Here's What You Need to Know About Microsofts Seven New Studios

Microsoft revealed that it had acquired two more studios: Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment. That brings the total numbers of studios they acquired this year to seven. Microsoft has a lot of confidence in these studios, with Matt Booty, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Studios, even saying that these developers “have the collective creative power and operational excellence to deliver the next industry game changers.”

[lxeasy]

I personally hope they acquire a couple more studios in 2019. This is the competitive Xbox that the industry has been wanting again for a while. Glad they are back to there roots. Which is games first.

[Pubg4life]

Yeah they seem to be focused on putting the gamer first and less on entertainment apps which is good. I know they added 7 new studios but do you think they'll add more?

[darthv72]

Sumo digital would be a good fit.

[jaymacx]

It's great they have added studios. What is most important though is what gets developed by these studios. If high quality titles come out of this then it's a win for us gamers. Hopefully this will diversify their lineup. Maybe they can also get Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon sequels though a future partnership with Japanese devs.

[lxeasy]

Yeah that would be great. I wonder what kind of game we will get from The Initiative.

[battlegrog]

They will for sure

[rainslacker]

I have nothing against them getting more, but rapid expansion without any releases seems putting the cart before the horse. Get things in order. What they have now is more than enough to get started, and realistically, about 3 times as much as they needed to quell the criticism from those actually interested in them making more games.

[Chris12]

Nonsense as usual. You need studios to make the games. Buying further studios in no way effects the other studios and what they are working on/releasing. It would, however, increase the chances of more quality releases.

[rainslacker]

Is it though? MS says they want to put all their games on game pass day one. How many of those studios are going to be making AAA games? What kind of quality are you going to get from a sub service. 7 new studios is good. I can't say it isn't. But MS needs to get the ball rolling instead of just trying to do everything at once. 7 Studios, along with what they already had, and before they just keep acquiring studios, start to get a return on investment, and find out what will work for them, and what won't. Otherwise, they have a bunch of studios which start getting too much to manage, and it takes more than just buying studios to make games, but the entire infrastructure behind managing those studios can't just go full throttle and expect to be managed well.

[Chris12]

MS haven't just bought these studios by picking the names from a hat. The advantage of buying existing studios is they are already working on projects so MS will already have an idea of what games are coming and ETA's. As for Gamepass, figures already show games sale numbers remain strong and in some cases better as customers are trying games they wouldn't normally play.

[rainslacker]

@Chris

Care to cite those actual numbers? All I've ever heard about it was MS stating something about it.

I'm well aware of the benefits of MS buying existing studios. Never said that was a bad thing to do, nor that they shouldn't be doing it. I'm stating that rapid expansion is not always a good thing. Throwing money at a problem isn't always a way to fix a problem. I'm sure they'll deliver the games, but if they do too much, too fast, they're going to have more failures than successes, and this is the same kind of thing that makes them fail when they try to buy their way into markets where they either have no presence, or are struggling to have presence. This isn't some random supposition on my part, it is part of MS history. When it comes to the games, those failures are going to lead to them closing studios, which isn't a good thing. MS isn't going to spend all this money on developers that can't bring them what they want. No matter how much they posture now about wanting to be all awesome and so pro-gamer and about being creative and all that other crap that has Xbox fan boys drooling over nothing.

[tontontam0]

wtf only fanboys wants that, what gamers want to see is for microsoft to "CREATE" new studios not "BUY" studios.

[Chris12]

Why? What difference does it make ultimately? Another fanboy trying to find fault where there is none.

[oasdada]

roots? lol

[AizenSosuke]

I want some JP studios as well, as asian studios overall to truly compete right now. Xbox is american product to most easterners which most don't like.

[lxeasy]

I know this might not happen but I hope they can talk to Platinum about working on Scalebound again. Honestly I was looking forward to that game. Platinum games are amazing developers.

[thatguyhayat]

I doubt this will ever happen, hideki showed his frustrations working with Microsoft on twitter. He even said and i quote *is Microsoft fucking around with me* from there you could tell things weren't going well

[ApocalypseShadow]

Or, they could just build a Japanese studio like they are doing with building the Initiative. I mean, what's stopping them?

[lxeasy]

That sounds like a cool idea. What games will they make though. JRPGs or action games platnium style?

[Gh05t]

Maybe they don't have a leader who understands Microsoft's culture and Japanese studio cultute that can lead a team to be both a successful Japanese studio but under MS way of doing business.

Not a knock on anyone, I just wonder if they don't have an executive team that they can trust right now. I believe that they are trying though. There are some great games from x360 that are Japanese studios that are some classics. Here is to hoping they can figure it out and make it happen.

[rainslacker]

Korea might be a good place to look as well. I think it's an untapped market, mostly pigeonholed as being just mt laced short term MMOs. But they have the ability to make games, and their style can be fairly unique.

