Microsoft’s spending spree on game development studios may be slowing down, but Xbox head Phil Spencer has reiterated he’d like to purchase an Asian studio.
Over the past 18 monthsXboxhasaggressively expanded its portfolio of first-party studiosahead of the release of Xbox Scarlett in 2020.
And while Xbox Game Studios bossMatt Booty said this weekthe platform holder is “shifting focus” from studio acquisitions to a new phase of “execution and delivery”, the head ofMicrosoft’s games business isn’t ruling out acquiring an Asian developer.
Spencer said in June“it would be nice” if Microsoft acquired an Asian developer, “in particular a Japanese studio”, and he reiterated that Xbox is still on the hunt for one in a new interview withEurogamer.
“I think we have a hole in Asia,” he said. “I’ve said that both to Matt and publicly. I would love to have more of an influence in our own first-party team from Asian creators. There’s nothing that’s imminent, so it’s not a pre-announce of something. But if you just plotted where we are on the map with our first-party, that’s a real opportunity for us.
“I love the fact we can stand here and announceYakuza and Kingdom HeartsandFinal Fantasy coming,” Spencer continued. “That’s through third-party relationships, which take time. And we’ve been really focused on that. But I think we could have stronger first-party creation capability there. We have in the past and I think we should again.”
Following itspurchase of Spider-Man developer Insomniac,Sony Interactive Entertainmentis open to further studio acquisitions as the firm seeks to grow its first-party content ahead ofPlayStation 5,Sony’s chief financial officer said in October.
