I’m just really encouraged by the strength that Bethesda’s going to show in our portfolio, and we’re starting to see it already in 2023, and that’s exciting.”Īrkane Studios showed off an extensive new gameplay deep dive for Redfall last week, while also confirming a May release for the open world co-op first person shooter. And we’ve started the year off with our first launch into Xbox and PC, Game Pass. “For us, we obviously closed the ZeniMax acquisition a couple years ago, seeing that Bethesda, ZeniMax being the parent company, is shipping a Hi-Fi Rush, shipping Redfall, has the Elder Scrolls Online update, shipping Starfield… that these games are coming this year. And I like that about our industry - that great games can come from many different places. So sometimes you can predict the games that are going to drive excitement, and sometimes you get surprised. Sometimes, the growth is in games that we expected, and then every so often a Vampire Survivors or now a Hi-Fi Rush comes along and creates its own excitement. And as we’re adding new games and sequels to games, we see the continued growth. “In terms of the growth of Game Pass, it’s been steady. “ Redfall and Starfield are really important games, every first-party game that we’re building is,” Spencer said in a recent interview with IGN.
2023 is shaping up to be a much better year for first party Xbox releases, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer says Bethesda titles in particular – including the likes of Redfalland Starfield– are going to be “really important” for Game Pass.
The first party side of things has been a little lackluster in comparison though, with 2022 having been a very lightly packed year on that front. Game Pass has been an unequivocal success for Microsoft, and over the last couple of years, the service has seen a number of third party titles releasing for it day and date.