One of the biggest takeaways from Microsoft’s E3 conference this year was their indisputable long-term commitment to the gaming market. With the acquisition of four studios and opening of a fifth one, they effectively doubled the size of their first party.
NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella believes that the move will help Microsoft’s sales performance, which has been lagging behind Sony and Nintendo’s.
“Well, having more studios means having more content to appeal to the market, so I think it’s great,” he said. “I think this helps prepare them for the future, whether it’s in future generations on the console side, but also on the PC or streaming side, wherever that ends up leading. [It’s] hard to find a reason why this wouldn’t be good news for the market.”
In a separate interview, Microsoft’s Mike Nicholas spoke on the process behind the big move.
“We looked at a whole bunch of different approaches to increasing the number of studio teams we had,” he said. “Because these studios are ones where we’ve been admirers, we’ve been partners with them, we know who they are and the strengths they bring.”
“We’ve been talking to them and the team decided that these are creative studios that will help us tell new stories in new worlds, in better ways that are diverse,” he continued. “They have different approaches than our standard five big studios that we already had.”
“And that’s what led us to say, ‘Hey, let’s go make some investments. And let’s go ahead and announce them so Xbox fans know not only are there games they’re hearing about coming now, but also there are games that are going to be coming from a whole bunch of different, creative minds.’”
Other experts believe that streaming could be a key factor in Microsoft overtaking Sony’s lead, but only time will tell.