Skyrim comes to Xbox Game Pass

Starting on March 12, Xbox Game Pass owners will be able to download Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Wolfenstein: The New Order and over a dozen other games at no extra cost.

Nearly all of Bethesda’s games of the past 10 years will be coming to Game Pass, Microsoft announced in an Xbox Wire blog post, and a handful of these games will also benefit from FPS Boost on Xbox Series X, too.

All 20 games will be available to play on the console version of Xbox Game Pass, but Microsoft says 16 of those titles will be available on PC, console and mobile devices as well through the cloud for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members, meaning it will be possible to play Skyrim and Fallout 4 on your mobile phone.

Here’s the complete list of included games: 

    Dishonored Definitive Edition (Console, PC, Cloud)
    Dishonored 2 (Console, PC, Cloud)
    DOOM (1993) (Console, PC, Cloud)
    DOOM II (Console, PC, Cloud)
    DOOM 3 (Console, PC, Cloud)
    DOOM 64 (Console, PC, Cloud)
    DOOM Eternal (Console, PC, Cloud)
    The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Console, PC)
    The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Console, PC)
    The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (Console, PC, Cloud)
    The Elder Scrolls Online (Cloud, Console)
    The Evil Within (Console, PC, Cloud)
    Fallout 4 (Console, PC, Cloud)
    Fallout 76 (Console, PC, Cloud)
    Fallout: New Vegas (Console)
    Prey (Console, PC, Cloud)
    RAGE 2 (Console, PC, Cloud)
    Wolfenstein: The New Order (Console, PC, Cloud)
    Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (Console, PC, Cloud)
    Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Console, PC, Cloud)

What does the future look like for Bethesda?

The Xbox Game Pass news arrives just hours after a tweet from the General Manager of Games at Xbox, Aaron Greenberg, told Twitter that there'd be a round table discussion with Xbox Chief Phil Spencer about Microsoft's recent acquisition of Bethesda and its studios.
During the round table discussion, Spencer emphasized that the acquisition of Bethesda would be beneficial to Xbox gamers, but stopped shy of explaining what exactly is going to happen in the future with Bethesda titles – including the highly anticipated next game in The Elder Scrolls franchise, The Elder Scrolls 6. The big question that hasn't been answered: will future Bethesda games only come to Xbox consoles?

It seems very, very unlikely that Microsoft will make all Bethesda games first-party exclusives, but Microsoft has said recently that some games will be exclusive or have exclusive functionality on Xbox consoles like the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

During the round table discussion, Spencer emphasized that the acquisition of Bethesda would be beneficial to Xbox gamers, but stopped shy of explaining what exactly is going to happen in the future with Bethesda titles – including the highly anticipated next game in The Elder Scrolls franchise, The Elder Scrolls 6. The big question that hasn't been answered: will future Bethesda games only come to Xbox consoles?

It seems very, very unlikely that Microsoft will make all Bethesda games first-party exclusives, but Microsoft has said recently that some games will be exclusive or have exclusive functionality on Xbox consoles like the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

For Xbox gamers unacquainted with Bethesda's back catalogue of titles, however, their arrival on Xbox Game Pass is as good of a time as any to dive in.

    Don't miss our guide to the best Xbox Game Pass games