Wow. I guess it shouldn’t be all that surprising. Starfield is a massive endeavour for Bethesda, so for the sake of a stable, not too buggy launch, it’d be a sensible choice for them to just pick one platform and focus on it. And ofc that would’ve been PlayStation.

The title of the IGN article seems a bit clickbaity. To quote the actual relevant content:

Xbox was worried about losing Starfield after seeing Bethesda titles like Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop head exclusively to PlayStation.

There’s no indication Starfield would have been exclusive without the acquisition, and I’d be incredibly surprised if it would have been, considering it’s frequently viewed as “the third series” alongside The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

Granted I can definitely see the cause for concern, but it seems entirely unwarranted personally.