Xbox boss Phil Spencer addresses potential Elder Scrolls 6 exclusivity

08.09.2023 - 12:25 / videogameschronicle.com / Todd Howard / Phil Spencer / Pete Hines / Stephen Totilo

Microsoft’s head of gaming has addressed the subject of whether The Elder Scrolls 6 will be an Xbox exclusive.

Following this week’s release of Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios’ next game will be a new entry in the long-running fantasy RPG series.

Starfield is available for Xbox Series X/S, PC via Windows and Steam, and Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service, which lets users play titles on a range of devices including mobile phones and even some smart TVs.

It’s Bethesda Game Studios’ first release since Microsoft acquired its parent company ZeniMax Media in 2021. Notably Starfield is not available on PlayStation consoles, which will also be the case for an upcoming Indiana Jones game set to be published by Bethesda Softworks.

In an interview with Bloomberg this week, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked whether Elder Scrolls 6 will also be an exclusive and how Microsoft decides whether it’s on “the right track” with this release strategy.

“We look at it on a case-by-case basis with the games that we build,” he replied. “We want to make sure our games are available in so many different places – on our Xbox consoles, on PC, also via cloud, these games can come to almost any web-enabled device.

“We’re looking at millions and millions of players who will have access to Starfield and other Xbox Game Studios games. It’s really about giving players choice around how they want to play and they build their library of games.”

In a November 2021 interview, Spencer appeared to suggest Elder Scrolls 6 wouldn’t be available on PlayStation, when he said adopting an exclusivity strategy “is not about punishing any other platform”.

However, giving evidence in July as part of Microsoft’s legal battle with the FTC, Spencer was vague about whether he had previously made a public statement saying the game would be Xbox-only.

“[With Elder Scrolls 6], it’s so far out it’s hard to understand what the platforms will even be… We’re talking about a game that’s five-plus years away,” he said (via Axios’ Stephen Totilo).”

Prior to Microsoft completing its ZeniMax acquisition, Starfield director Todd Howard, who is also directing Elder Scrolls 6, said it was “hard to imagine” the latter being released exclusively for Xbox platforms.

However, in an interview published this week, Howard said Starfield’s Xbox console exclusivity resulted in the creation of a better product.

Bethesda publishing boss Pete Hines said last month that Elder Scrolls 6 was “in early development”, but that fans shouldn’t expect more news about the game to be revealed until “a few years after” Starfield’s launch.