Phil Spencer, Microsoft's gaming chief, declared that hundreds of millions of folks will have access to the firm's new extraterrestrial video game, which it received as part of its 2021 ZeniMax acquisition, on Wednesday.
Microsoft CEO of gaming Phil Spencer revealed on Wednesday that the company is experiencing "huge demand" for its latest video game Starfield. Spencer affirmed Microsoft’s goal of making the game as accessible to players as possible, across PCs, Xbox consoles, and other cloud-based devices provided by their Game Pass subscription service. The acquisition of Bethesda Game Studios' parent company ZeniMax for $8.1 billion made Starfield the first new universe from Microsoft in 25 years. Microsoft looks to gain an edge over rivals Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Switch with Starfield, and while gaming revenue only accounts for 6% of Microsoft’s sales, their Xbox content and services had seen 5% growth in the second quarter. Microsoft is also on the cusp of obtaining publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, though the deal has been met with some regulatory snags.
The expansive open-world game features more than 1,000 planets for players to explore, and before the acquisition, ZeniMax was planning to release the game on PlayStation. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan noted his dissatisfaction with Starfield becoming a Microsoft exclusive. Spencer noted that more players have already bought the new-gen exclusives than all other generations combined. Starfield holds the most wish-list notifications for Microsoft on their Steam game store, and it currently has a score of 86 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 55 reviews from critics. Spencer indicated tens of millions of their Game Pass subscribers had the opportunity to play the game on Wednesday, and in January 2022, the service had more than 25 million subscribers.
Though Spencer chose to remain silent on the possibility of Starfield debuting on the PlayStation, he did promise some of Activision’s most popular titles would remain available on the console through Sony’s agreement signed in July. Microsoft has also been working to smooth over regulators’ concerns about the Activision hire by ensuring that their games remain on Nintendo consoles, Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming offering, and other services. A new proposal was submitted to the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority in August, involving the transfer of cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft for 15 years in the event of the deal closing. The initial January 2022 announcement of the Activision Blizzard takeover was aiming for a June 2023 closure, but Microsoft and Activision settlement are now looking into October 18.
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