Yesterday, Microsoft made an unexpected announcement which might very well turn the tide of console wars to their favor. Apparently, Microsoft has bought ZeniMax Media, one of the biggest companies connecting game developers and publishers out there. Microsoft announced a 7.5 billion dollar deal to purchase Bethesda’s parent company which also includes studios like id Software and Arkane. This means that franchises such as Doom, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dishonored, Wolfenstein, and more are now first-party Xbox games. Not bad, huh?

Well, fans of these franchise games who primarily play these on their PlayStation consoles started to worry. The main question on their mind is “what this means for the future?” and the answer is fairly simple – probably nothing much. It’s hard to imagine Xbox to start flexing and change its whole politics towards Xbox Game Studios’ game releases. Even now, most Xbox Game Studios titles are also available on PlayStation as well. However, the generation shift is a great time to change politics and boost some Xbox hardware sales with a couple of big-name exclusives.

On the other hand, we don’t really see how Microsoft could do such a thing without enraging certain gaming fans. It also doesn’t feel smart to scale down the potential game audiences in favor of boosting hardware sales. At least for now. The most likely scenario is that this purchase is just another move to further increase the value of the Xbox Game Pass library and make Xbox Series S more appealing.

Or Xbox might release a bunch of AAA exclusives with known franchise names and leave PlayStation fans behind… Shit! We’re worried too!

According to Phil Spencer, Xbox always was in favor of the “hands-off” approach when it came to influencing studios’ decisions. However, console war is a dirty business and having such an ace in a hole is tempting. Phil Spencer doesn’t deny that many things could happen in the future and upcoming Bethesda titles will be released on other platforms on a “case by case basis.”

So here you have it… All Bethesda’s (and EA’s) games on Xbox Game Pass, a few big-name exclusives, and cheaper hardware. You move, Sony!