But, of course, blame Sony camp and how they eat crow, but DELIBERATELY ignoring what MS said recently and more than a half a year ago :
Last year :
This is part of a series of features with Xbox Game Studios. Check out the teams discuss life as a Microsoft-owned comp…
www.gamesindustry.biz
Yeah, Xbox fans, this is what your leader said. He wouldn't exclude others from being able to play and force to buy Xbox. But Zenimax acquisition happened and now flip-flop. Isn't than nice, Xbox fans
Your relatively closed mindset to the world of consoles is limiting the way you understand what Spencer said
For example, one of the parts you underline:
"Sorry, I am a bit soapboxy with this one.
Gaming is about entertainment and community and diversion and learning new stories and new perspectives, and I find it completely counter to what gaming is about to say that part of that is to lock people away from being able to experience those games.
Or to force someone to buy my specific device on the day that I want them to go buy it, in order to partake in what gaming is about."
Microsoft is for the first time in the world of consoles trying to break the barrier that sees the user forced to buy X hardware to play Y game. Today everyone has a tablet ... a phone, a notebook or a PC you objectively probably already have at home what you need to access Microsott games.
The fact is that you are not satisfied with this but you expect a certain experience. Well in this case Microsoft has once again lowered the barriers to entry by releasing on PC or introducing a low cost console (S series)
And again from your post:
"
September: "case-by-case"
Tuesday: "some new titles in the future will be exclusive"
Today: exclusive games are "the root of this partnership"
Prior to the closing of the acquisition, it was completely illegal for Ms to speak as if they owned Bethesda , so one could expect nothing but vague answers. Indeed, Spencer said several times that he was unable to talk about it.
The case by case rule still remains today what Microsoft is preparing to do. Elder Scroll online is one case, Starfield another, Doom.3 VR is another and so is Deathloop. All different cases that will see completely different actions from Microsoft.
But this does not change (so we come to the last statement today) that Bethesda is a Microsoft First party exactly like Naughty Dog or Sony santa monica are for Sony.
MMO games will be released on PlayStation older games if they see dlc's or expansions, these will come on older versions of games on PlayStation. The agreements made previously will be honored and then Deathloop and Tokyowire will be timed exclusives and will arrive later on Xbox, AND Doom 3 VR will only be released on PlayStation. That's it. The rest or the new games , which are the exact reason why Microsoft spent 7.5b are Microsoft exclusives .... The elder scrolls, Doom, The evil within, Fallout, Starfield and everything that will be produced you can have it only if you have an Xbox or a Windows PC or xcloud on other devices.