The Federal Trade Commission’s request for an injunction stopping that acquisition heads toward opening arguments this week, the federal regulator cites one piece of what it calls “powerful evidence” that it can’t trust Microsoft’s assurances. In short, as the FTC puts it, “Microsoft’s actions following its 2021 acquisition of ZeniMax speak louder than Defendants’ words.”
Bear in mind that Bethesda/Zenimax weren’t in the best shape when MS brought them. They were increasingly focussing on GASS and love service titles after a string of critically loved but low selling titles like Prey. They were taking bags for Sony for times exclusivity on every title and were in talks to do so with Starfield too. We’ve just seen Bethesda be allowed a whole extra year on SF to polish under MS, where as if they were still independent we may have got a multi format but it would have been rushed out buggy and unfinished by Zenimax last year.