![]() So overall, it would seem that the company has its first-party offerings in order. Pending Activision-Blizzard’s acquisition, there are 22 game studios under Microsoft. Spencer ascended to the role of CEO of Microsoft Gaming with Xbox Game Studios under it and being led by Matt Booty. In 2022, another big publisher – the embattled Activision-Blizzard – would be acquired. More and more studios were jumping on to the service and it wasn’t odd to see third-party offerings like Outriders or Back4Blood releasing day one on Game Pass. Xbox Game Pass was also benefiting big time thanks to a whole range of Bethesda-published titles like The Evil Within, Wolfenstein, Dishonored and so on now being permanent fixtures of the service. But new games, that too console exclusives! Yay! Absolutely none of these were announced with any gameplay with Hellblade 2 receiving its official gameplay reveal some two years after its announcement. That’s even with previously announced titles like Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop being timed exclusives for PS5.Ī whole swathe of exclusives would then be announced like Redfall from Arkane Studios, Contraband from Avalanche (which is being published by Xbox Game Studios), Undead Labs’ State of Decay 3, Perfect Dark from The Initiative, S enua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 from Ninja Theory, Playground Games’ Fable, and of course, Bethesda’s Starfield as a console exclusive for Xbox Series X/S. ![]() Suddenly, Xbox’s first-party lineup had been bolstered to an incredible degree. It was 2020 where the first major bomb dropped – the acquisition of Zenimax, which includes Bethesda Game Studios, Arkane Studios, id Software, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks and ZeniMax Online Studios for $8.1 billion. In 2019, Microsoft Game Studio would become Xbox Game Studios and the acquisitions somewhat slowed – only Double Fine of Psychonauts 2 fame joined the family. Though it had acquired Mojang and the Gears of War IP from Epic Games in 2014, this acquisition spree was unlike anything before with Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs and Compulsion Games joining Microsoft (while a new studio, The Initiative, was founded at the same time). With a desire to prepare for the coming generation, Microsoft announced a wave of acquisitions starting in 2018. That the company’s biggest offerings would alternate between Halo, Gears of War and Forza for several years is rather telling. This was most apparent when a major selling point for the Xbox 360 was timed exclusive access to Call of Duty DLC, of all things. However, before and after its revamp, the Xbox brand has had a major issue with first-party offerings. It’s incredible to think that this is the same company that had Don Mattrick at the gaming helm, telling people to play on an Xbox 360 if they couldn’t always be online with an Xbox One back in 2013. Even initiatives like better gaming integration with Windows 11, the Xbox Adaptive controller, and cloud gaming which lets you stream Xbox Series X/S titles to an Xbox One, deserve to be praised. This can be reflected in various positive ventures like backwards compatibility (which is free as long as someone owns the game) Xbox Play Anywhere which allows for playing the same game on Xbox One and Series X/S as PC and of course, Xbox Game Pass, currently at over 25 million subscribers and growing. To show that Microsoft actually cared and was willing to invest in its product, both for its present and future consumers. When Phil Spencer took over as the head of Microsoft Game Studios in 2014, however, there was a conscious drive to make Xbox gaming better. It was laughed at for trying to buy Nintendo laughed at for the OG Xbox’s bulky size and massive controller battled hardware issues of its own making thanks to the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death fought from underneath to reverse so many of the Xbox One’s initially terrible policies and so on and so forth. Console gaming has never been easy for Microsoft.
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