"Microsoft's Acquisition of Bethesda Aimed to Prevent Starfield's PlayStation Exclusivity"

Xbox executive Phil Spencer alleged that one of the motivations for buying Bethesda was to block Sony from securing console exclusivity on Starfield, following Sony's deals for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo. While it's unclear what kind of information Xbox was acting on, assuming the deal was similar to previous ones, it probably would have been one-year timed console exclusivity. However, following Microsoft's buyout of Bethesda, Starfield will never release on PlayStation, nor will any of Bethesda's other games.