Xbox and Bethesda Deal was Years in the Making Already

It seems both parties have been in talks for a while now.

Xbox Head Phil Spencer recently spoke about their recent deal with game company Bethesda.

Spencer revealed in an interview that the plan of acquiring Bethesda was already in the works for a long time already. He stated that it all started with Bethesda parent company ZeniMax and its owner Robert Altman.

“Robert and I’d had those discussions a few years earlier as well, and just in terms of where his journey was and the journey the teams were on there,” shared Spencer. “So this was a discussion that didn’t just come about in months of time, this was over multiple years. We just finally found the right opportunity for both of us–from both an economic standpoint and where the teams were in their journeys.”

Unfortunately, Altman passed away before he could see the merger of Xbox and Bethesda. Spencer regretted that.

With those talks, however, those became signed documents last year, August 2020. This is where they then made the official announcement later on.

Spencer also revealed that he had talks with Todd Howard a while back in a one-on-one discussion, which also lead up to the official announcement.

“We’ve been friends for a long time and I don’t think he’d mind if I shared this,” Spencer revealed. “There was a moment when we both looked at each other when this deal was ready to go down, and we knew we were making a bet on each other.”

And now this is all where it led to: Xbox and Bethesda under one roof.

Interview source: The Gamer