Gamers have begun speculating that Starfield, Redfall, and The Elder Scrolls VI will be exclusive to Xbox and PC based on a new statement that Microsoft has issued to the FTC following the agency’s decision to sue the company over its proposed $69 billion acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, alleging that the deal could hurt consumers and competition in the game industry.
“The complaint’s reference to Microsoft’s recent acquisition of ZeniMax—a set of gaming studios acquired in 2020—has no relevance to the current transaction,” Microsoft wrote in response to the antitrust suit filed by the FTC on December 8 before confirming some of its future plans regarding exclusivity.
“Xbox anticipates that three future titles, all of which are designed to be played primarily alone or in small groups, will be exclusive to Xbox and PCs,” said Microsoft. “But consistent with its historic approach, Xbox has continued to release new updates of existing ZeniMax games such as Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online on both Xbox and PlayStation, because these games are designed to be played together by broad communities of gamers on different platforms.”
The names of these games have been redacted from the public version of the docket, but two of these are presumably Starfield and Redfall, as neither have been advertised for any platforms aside from Xbox and PC.
Starfield is described as a next-generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, while Redfall is an open-world co-op FPS involving vampires.
Aside from The Elder Scrolls VI, some are speculating that the third title could be Bethesda’s Indiana Jones game, which is being developed by Wolfenstein studio MachineGames.
“The game will tell a wholly original, standalone tale set at the height of the career of the famed adventurer,” reads a teaser for the game that was first announced by Lucasfilm Games and Bethesda Softworks on January 21, 2021.