Xbox responds to cancelled PlayStation titles following Bethesda acquisition

Xbox has responded to a report claiming that it cancelled PlayStation titles following the Bethesda acquisition.

Last week it was reported that the upcoming vampiric co-op shooter Redfall was on it’s way to PlayStation 5 as well as PC and Xbox Series X|S. However, it was claimed that Microsoft ordered the PS5 version to be cancelled once Microsoft had successfully acquired Bethesda's parent company, ZeniMax Media.

Some have even speculated that if Redfall was initially coming to PlayStation 5, does that mean that Starfield was cancelled on Sony’s console too? Moreover, will The Elder Scrolls VI share the same fate? At this time, we can only speculate and we should always take unconfirmed rumours with a pinch of salt.

That being said, the rumour of Redfall being cancelled on PS5 did come from its director, Harvey Smith. So that’s about as close to being straight from the horse's mouth as it can get.

As reported by PlayStation Lifestyle, in a statement provided to GameSpot, Microsoft attempted to address the rumours regarding Redfall being cancelled on PS5.

“We haven’t pulled any games from PlayStation. In fact, we’ve expanded our footprint of games that we’ve shipped on Sony’s PlayStation since our acquisition of ZeniMax, and the first two games [Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo] we shipped after closing were PlayStation 5 exclusives,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

“We did the same thing since our closing of Minecraft as we extended the reach of that franchise. All of the games that were available on PlayStation when we acquired ZeniMax in March 2021 are still available on PlayStation, and we have continued to do content updates on PlayStation and PC.

“We have always said that future decisions on whether to distribute ZeniMax games for other consoles will be made on a case-by-case basis.”

Make of that statement what you will, but between that statement and the words from Harvey Smith, the reports are very conflicting, to say the least.

If Microsoft had cancelled Redfall on PS5, whether we like it or not, seeing as Microsoft now owns Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media, it has every right to do as it pleases.

Redfall will be released for PC and Xbox Series X|S on 2 May 2023, while Starfield currently has a release date of 6 September 2023. As for The Elder Scrolls VI, we still have no idea when that game will be released.