EU To Decided Microsoft’s Acquisition Of Bethesda On March 5

It has been a few months since Microsoft caused a real bang and announced the takeover of Zenimax Media, which owns Bethesda, among others. Now the EU will decide whether the deal can go ahead like this.

This is reported by the Reuters and names the date that is so important for Zenimax Media, Bethesda and Microsoft: it should be on March 5th. Zenimax Media owns a number of game studios such as Bethesda Softworks and id Software. Behind it are well-known games like Doom, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls.

Microsoft Contacted EU

Reuters has not yet been able to find out in which direction the EU Commission’s decision will go. Microsoft requested approval from the European Commission for the deal on January 29, according to a filing on the EU executive’s website. It remains uncertain whether this major takeover will pass without any conditions. So far it is also not known whether competitors may have spoken out against the deal or whether an “opponent” has already turned to the EU.

Exclusivity?

While most of Bethesda’s big titles have so far been released for PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles, the takeover gives Microsoft completely new opportunities – namely to develop many new titles exclusively for its own platforms. Microsoft had already underlined that exclusivity for games will always be decided on a case-by-case basis. Bethesda has two PlayStation 5 exclusives, Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, under development.

Nothing about that will change for the time being, even if the deal with Microsoft could mean that it will be the last of its kind with Sony for the Playstation. The ZeniMax acquisition, valued at approximately $ 7.5 billion, is a bulk buy in a series of acquisitions Microsoft is attempting to use to bolster the Xbox brand. Studios like Obsidian – former Fallout developer -, inXile, Double Fine, Ninja Theory and more have been swallowed up by Microsoft in recent years.