At E3 2019, Xbox Game Studios has gained two more developers: Double Fine Productions and an internal team that will be working on the Age of Empires franchise moving on. But it doesn’t quite look like Microsoft is going to stop anytime soon with the acquisition spree it has been on for a couple years.
At E3 2019, Xbox Game Studios has gained two more developers: Double Fine Productions and an internal team that will be working on the Age of Empires franchise moving on. But it doesn’t quite look like Microsoft is going to stop anytime soon with the acquisition spree it has been on for a couple of years.
In an interview with GamesIndustry International, Phil Spencer has revealed that he would like to acquire a Japanese studio, as he has very fond memories about the days when Xbox 360 had lots of second party productions from that country, such as Mistwalker’s Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, to name a few.
“I think it would be nice if we found an Asian studio, in particular, a Japanese studio, to add [to our studios]. I liked it when we had some first-party capability in Japan. We have a small team there, but I think we can do more,” the head of Xbox said.
“That said, through our trips to Japan, I love having Phantasy Star back on our stage with Sega — I thought that was fantastic. Miyazaki-San, before with Dark Souls and now having Elden Ring on our stage… the Japanese creators have shown up more and more.”
We don’t have many clues about which studios could be acquired, but sure enough, Mistwalker, which we have already mentioned, looks like a reasonable fit for Xbox Game Studios. Bigger teams like From Software have opulent owners over in Japan so don’t look realistic. Which names would you like to see, anyway?
