Microsoft acquired Bethesda back in 2020 in a drastic move when they saw how Sony had been paying Bethesda to keep their games away from Xbox. Not many would know what Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, revealed during the FTV vs. Microsoft hearing where he mentioned how Sony regularly paid competitors to “skip” Xbox and even desktops by making games PlayStation exclusives, and hence, Microsoft had to own Bethesda to compete with the rest. At that moment, the move to acquire Bethesda did look drastic, but after Starfield‘s release, the move has borne fruit.
Starfield goes Live today for gamers who pre-ordered the Premium Edition or the Constellation Edition and received Early Access to the game. While the standard edition of the game costs $69.99, there are more and more gamers who are subscribing to Xbox GamePass to play the game for far less.
Also read: “Holy sh*t this is beautiful”: Starfield Constellation Box is Everything Gaming Fans Ever Dreamed Of
Microsoft Bought Bethesda For $7.5 Billion, Added Bethesda Games To Xbox GamePass
Microsoft’s insane deal to acquire Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media for an outrageous $7.5 Billion, in cash, back in September 2020 ruffled a lot of feathers in the gaming industry. The move was made to compete with others and add Bethesda games to Microsoft’s subscription service, Xbox GamePass. At the time of the acquisition, Microsoft announced there were over 15 million GamePass subscribers and had predicted a sharp rise in the coming years.
That prediction has definitely come to pass, as Microsoft revealed back in January of 2022, that an additional 10 million subscribers had joined Xbox GamePass since the acquisition, taking the number to 25 million subscribers. There were no more official numbers revealed by Microsoft since then, but given the steady number of new subscribers, the overall plan to have more subscribers seems to have definitely come to fruition.
Related: “There will be mods”: ‘Starfield’ Developers Announces a News Xbox Users Have Been Waiting For
Gamers Subscribe To GamePass To Experience Starfield For Far Less
With Starfield coming out in a few days, more and more gamers are subscribing to Xbox GamePass to play the game for far less than the price it costs for the Standard Edition. Microsoft recently canceled their $1 trial GamePass subscription, which was quite popular among new subscribers given the dirt cheap price to try all the games in the subscription. Microsoft also revised its GamePass plans, raising them by a dollar, which has still not stopped the subscription service from getting new gamers.
With Starfield‘s release at $69.99, gamers can still play the game if they subscribe to one of the three Xbox GamePass plans that start at just $9.99. As pictured above, the Ultimate subscription allows players to play GamePass games on Xbox and PC, and costs $16.99 a month, with the other two plans specifically for each of those platforms. The console-only plan costs $10.99 per month, while the PC-only plan comes down to even lower at $9.99 per month.
For gamers looking to play new titles like Starfield and looking to complete the game in a couple of months, this plan should cost less than the Standard Edition of the game. This makes the subscription more valuable and it shouldn’t be a surprise for Microsoft to start seeing a spike while the game launches and is still hot for the remainder of the year.
Todd Howard’s Wholesome Letter To Bethesda Team, Prior To Starfield Early Access Release
Game Director, Todd Howard, has written a heartfelt thank-you letter to his entire team back at Bethesda ahead of the successful release of the game to early-access gamers. Howard recalled how the team was working on a lot of other in-house titles when Starfield was pitched making it quite a tumultuous path for the game’s final release. Howard also thanked Xbox Head mentioning how he had supported Bethesda and all their games, over the past few years since the acquisition. He concluded his letter by handing over the game to gamers starting today as early access goes Live.
Bethesda’s Starfield releases to early access gamers today and is launching for everyone else who bought the game on the 6th of September.
Source: CNet
