No, Microsoft are not making ZeniMax part of 'Vault' [updated]
It's been a confusing day
Microsoft announced their intention to purchase Bethesda parent company ZeniMax last September. Currently, they're still in the process of getting permission to take ZeniMax's hand in corporate marriage from all the necessary legal and legislative bodies and all. As part of that process, Microsoft are apparently planning to create a new company called "Vault" that ZeniMax will be merged with. But contrary to initial reports (ours included), the cute name is only temporary.
The name appears in a notification to the European Commission, whose permission Microsoft have requested to proceed with their planned $7.5 billion purchase of ZeniMax and its subsidiaries including Bethesda Game Studios, iD Software, Arkane, and others.
"The concentration is accomplished by way of a merger pursuant to which a newly created Microsoft subsidiary ('Vault') will be merged with and into ZeniMax," reads the relevant part of the notice.
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However, in the middle of today's hubbub, the folks of UESP pointed out that another filing from January makes clear that name won't stick. "Following this merger, Vault will cease to exist and ZeniMax will survive, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft," it says. So Vault will be vaulted, lost like so many vault dwellers trapped in weird experiments.
Shortly after their original purchase announcement, Microsoft confirmed they intend to honor the planned PS5 timed exclusivity for Deathloop and GhostWire: Tokyo. The've also said they want to buy more studios, making them another one of the giant companies gobbling up game studios and further consolidating the games industry.