Microsoft: Redfall Sold Minimal Figures, Future ZeniMax Titles Will Come To PlayStation

During the latest round of legal proceedings by FTC in the Microsoft-Activision merger, the American company shockingly uncovered that Redfall generated “minimal” sales on launch. In the hearing, Microsoft also expanded on the exclusivity of its first-party titles, saying that even though Redfall/Starfield will stay unique to Xbox and PC, future ZeniMax titles will come to other platforms like PlayStation and Nintendo.

Microsoft:
– Redfall/Starfield are Xbox/PC-only: "keeping with the need to offer some exclusive content while mitigating the economic costs and damage to its player-focused brand"
– Redfall "generated minimal sales"
– "many other" future ZeniMax titles will be shipped on PS/Nint

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 22, 2023

Axios journalist Stephen Totilo reported all of this info from FTC’s most recent hearing for the acquisition of Activision by Microsoft. In its latest bid to convince America’s antitrust body to greenlight the merger, the tech giant shed some light on the company’s exclusivity principles. As per Totilo, Microsoft said that its basis for making Starfield an exclusive is to “mitigate the damage done to its player-focused brand.

Keeping with the need to offer some exclusive content while mitigating the economic costs and damage to its player-focused brand.”

Therefore, both Redfall and Starfield will remain exclusive to the PC and Xbox ecosystem and it seems like the company’s reasoning for this move is to meet the need for exclusive content. In addition, Microsoft also unveiled some info regarding the sales of Redfall, saying the Arkane shooting title only generated minimal sales. The gaming giant didn’t provide any exact numbers, but they are probably very low.

Furthermore, Microsoft also gave us some details about the platforms future ZeniMax titles will launch on. In the past few days, the developer has become a major bone of contention in the Microsoft-Activision deal. Basically, the FTC pointed out how since the American tech giant bought ZeniMax in September 2020, its games have become exclusive to Xbox consoles.

As noted before, the FTC's opposition to the Microsoft – Activision deal very much involves how Microsoft's purchase of ZeniMax went

It's a big part of the FTC's latest filing today…

Basically: MS went exclusive with ZeniMax games, so are incentivized to do it here, too pic.twitter.com/xFaRW473Nc

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 21, 2023

The holding company owns Arkane (developer of Redfall), Tango Gameworks (developer of Hi-Fi Rush), and the legendary Bethesda Game Studios (the creator of Starfield). Many of the new games from these developers have been Xbox console exclusives, while they previously launched on PlayStation too. Consequently, the FTC believes that as Microsoft went for exclusivity with ZeniMax titles, the same could happen with Activision.

However, in this new hearing, Microsoft says that “many other” future ZeniMax titles will launch on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. No specifics were provided about the nature of these games, but as per Stephen, this is the company’s supposed stance. Many fans are assuming that the change could be influenced by the failure of Redfall while others say the American tech behemoth could be talking about multiplayer only.