Microsoft had a full slate of announcements last month during its pre-E3 press conference. But one of its most surprising involved acquiring a number of studios for internal development including Playground Games, Compulsion Games and, to everyone’s surprise, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice team Ninja Theory.
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It’s clear that the publisher wants to create a devoted house of first-party developers that will make strong games for the Xbox One and Windows PC platforms. But is there a deeper logic to acquiring these studios, alongside Undead Labs and The Initiative? Turns out there is.
While speaking with PC Games Insider, CVP of Microsoft Game Studios Matt Booty explained that there’s something really cool about building up a line-up of powerhouse names for development. “Having a collection of dedicated first-party game development studios is a powerful and unique asset,” he explained. “We are the first to implement new technologies, the first to deliver content for new platforms, the first to explore new business models. It enables us to build a portfolio of exclusive games, and this was the right time to increase that investment. It is also interesting to observe the changes in the industry.
“While the industry is growing across the board, there seems to be fewer teams and studios focused on ‘mid-tier’ games that sit between triple-A blockbusters on one end and smaller indie games on the other. Those are some of the kinds of studios that we’re interested in partnering with right now, studios with teams that can make quality, crafted games that sit just between mid-tier and triple-A and by becoming part of our Microsoft Studios family, can focus on craft and innovation and accelerate their creative growth.”
While there are some projects that will no doubt shine under the Microsoft wing, including Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 4 and Compulsion Games’ reworked We Happy Few, it’s unknown what big project most of them are working on past those. But that just adds to the mystery and Microsoft will no doubt have an announcement once things are good and ready.
All the same, we wish Microsoft and their teams the best of luck. The more great exclusive games there are for Xbox One and Windows 10, the better.
You can watch a quick recap of the press conference below, including some sneak peeks at forthcoming games!
