Just like E3 2018, for 2019, Microsoft came packing some acquisition announcements. So, who did it pick up this time? Double Fine, a long-running indie studio know for some legendary adventure games. In other words, it's a big grab.

This entire generation Microsoft has been criticized for its lack of first-party games. And it looks like its answer to this is buying up studios to make games for them. Last year they bought Obsidian, InXile Entertainment, Compulsion Games, Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, and opened a new studio called The Initiative.

Of course, acquiring studios isn't an automatic fix. Micrsoft needs quality not just quantity. And a lot of the studios it has acquired yet haven't prove they can ship games on the same level that first-party Nintendo and PlayStation studios are making. In other words, it will be interesting to see if this strategy pays off. Presumably, with more resources at their disposal, these studios will presumably will only ship better games they have in the past.

What's perhaps most interesting about Microsoft's acquisitions is that it's adding a wide range of developers to its arsenal who make a wide range of different games that span across different genres. In other words, it's building a portfolio, which is a bit different than what PlayStation has done this generation: which is make a lot of single-player narrative driven games that are either open-world action-RPGS or action adventure games.

Posted: Jun 09, 2019 4:50 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/06/09/xbox-one-double-fine-e3-acquisitions/