The Xbox and Bethesda Games showcase at E3 2021 finally confirmed that Starfield will be a Series X and Series S exclusive for PC and Xbox. Reaction from PS5 and old PlayStation fans was not positive, as the game has the potential to be a "Skyrim in space."

A few days later, Pete Hines, Bethesda's senior vice president of marketing and communications, apologized to PlayStation fans. In an interview with GameSpot, Hines said, "I don't know how to allay the fears and concerns of PlayStation 5 fans: 'I'm a PlayStation 5 player myself, and I've played games on the PlayStation 5. But if you want to play 'Starfield,' it's PC and Xbox. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, that's all I can say."

I don't think you need to apologize.

Hines explained that the Xbox and PC exclusivity of "Starfield" will allow Bethesda to take full advantage of the latest Xbox consoles and PC hardware, saying that the "narrow focus" of making games for specific platforms will allow better development. This will also be the case with "Deathloop," which will be released exclusively for PS5 and PC in December, Hines said.

This is a delicate point. Bethesda's big games are often plagued by bugs at launch. Take the wonderful "Skyrim" as an example. It must not have been easy for Bethesda, as it was developed for both the PS3 and Xbox 360, which have very different underlying hardware.

But aside from that, Bethesda and its parent company ZeniMax Media were acquired by Microsoft. So it's no surprise that Microsoft is looking to take advantage of this investment in the publisher and its re-invented developers to bring more exclusive titles to Xbox and Windows 10 PCs.

Having Microsoft's financial muscle makes sense for Bethesda, since making a big triple-A game is not cheap. The same goes for Microsoft's efforts to extract more value from its deal, even if it might get in the way of a major competitor from Japan.

When Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax Media was first announced, I remember thinking that it would probably not result in a major Bethesda game monopoly because Microsoft could still make money through Sony consoles. However, my colleague Rory Mellon argued the opposite, and was somewhat proven right.

And as much as I thought Bethesda would keep its biggest games as multiplatform games, the harsh reality is that money talks, and games are not just a bunch of hobbyists and coders making fun stuff for us to play It is an industry.

But I think this exclusivity is actually a good thing, at least for "Starfield".

As Hines mentioned, focusing development on one console platform (1.5 if you include Series S) allows for tighter development. And this would lead to a more complete game as a whole.

Ultimately, "Starfield" may be ported to the PS5. If that happens, all the effort expended in opposing the launch game may be carried over to Sony's consoles, but this is my own speculation.

While some may bemoan Bethesda becoming part of Microsoft, I think it's a positive thing, even if it means Xbox exclusivity for developers' big games. This is because Microsoft has vast resources, including money, engineers, powerful developer tools, machine learning research, and a huge cloud infrastructure, all of which Bethesda can leverage.

All of this could lead to more interesting game features such as cloud-powered AI and high-fidelity procedurally generated worlds, as in Starfield. Alternatively, Bethesda could leverage Microsoft's coding and software expertise to ensure that "Starfield" is optimized for various Windows 10 machines and runs flawlessly on the new Xbox consoles.

In addition, Microsoft is expanding Xbox Cloud Streaming to allow Xbox One consoles to stream Xbox Series X games, and bringing game streaming to the browser, so that iPads and iPhones, like Android

These are all part of a larger effort to make it possible to stream the best games from the Xbox One console to the iPad and iPhone, just like Android.

All of this means that even those struggling to find a restock of Xbox Series X games or those without access to the best gaming PCs may be able to access Starfield under Microsoft's umbrella. Thanks to Microsoft's cloud technology (Azure has the second largest cloud infrastructure in the world), Starfield's Xbox and PC exclusivity may, ironically, make gaming more accessible.

More PS5 and Xbox exclusives is also a good thing overall. Sure, finding a PS5 restock is a nightmare, and buying two nearly $500 consoles is not the most affordable thing in gaming. But the fact that there are games made and optimized for specific consoles means that both will be attractive devices. Therefore, if one gets tired of the other after a few years, it can be replaced with the other.

So rather than feeling the need to apologize for the "Starfield" exclusive game, Mr. Hines should promote it as fuel to make "Starfield" the best it can be when it is released on November 11, 2022. And this approach of exclusive games could be very good for game fans in the long run.