Fallout 5, Elder Scrolls 6 PlayStation Releases No Longer Guaranteed

The changes at the top of the Xbox ladder have been pretty significant in the last few weeks, with former head Phil Spencer suddenly leaving his position after 35 years, alongside presumed successor Sarah Bond who followed in short order, and with little in the way of an explanation.

Replacement Asha Sharma doesn’t have much of a history on the gaming side of things, though she has spent her brief tenure impressing upon fans that she’s doing her best to learn along the way.

In addition, she is also doing the media rounds in an attempt to communicate to fans what her plans are for the beloved platform, amidst nervousness over the implementation of AI and the future of the hardware itself.

Things Are Changing At Xbox

Xbox

In an interview with Windows Central, Sharma spoke about the potential of a return to an era where console exclusives were king, and she certainly didn’t rule out that being the approach at some point moving forward.

“Right now, I need to learn, candidly. About the ‘why’ of these decisions, what we were optimising for, and what the data says about the Xbox strategy today. That’s the honest answer. I’m looking at lifetime value, not just what happened in a previous moment, or in short-term efficiencies and things like that. The plan’s the plan until it’s not the plan.”

That comes after she responded to fans on Twitter who were vociferously calling for more games to be kept on the Xbox alone, simply saying, “I hear you,” and refusing to rule out any strategic changes at this point.

Whilst Xbox’s strategy might not have been one for the die-hard fans over the last few years, as someone who plays across several platforms, the increased integration between rivals has been a breath of fresh air. So what does all this change mean moving forward?

What Does This Mean For Bethesda’s Games?

Bethesda Game Studios

Over the next few years, Xbox has some huge first-party releases on the way that could make or break the platform for years to come. Fable is probably the biggest of the next year or so, but there’s no date that Bethesda’s slate of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are the real behemoths under their control (possibly alongside Activision Blizzard).

What does this mean for those? Well, it’s a little difficult to know right now with all the chaos, but if they were to stop games like Fallout heading to PlayStation, it would undoubtedly be a monumental moment for the games industry and Xbox, and one that moves it back to a past that it seemed we had firmly left behind.