[Pubg4life]

honestly if crackdown 3 succeeds then Sumo digital should join them as well

[nommers]

Hell no. They damn near killed off a chance at Nier Automata from even existing after the Scalebound debacle what with their enforcement of bs practices that wasn’t in line with what Platinum wanted. Rare has dropped off the face of the Earth pretty much and their once great studio produces nothing worth mentioning. What makes you think any of the western studios they bought are going to produce anything good or anything at all? Most of them I’m betting will just die a long painful death.

[crazyCoconuts]

Since we're putting requests in, since MS is championing cross-platform cross-platform, I would like them to also release all new games on the Sony platform ;-)

[Switch4One]

Sure...is Sony Vaio still a thing?

[lxeasy]

Maybe if ps5 adopts windows 10 ;)

[Pubg4life]

That'll probably happen when Sony puts last of us on Xbox lol.

[neomahi]

That pretty well says it all.. Microsoft won't budge. They want to play buddy buddy but when it comes down to it, niether Halo nor Gears are on PlayStation hardware. It's a mind game.

[bluefox755]

Meh, I used to say that for PC before they enacted it, but they barely make any good exclusives, so not a real concern for me these days

[optimus]

i hope they announce what each one is working on at e3. the door is wide open now that sony dropped out for next year.

[lxeasy]

I doubt they'll announce what each is working on. They Might Spread the announcements.

[Pubg4life]

I think by e3 2020 we might have know what most of the new studios are working on if not all

[NeoGamer232]

Not at all...

I only want them announcing games that will ship within the year. I do not like any publisher that talks about games early because there is always a significant chance of cancellation or multiple delays.

Anything farther than a year is not close enough to completion to show.

[rainslacker]

They're less likely to announce anything if they don't feel like they have to show Sony up on anything. They pretty much have e3 to themselves, as Nintendo competes it a different market.

However, it is likely we will at least hear about one or two new projects. They already implied a new fable game at the last e3. Forza is a given. Likely something about gears. And maybe reveals for a couple of the studios they brought. It might actually be one of ms best conferences when I really think about it.

[mkis007]

I'm excited overall. This will keep Sony on it's toes! Will almost certainly get a good single-player xbox- pc title too.

[battlegrog]

I agree but the issue is moving forward the industry will be very driven by software snd infrastructure. Which sony lacks

[MrBeatdown]

Sony lacks software?

[rainslacker]

Last I checked, Sony has both those things. Software they have more than the competition combined right now. Infrastructure they have works fine, and unlike the competition they already have a working solution to the only new.infrastructure coming, which is game streaming. Pan otherwise is fine outside some things that could be changed to make non operational features more fluid....like the current name change thing.

[doggo84]

Sony lacks software?

I only know a certain other company that lacks software severely in comparison, but nothing negative can be said about that company on n4g.

Software has been sony's strength this generation, just in case you've been asleep for the last 5 years. Sony's first party has gone from strength to strength, and once again (for the 300th time I've said this) Sony have doubled down on first party and will continue to deliver next generation. You can't even remotely dispute that.

Sony lacks infrastructure?

Sony bought out Gakai in 2012, JUST in case you've been asleep since before that announcement. So there goes your bogus fanboy claims.
cheers.

[lxeasy]

Yeah I think Ninja Theory will def do single player games.

[--bienio--]

WHat I like is the way Microsoft going to cloud. One ecosystem Pc/Xbox = good

[lxeasy]

Yeah I've been using the Xbox play anywhere feature and its really good

[Fishy Fingers]

They’ve not had the best gen from a console gamer perspective but as a PC gamer first and foremost it’s been great for me and only looks to improve going forward.

[l33t_haxx0r]

I mean I guess it's good they have spent loads of money buying studios to give xbox gamers more games. But honestly all the studios listed are completely crap and produced nothing good bar maybe ninja theory that are just OK.

[King_Noctis]

Are the Coalition, Obsidian and Playground craps?

[l33t_haxx0r]

Yes they are

[CaptainOmega]

Obisidian isn't THAT great. They have a mixed track record.

[mkis007]

Jist playing devils advocate...Obsidians latest game flopped. And gears 4 by the coalition was a shadow of the franchises former self. No. What they need are new franchises not ones that have been beaten dead. They had the perfect ending spot with 3...should have went on break.

[King_Noctis]

@mkis

PoE2 flopped commercially, not critically. And Gears 4 got 81% Metacritic (which is better than Gears Judgement), I wouldn’t call it a bad game.

@Bearded

Which studio never have a mixed track record? Even the mighty Rockstar and Naughty Dogs ever produced bad games before. What matter is the last couple of games that Obsidian had made (such as FO NV, PoE, Tyranny, and South Park) had been great and that trend will keep going.

