Todd Howard was recently on the Lex Fridman podcast for a massive near 3 hour podcast where he discussed everything from Starfield to The Elder Scrolls to working within Xbox. On the podcast Howard was asked about Xbox exclusivity for games like Starfield and says it’s “not unique” for them.
He mentions they’ve had great success on Playstation and loves what they’re doing, but that the company has a history of exclusivity on Xbox. In the interview he explains saying, “Morrowind is basically exclusive to Xbox, Oblivion was exclusive to Xbox for a long period of time, Skyrim Dlc was exclusive… our initial stuff is all Xbox.”
It is interesting to hear Howard retell the history of Bethesda and how it is tied with Xbox, showing that Bethesda Game Studios specifically has always held a close relationship with Microsoft. There has been a lot of hand wringing about whether or not Starfield and other Bethesda games being Xbox exclusive is fair play or not, but as of now it seems Todd Howard and Co are ready to focus on Xbox as they continue to build their relationship.
