In an interview with Major Nelson, Todd Howard and Pete Hines of Bethesda talked about how much they appreciate Xbox Game Pass.

Microsoft announced on Monday that it acquired Bethesda. Today, Todd Howard, Pete Hines, and Phil Spencer sat down to talk with Major Nelson about the acquisition. The interview ranged from several topics, from disastrous E3 conferences to the purchase of Bethesda. One of the topics was Bethesda’s library coming to Xbox Game Pass. “One of the early mantras that I learned from Todd was that we want as many people as possible to play our games,” said Hines. “It’s a lot of damn work and a lot of your life you put into making something. I want as many people to have a chance to experience something that I created as possible. Game Pass is a great tool to do that for a lot of people.”

Todd Howard spoke about what Game Pass means to him as a creator. “There are games that get lost in green lights for how many copies this game is going to sell, what’s the price point,” said Howard. “At the end of the day, that limits what you want to do sometimes. It opens up the creative opportunities where you can focus on making the best thing that people want to look at and not have to worry about some of the other things that can distract you from making something unique.”

Game Pass is going to be a pivotal part of Xbox’s strategy in the next generation. With games going up to $70, subscription services will be a cheaper alternative to buying triple-A games at launch. Bethesda’s Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo are timed PS5 exclusives. With Microsoft owning Bethesda now, the more affordable alternative to spending $70 on those games is to wait and see if they come to Game Pass. Microsoft is already teasing that Doom: Eternal is coming to Game Pass very soon, with the rest of the catalog to follow in the future.

Microsoft has had a wild week. The announcement of Bethesda’s acquisition lead to the disastrous pre-order day of the Xbox Series X and S. Microsoft also announced that 15 million people have subscribed to Game Pass. Rumors are floating around that Microsoft is planning on buying more studios. Suddenly, Xbox looks like a strong platform despite the delay of Halo Infinite. The Bethesda acquisition almost makes up for this, and works to even the playing field against the might of PlayStation’s first-party lineup. With Game Pass, Xbox is bringing its best to next-gen.

Source: Major Nelson