change their image into a pro-open source company and it also bolsters their Azure efforts which is where Microsoft is making most of its profits and trying to beat its main rival, which is Amazon.

There's also Linkedin, which practically everyone agrees Microsoft massively overpaid for at $26bn, chances of them ever profiting more than that off Linkedin are slim (Linkedin is still operating at a loss) but Linkedin again wasn't purchased simply for short term profit reasons, they want them for the data, for the Azure platform, to improve their relationships with developers, for Microsoft integration, etc.

Most of Microsoft's recent acquisitions have been anything but short term profit, if anything short term losses, the same case should apply to Bethesda, they will be happy to the take the short term for a long term goal, which is growing Game Pass, and the best way to do that is exclusivity, Game Pass is already very likely a loss maker but Microsoft is okay with that because they have a long term vision, get Game Pass to a point where it has enough subscribers to be very profitable, along with pushing xCloud which, runs Azure, which is Microsoft's main focus as a company right now.

And cause Microsoft simply can take short term losses for long term visions cause they're making around $14bn profits every quarter, have a ever increasing trillion dollar market cap and hundreds of billions in cash, investors are very happy, Lol. As I pointed out, Linkedin and Github did not show huge profits, quite the opposite, but investors are loving Microsoft right now cause they're still growing despite that.

I agree with this point, but when it comes to Starfield, it doesn't really make much sense to make it multiplatform because it is a new IP. As for the games like Fallout and TES which are guaranteed to sell tons of copies on Playstation, they will most likely stay multiplat

I agree that MS could make one power move and lets say make Starfield exclusive for 1 year on the PC/Xbox while still leaving the other big hitters like Fallout, Elder scrolls, Doom multiplat.  People tend to forget that development, QA licensing deals and other stuff that comes into play for releaasing a game has a huge cost.  I am sure that the PS development of Starfield is playable just like the PC and Xbox versions and thus a lot of money has been spent making that version.  To just throw away that investment is very pricy even for MS.  Making the game 1 year exclusive and day one purchase on GP could still have a net gain effect and also still sell huge on Sony console if Starfield end up being a huge property.

Lol, if there is any truth to this then it would be some next-level shitty marketing from Xbox, it would mean they knew it wasn't ready to be shown, knew they were delaying it before the gameplay trailer and yet still decided to show it and receive that massive PR backlash, what for? To give them an excuse to delay it? Definitely not worth it, 343's rep has taken yet another hit.

Hope it isn't true but Microsoft marketing is extremely bad sometimes.

What do you guys think about the just confirmed next-gen VR headset for PS5? Do you think Microsoft needs to counter it?

Personally I think MS absolutely needs to counter it, VR is clearly not some failed gimmick like Kinect/PS Move style motion controls were, VR has showed that it is here to stay through continued growth. I don't think MS can allow PS5 to have that advantage of VR support over Xbox. MS needs to either design a proper Xbox VR headset (ideal) or at least offer support for PC VR headsets and Windows Mixed Reality headsets on Xbox Series. 

MS already will have several 1st party studios who are able to support an Xbox VR headset (as well as PC VR headsets) with content, Ninja Theory has VR experience from the Darth Vader VR game they did, Bethesda was pushing quite hard for VR so id, Bethesda Game Studios, Machine, and I believe Arkane all have VR experience/teams now, and MS can either acquire some more VR studios or build a few new VR studios or a few more VR teams at existing studios so that they have enough teams to support a VR headset with content.  

Fair point, yeah, the alternative is a breakdown in communication between 343 and Xbox which isn't good, Lol.

Just wish they simply delayed it without showing the gameplay video, 343's suffered enough hits to their image and trust is at an all time low in them.