Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has been talking in a new interview with Bloomberg as part of the launch of the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, confirming once again that Xbox is still looking to acquire more studios.
Asked about the recent deal to acquire ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, Spencer highlighted the acquisition nearly doubles the size of Xbox Game Studios, but he's still after more.
"Games are what gamers play. We build these platforms and services to deliver the best games to gamers everywhere, so we need a great supply of first party teams. Bethesda nearly doubles the size of our first party studios, meaning the studios that build games as part of Xbox, and we're still out there looking for other teams. It's important that we have a continued supply of great games for our gaming subscription and platforms."
Spencer previously highlighted back in July that his team is "always out there talking to people", and that according to the higher-ups at Microsoft, "there's been no signal at all that we should be slowing down".
Which studios would you like to see Microsoft acquire next? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments 23
Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios...heard they make pretty good over the shoulder single player games.... Xbox first party is lacking in this one genre so that would fix that lol.
Seriously though i expect some smaller studios like blooper to be brought in-house and lots of talk regarding a Japanese studio. No idea who it could be... although Sony is technically a Japanese studio....hmmmmm
@Krzzystuff
Coming from PS4 I've had my share of third person action adventure games, but I acknowledge that Xbox could use some more of that. Sega seems like a good target. Perhaps Konami.
Fromsoftware would be awesome. They made Xbox exclusives once, they can do it again!
I'm personally hoping for Sega, Bloober Team and Dontnod as potential candidates. Sega is home to Yakuza and JRPGs like Persona as well as Shin Megami Tensei, which would mean that Microsoft would finally have some great first-party JRPGs in their portfolio. On top of that, Bloober would deliver some exceptional horror experiences like The Medium and Dontnod would deliver captivating story-driven experiences like Tell Me Why. Since Microsoft is looking for variety in their first-party teams, not to mention first-party output on Game Pass, having these studios on board would be very fitting.
In Phil we trust..
Only way to make me jump in on Xbox series X would be if they buy FromSoftware, all thought that would be sad, their games are to good to skip any console! Yes Bloodborne should come to Xbox =P
I am gonna sound like I am beating a dead horse. But this makes alot of sense. You will see the same with sony and all the other big publishers in the next 3-5 years (if google and amazon also start) we will see the industry consolidate alot so same amount of developers just all owned under a bigger company.
As you see take two expanding, tencent never stops, microsoft prepping for what I dub the cloud war (lol console was ppfftt ) amazon and google dropping large cash to purchase anyone they can to make the splash they need for there cloud services to seem attractive. Sony will buy some as well (remember they are still looking and almost bought warframe)
Not including things like thq nordic is massive and always gobbling up people.
This makes sense for them but I hope its to supplement and not instead of, organically growing their own first party studios. Good for the long term and for job creation.
My hunch is this is to supplement and because organically growing takes time. They need to do more like The Initiative in the long term.
@Bmartin001
You beat me to it!!! Lol. đ
@LtSarge
I completely agree. Sega would be huge. But I would love to see them pick up Bloober Team & Dontnod.
Obviously, Moon Studios is another one that makes sense.
They have more than enough money to spend. But I don't like that it's heading to an exclusivity war.
IO Interactive
CD Project Red
Sega's not up for sale. They just sold off their failing arcade business, but that's all the more reason they're focusing on the publishing business. Plus we don't need Sonic to arm the console war kiddies with fodder for why XBox games aren't as good as Playstation games.
@Krzzystuff No need to buy SIWW, XBox needs Japanese content to fill a gap, and they no longer have any to offer....
Like to see some Japanese company sega/atlus maybe spike chunsoft
@Rjak
Sony does it, so why shouldnât Microsoft. Microsoft just has a bigger âhammerâ than Sony does.
And with Google, Amazon, Tencent, etc with all that $ out there, Microsoft is trying to build the Game Pass library.
@KelticDevil yeah I don't like that either. Making a game mode 1 year exclusive, keeping it away from other players is just ridiculous. Same with the timed exclusives.
Yeah, it's all about money, and I fear it won't improve anything for gamers in the long run.
@KelticDevil This is actually an interesting point. Instead of thinking "Microsoft is taking games away from PlayStation and Nintendo", you could see it as Microsoft "saving" these games from being exclusive on Google, Amazon etc., i.e. systems/services people care much less about.
Hypothetically speaking of course, if the situation had been different and Google (instead of Microsoft) had acquired ZeniMax then people would be even more upset that Bethesda games were exclusive on Stadia.
I think once more acquisitions from Google and Amazon start occurring then people will finally realise that what Microsoft is doing is good. Even if those people aren't fans of Xbox, I highly doubt that they would choose a system like Stadia over an Xbox.
@LtSarge
Thatâs what I have been saying. The PlayStation fans get all pissed at Xbox because they bought Bethesda. But, in my opinion, it wasnât about that.
Itâs more about Google, Amazon, etc. Sony doesnât have the $ to make a purchase like that anyways. But the other ones do. And Phil even stated in the past that he views those other big $ companies as more competition to Xbox than Sony.
But try telling this all to a PlayStation fan & they go in âfanboy modeâ real quick. Lol.
@Royalblues YES! I love trails series... There should be more of that jrpg on xbox
I am a huge fan of Xbox Nintendo and Sega. Hope xbox can acquire Sega and save Sega! And but larian to make xbox an unbeatable place for rpg lover
I hope they do buy more studios, means more day 1 games for us at no extra cost
@endlessleep @Royalblues I didn't mention it because I was doubtful anyone here has heard of them, but I do think that Falcom would be an excellent addition to Xbox Game Studios. I think having franchises like The Legend of Heroes and Ys on Game Pass would significantly help to popularise them. These are literally some of the most underrated JRPGs and they're absolutely phenomenal and definitely deserve more attention. If only more people could discover or try them out then I can guarantee they would instantly become more popular. Also, I can just imagine what Falcom would be able to create with an increased budget.
@LtSarge yes i agree that their games are very underrated so much so they feel like niche games based on their sales. Falcom themselves announced few months ago that total sales of the ENTIRE Trails series only amount to 5 millions. Surely Falcom would be great addition to XGS but idk man they financially seems fine enough and had plans for releasing many of their games to multiple consoles(minus Xbox as usual) & PC so maybe it's hard for Phil to convince them for now
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