Microsoft has been aggressively expanding its Xbox Game Studios stable recently, picking up talented development houses like Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Obsidian Entertainment, Double Fine, and more, but it seems the spending spree may be coming to an end. In a recent interview with Twinfinite, Xbox marketing head Aaron Greenberg didn’t outright say Microsoft was done buying studios, but strongly indicated they were satisfied with their currently lineup…
I think we feel good about the level of content we have coming from our internal studios, but we felt good about that and then the opportunity with Double Fine came and that was a perfect fit. [...] You never know, but right now I think where we are, with our 15 internal studios, we feel really good about the amount of content we’re getting from that, whether it’s supporting Project Scarlett, or supporting Xbox Games Pass on PC and console, we feel like we have a healthy set of content across multiple genres, multiple game types, that will excite our fans.
So, with the new Xbox Games Studios lineup largely in place, when can we expect to hear about some of the stuff they’re working on? We may not have to wait too long! According to Greenberg, there will be some new game announcements at this year’s XO19 fan celebration as Microsoft prepares for a big spring.
We have some surprises planned. I’ll just leave it at that. But yeah, I think that we’ll have a great show. We also have a lot of games coming out in the spring, It’s I think the biggest lineup of games we’re ever had in the spring. In that window of time between XO19 and E3, we have a lot of stuff to show, and people can get hands-with it and talk about it.
XO19 takes place in London from November 14 to 16. A new episode of Inside Xbox, promised to be the biggest of the year, will be broadcast from the event. What kind of announcements are you hoping for?