The news that Xbox was going to buy Bethesda caught me by surprise. And not just because of the sheer size of the $7.5bn acquisition.
It surprised me because it hadn’t matched what Xbox had been telling us. I’d interviewed Xbox senior management several times over the proceeding 18 months, and when it came to acquisitions, they were talking about the need for games that would appeal to PC players, and gamers in countries like Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, South America and so on.
Bethesda is a primarily Western-focused games company best-known for RPGs and shooters. Xbox already had Halo and Gears of War and Fable, and just acquired RPG specialists Obsidian. Bethesda didn’t seem to fit the remit.
