Xbox Head Phil Spencer stated today, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, that Xbox is not yet done acquiring studios. The company currently has 23 development studios, with Spencer noting that there is no set number nor time period for more acquisitions to occur.
During the interview, Spencer stated that:
So we’re always looking for people who we think would be a good match and teams that would be a good match with our strategy. So we’re definitely not done.
There’s no quota. There’s no kind of timeline where I have to go acquire studios by a certain time, but if we find a studio where we have a good fit, we share what we’re trying to go do and what they’re trying to go do, and if we feel we can both get better together, absolutely.
Over the past few years, Microsoft has made several high-profile studio purchases in an attempt to correct their biggest issue in the last generation of consoles, the lack of a diverse lineup of first-party titles. This has included Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, Obsidian Entertainment, and Double Fine to name a few. It ultimately culminated with the company paying over 7 billion to acquire Zenimax, which included Bethesda, Machinegames, Arkane, and others.
While it is hard to say what purchases Microsoft will make next, there are currently is a rumor that they are testing their compatibility with three studios. These include Crystal Dynamics, the Square Enix-owned studio that is helping with the reboot of Perfect Dark, Avalanche Studios, which are currently developing the Xbox first-party title Contraband, and Hitman developer IO Interactive who are currently working on an Xbox first-party title simply known as Project Dragon.
We will have to wait and see if anything becomes of these rumors.
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