Xbox Game Studios: how many are there after the acquisition of Bethesda? What about PlayStation Studios?
The next gen will probably also be fought with first party blows, a battle that Sony with its PlayStation Studios has largely won in the PS4 and Xbox One generation but for which Microsoft has been gearing up for some time, while obviously Nintendo reigns sovereign on this aspect, in its separate league.
Xbox Game Studios have gone through a remarkable evolution in recent years, just think that this was the situation just three years ago, in 2017, before Phil Spencer decided to give a substantial change to the organization of first parties:
Mojang Turn 10 343 Industries The Coalition Rare
After the historic closure of Ensemble, it was Lionhead was also shut down and Microsoft revealed large gaps in terms of internal production. Then began the turnaround that led up to the current state, with 23 first party teams in the 2020 Xbox Game Studios, updated to yesterday:
Mojang Turn 10 343 The Coalition The Initiative Rare Compulsion Games InXile Obsidian Ninja Theory Bethesda Softworks Tango Gamerworks Machinegames Double Fine Playground Games Undead Labs iD Software Roundhouse Arkane Studios Alphadog Zenimax Online World's Edge Xbox Global Publishing
It is clear, at this point, how Microsoft is is preparing for a completely different management of its catalog in the near future, with the acquisition of Bethesda adding a 90 'load to an already sizeable facility.
All this is part of the prospect of building a real "Netflix of video games", able to sustain itself on a solid base of internal productions that form the foundation for the offer to be offered to subscribers.
For comparison, these are the current PlayStation Studios:
Naughty Dog Santa Monica Sucker Punch Bend Studio San Diego Insomniac PixelOpus Guerrilla Games Media Molecule SIE London Polyphony Digital Japan Studio
There is a significant reversal of the trend as regards at least the size of the internal staff between Microsoft and Sony, net of further acquisitions by the Japanese company that apparently could take place in the next period.
It should be noted, however, how Microsoft's attitude with its first parties is quite different from Sony's: while the latter tends to develop absolute exclusives for its platform, the Redmond company hasalready shown to be more open in this respect, as seen with Minecraft and with various other titles (which, however, were often already in development at the time of the acquisitions, so they may not be very indicative), in addition to the fact of obviously understanding the PC as a platform of its ecosystem. In this regard, the recurring question these days is: what will happen with Bethesda and its games? We know that Microsoft plans to honor previously established contracts, for example with the PS5 time exclusives of Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo, but will subsequent games, like The Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield, be Xbox and PC exclusives? We'll see.
