It’s easy to make fun of Microsoft for not having as many quality exclusives as Sony does. And it’s not a secret either that the big console giant has been facing a lot of criticism lately due to there weak first-party games lineup. So much that Phil Spencer has to say they’ll be on a studio acquiring-spree. They will be acquiring as many studio as they can. And guess what?…they did just that. Microsoft is doubling down on the development of its first-party games.
Microsoft’s Head of Xbox division, Phil Spencer, took to stage during their E3 2018 press briefing to announce that they’ll be establishing a new studio and has acquired four independent game developers to develop Xbox-exclusive games.
The new studio formed by Microsoft is Santa Monica based The Initiative led by industry veteran Darrell Gallagher “that is working to create groundbreaking new worlds, characters, and game experiences”.
In addition, Microsoft also bought four indie studios: Forza Horizon developers Playground Games, State Of Decay creators Undead Labs, We Happy Few devs Compulsion Games, and most surprisingly, Hellblade & DmC: Devil May Cry developers Ninja Theory.
Ninja Theory‘s addition comes as a surprise to many. The studio’s recent game, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, was very well received by the fans and critics alike. It sold 500k copies in just 3 months and turned out profitable.
All these acquisitions promise a strong start for the Xbox firm. Expect something big and groundbreaking from the coming years from Microsoft.