[MadLad]

Found the triggered little hater.

[Gunstar75]

We can see your triggering from space

Hahahahahahahah

[l33t_haxx0r]

All right calm down

[lxeasy]

so true!!! lmaol

[starchild]

Nah, Ninja Theory are awesome. I've really enjoyed most of their games. Hellblade is one of my favorite games of the generation. Quite a few of the other developers are also solid.

[lxeasy]

@l33t_haxx0r I remember you saying how you LOVED HELL BLADE when it was a ps exclusive. Then it releases for Xbox and now you're calling the dev crap. smh why do you want to see xbox burn?

[l33t_haxx0r]

I actually said ninja theory is 'just OK' I didn't say they where crap, I said the other devs are crap. Also I played hell blade on the PC so PS exclusivity would not factor into anything.

[Wulfer]

This is what comes to mind about your post.

The salt runs strong with this one....

[jagermaster619]

Aww I'm sure Sony will be ok 😂

[l33t_haxx0r]

You guys actually think you are going to get good games don't you?

[jagermaster619]

Your insecurities is what makes me smile!

[PhoenixUp]

“That brings the total numbers of studios they acquired this year to seven.”

Microsoft didn’t acquire The Initiative, they built that dev team from the ground up

[xenz]

It's good to see them getting new studios, because they need it. But.. most of these studios has never made anything special except for maybe Obsidian and Ninja Theory. Who has ever heard of InXile? Then you have Compulsion which have made We Happy Few and Contrast..

Compared to Sony and Nintendos first-party, this looks desperate if you ask me

[King_Noctis]

“Who has ever heard of InXile?”

Maybe you haven’t, but many other people do.

[MadLad]

I'm assuming the people who gave Wasteland 2 game of the year awards, or the thousands of fans who have backed their games in the past.

[rainslacker]

I actually liked contrast. It had an interesting premise. Not amazing, but it showed promise.

[Poopmist]

InXile made Torment Tides of Numenera. It's has my favorite story of this gen

[Kiwi66]

Wait..... so for the past few years people have gone on and on about how MS need more studios but when they gain 7 more in 1 year it's "desperate", guess some will always find something negative about it

[FallenAngel1984]

I love how on that list of first party developers in the thumbnail they have Minecraft instead of Mojang

[Nodoze]

Microsoft has a VERY VERY bad reputation managing creative studios. LIonhead, Pressplay, Ensemble Studios, Fasa Studio, etc etc. Turn 10 is arguably the lone success in their stable. 343 is mixed, and Rare...well Rare has been dead a LONG time.

[doggo84]

I'm not really sure why you're getting so many disagrees..

[Saranya]

They're only bad on Don Mattrick era.

[CaptainOmega]

I seriously hope the new studios make the xbox appealing for next gen.

[bujasem_89]

If they're smarrt they would try to scoop u platinum games or land another deal. Im happy sunset OD is on the store now! My og xbox broke on me.

[lazyboyblue]

Surprised they haven't bought Remedy yet. Bet they've tried. Microsoft need need a naughty dog quality studio and Remedy is probably the closest they'd get to having one using the buyout method.

[thelaughingwiseman]

This might actually sway me to use the Xbox One X as my main hub. I would like to see what games they come out with in these next two years. They might not even need to announce a new console if they establish awesome 1st party titles.

[shiva1]

Im not sure whats coming next year..... They have kept it under wraps other than CD3, Ori, ashen and below i guess....

Im still doubting halo is coming next year... If it does im gonna buy xbox one x halo bundle for sure. Im like grinding to get to lvl 150 now... Its taking more than weeks for me to get there.

[Saranya]

Glad to see MS back to their after Don Mattrick destroyed them.

[timotim]

I know what my hope is...that all of them will do their best work going forward, and that Microsoft allows them to do their best work by given them the resources needed to pull that off.

[neomahi]

They were a waste of money. The studio that develops Forza Horizon is alright, but by no means a great purchase. You have it and Turn 10, why do you think Sony shut down Evolution Studios? They already had Polyphony Digital. Microsoft once had Bungie and 343 Industries, guess what, Bungie left. Ninja Theory, garbage. Enslaved was a really glitchy Uncharted ripoff. Compulsion was it that developed We Happy Few, and how did that game do? They gave up Lionhead of Fable fame, for this.....

[MadLad]

"Enslaved was a really glitchy Uncharted ripoff".

You kids and your drugs.

[WelkinCole]

If they stay true to SP and not forced online experiences with most of the games they are making I don't see any reason why I would not buy the next xbox. Its that simple for me. Bring the SP exclusives and I will be there.

[AK91]

GaaS

[DerekTweed]

"Playground Games’ newest title, Forza Horizon 4, was announced during Microsoft’s Press Conference yesterday."

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