Phil Spencer, Xbox’s top dog, has made it clear that it remains interested in acquisitions, with one eye on the Asian games industry.
Microsoft made history when it concluded its enormous $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. Though this took a long time to close, it followed on from the corporation previously purchasing ZeniMax Media, which includes Bethesda and all its subsidiaries.
Now, the company’s main focus is on absorbing Activision Blizzard employees across its business, but Spencer says it’s still on the lookout for other acquisitions in the future. “We definitely want to be in the market, and when we can find teams and technology and capability that add to what we’re trying to do in gaming at Microsoft, absolutely we will keep our heads up,” He said in an interview with Bloomberg.
He added that deals which add “geographic diversity” may be worthwhile, as well as potentially another mobile development company. Microsoft is apparently eyeing talent in China after working with Tencent to bring Age of Empires to mobile. Spencer comments that there’s nothing “imminent”, however.
“It’s been a good area for us to learn from creative teams that have real unique capability,” said Spencer. “The real opportunity is to partner with creative teams in China for global.”
His interest in Asian studios is worth pointing out, especially in light of the closure of Japanese team Tango Gameworks back in May. That’s something of a bitter pill to swallow, though to be completely fair, Spencer appears to be focusing his attention on Chinese mobile developers, which Tango was not.
Anyway, if and when Microsoft does plan to acquire more studios or publishers, it may have a knock-on effect on PS5 and PS4 users; anything produced under the company’s umbrella might not be ported to Sony’s hardware. However, this exclusivity mindset does appear to be shifting, at least at Xbox, with several first-party titles making the jump earlier this year, and Bethesda’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle due to arrive on PS5 next Spring.
Speaking of which, the interview also touches on Microsoft’s multiplatform game releases, with Spencer not ruling out any existing first-party games for release on PlayStation formats.