Acquisitions have become a big part of the modern gaming landscape, with both Sony andMicrosoft snapping up studiosleft, right, and center over the past decade or so. Many worry that this practice will ultimately lead to weaker competition and inferior video games for consumers, yet it’s difficult to really know what kind of impact these kinds of big-budget acquisitions will have on the industry in the long run.
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AsMicrosoft pushes on with its bid to purchase Activision Blizzard, video game fans may be interested to learn how some of the studios that were previously snapped up by Microsoft are currently faring. By looking at the caliber of games released both before and after these developers joined Xbox Game Studios, it may well be possible to get a better idea of how becoming a first-party studio affects a developer’s output.
Contrast (65)
We Happy Few (67)
Microsoft announcedthe acquisition of Compulsion Gamesat E3 2018 just a few months before the release of the studio’s second title,We Happy Few. Since then, the size of the developer has grown considerably as the team continues to work on an action-adventure game calledSouth of Midnight. As of the time of writing, there is no news on when exactly the game will be released.
Broken Age (90)
Day of the Tentacle Remastered (86)
Double Fine Productions has continued to grow in size and stature since being founded by Tim Schafer back in July of 2000.The studio was acquired by Microsoftjust shy of two decades later, with the award-winning platformerPsychonauts 2being the only game to have been released since the deal went through.
Wasteland 3 (84)
Torment: Tides of Numenera (81)
Acquired by Microsoft in 2018, inXile Entertainment was best known for its work on theWastelandandThe Bard’s Taleseries before the deal went through. Since then, the team has continued work on the former, releasing botha remastered version of the firstWastelandgameand the series' third installment in 2020.
Minecraft Dungeons (74)
Minecraft Legends (65)
Microsoft shocked the world when it purchased Mojang for $2.5 billion in September of 2014. Giventhe huge success of the studio’s flagship gameMinecraftthough, it’s pretty easy to see why Microsoft was so keen on striking a deal. The tech giant has released severalMinecraftspin-off games in the years since the deal went through, though none have come close to the original in terms of popularity or critical acclaim.
Heavenly Sword (79)
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Microsoft snapped up Ninja Theory in 2018following the success ofHellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which had been released just the previous year. Since then, Ninja Theory has had a few minor releases, but the bulk of their time and attention has been spent working on a sequel to the 2017 title, withSenua’s Saga: Hellblade IIset to release at some point during 2024.
Pillars of Eternity (89)
Pentiment (86)
Obsidian Entertainment was one of several big studios that Microsoft acquired in 2018.The developer has already released three fairly big titles since then, with a few more currently in the works. These include a sequel to 2019’sThe Outer Worldsand an action RPG game calledAvowed, the latter of which is set in thePillars of Eternityuniverse.
Forza Horizon 5 (92)
Forza Horizon 3 (91)
Microsoft and Playground Games had already been working together for quite some time when the former announced that it would be acquiring the latter in June of 2018. The studio had been responsible for the Xbox-exclusiveForza Horizonseries and has continued to work on it in the years since, while also developingthe upcomingFablereboot.
Sea of Thieves (69)
Banjo-Kazooie (92)
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (79)
One of Microsoft’s first big acquisitions and undoubtedly one of the least successful,Rare was responsible for some of the very best games on the SNES and Nintendo 64. However, since being picked up by Microsoft around the turn of the century, the studio has struggled to recapture the success that flowed so freely for it throughout the nineties. Things have improved a bit in recent years, but today’s Rare is a very different studio than the one that Microsoft acquired back in 2002.
State of Decay (79)
State of Decay 2 (69)
Another studio that already had a healthy relationship with Microsoft prior to being acquired by the tech giant in 2018, Undead Labs is the developer responsible for theXbox-exclusive seriesState of Decay. The first two games were developed before the deal went through, with a third game having been in development since.
Fallout 3 (91)
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Together with Rare, Bethesda is probably the biggest studio to have been acquired by Microsoft at the time of writing, both in terms of its size and the caliber of games that it produces. The developer is best known forThe Elder ScrollsandFalloutfranchises and is currently applying the finishing touches to its open-universe action RPG,Starfield. The latter is the first newBethesda IPin more than a quarter of a century and looks set to become the first true system-seller for the Series X.
