Head of Xbox Phil Spencer Would Like to Acquire a Japanese Studio - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 05 January 2020 / 5,475 Views
Microsoft has been on a spending spree the last couple of year acquires many video game studios with the latest, Double Fine, announced at E3 2019.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer in an interview with GamesIndustry revealed he is not done acquiring studios and is in particular looking to acquire a studio from Japan.
"One of the things I love about Tim [Schafer] and the team at Double Fine is that they build different games to what our other studios build," said Spencer. "And that's a strength. Because just like in video, just like in music, there isn't one song that everybody loves. There isn't one movie, or even a genre that everybody loves. So with Game Pass, we think about millions of different players and the different kind of games they will play. That diversity is really important."
"I think it would be nice if we found an Asian studio, in particular a Japanese studio, to add [to our studios]. I liked it when we had some first-party capability in Japan," Spencer continued. "We have a small team there, but I think we can do more. That said, through our trips to Japan, I love having Phantasy Star back on our stage with Sega -- I thought that was fantastic. Miyazaki-San, before with Dark Souls and now having Elden Ring on our stage... the Japanese creators have shown up more and more."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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All they are doing is spending money to make it so that games can't appear on other platforms rather than spending money to create games in the industry. Why not invest this money in buying some office space in Japan and opening up CV offers to game developers who are out of work there or up and coming developers and create a new studio with this same bag of cash you're waving around the place.
I think given the Xbox's stance right now in terms of being very much the minorities platform of choice 6:1 this sort of news annoys 6 gamers to every one that it might please.... and that would be even worse in real world numbers because the majority of those 1's who are on the X1 side aren't going to be interested in MS spending money on Japanese games.
Pretty much. Nailed it.^
That's not true though, a lot of the the studios they bought had known financial struggles before being acquired and have said how it will allow them to create games they never could before. If it provides financial security and the ability for the studios to do things they couldn't before, whereas for all we know they might have shut down eventually otherwise, then I don't see what the issue is. Sure, maybe you won't like the games becoming Xbox/PC exclusive but it's a better alternative to the studios going bankrupt. Plus, it's not like Microsoft is pointing a gun to their heads and forcing them to accept their deal, they all agreed themselves to become part of Xbox Game Studios, so obviously they see the
positives in it.
I do think what you said about what they could do for a Japan studio is a good idea though, especially because I have no idea which Japanese developer would wanna be acquired by Microsoft given how the Xbox sells over there.
Xbox will never be big in Japan, stop it.
Didn't know games from Japan are only for people from Japan.
How about the idea to offer exclusive Japanese games to fans of these games to make the Xbox brand stronger everywhere?
Why not create one from scratch?
Japanese games do not sell on X1, so all they would be doing is preventing whatever studio they aquire from putting out anything good on a platform that they do sell on, if he is talking about anything that has to do with jrpgs anyway.
Erm Xbox is also on PC and GamePass adds to that. Its not always about the console. Besides having a Jap dev doesnt mean it has to be successful in Japan. It creates a style of game across there world wide eco system. Basically Sony and Nintendo own Studios in Japan yet there big game sales dont come from Japan alone.
Oh fuck no... i hope they dont get Falcom or some other somewhat "niche" studio that i really care about, that would piss me off inmensly, im not buying another console just for that one game and yes i know they would be on PC as well, but to be quite honest i just prefer to play on console.
Havent they already aquired enough studios? how about you grow the ones you already have or make your own.
Well perhaps that game would end up in gamepass and xcloud, and you would pay 5 bucks to play it to the end instead of 60, but at a lower quality.
They should have done this way before the original Xbox even came out. Better late than never.
How about developing the studios you already bought first(7 new ones i think) and making proper AAA games instead of buying more studios to actually compete with Sony and Nintendo.
They could also do the same with a Japanese studio. They will buy From Software and Platinum games very soon.
Lol kadokawa owns from software. And platinum is in bed with Nintendo. Bayonetta, wonderful 101, astral chain.
If Microsoft gets a Japanese Dev, it’ll be something small and mostly unknown.
I can feel my blood pressure go up and sense the life force of Japanese developers waning every time he mentions something about Japan. It's never worked out well for the Japanese developer to my knowledge whenever MS had an exclusive deal. Lost Odyssey is the best case scenario despite selling only ok...but we barely ever heard from Sakaguchi (the creator of FF) after that besides The Last Story on Wii and a single (once again to my knowledge, single) mobile game in Terra Wars.
Mistwalker's current fate is because of them, not Microsoft.
Its a smart buisness decision. Have a dedicated Japanese output can prove successful. When they had a japanese focus they produced some of the best JRPGs around. Plus we can garentee a Lost Odyessey 2.
Lost Odyssey is the best final fantasy game since FF 12 and Blue Dragon was a solid jrpg. Myst Walker is the best posible option, they only have mobile games now and can use some bigger budget.
I doubt any Japanese developer want their games to become exclusives on console with less than 100k userbase. Xbox One even losing to PS4 in US,UK. Switch will overtake Xbox One soon. Most people who care about Japanese games owned PS4/Switch.
Unless proven otherwise, all these studios acquired scream quantity over quality to me thanks to gamepass.
Ehh, do we speak about the same studios? Playground, inExile, Obsidian, Double Fine, Ninja Theory...they all released pretty good games the last years. Undead Labs doesn't get great Metascores but many gamers love what they do. Compulsion is the only studio yet which is like mehhhh
I guess you meant MS bought quality already and it has to be proven to be only about quantity
They are just name. Out of those, the only one that you might have evidence of good games is playground but as far as I know, they are just popular in racing games. Dont kniw any notable quality franchise from them. Ninja theory blew it for me with bleeding edge. Thing is, I dont have faith in MS because I feel all those developers have one purpose. Pump out games as fast as they can for gamepass. Obsidian needs to prove themselves aside from that fallout game that was released a long time ago.
If they can offer creative freedom and won't censor anything, I say go for it. People always complain about the lack of Japanese games on Xbox.
Are they finally dipping their toes in the Japanese market again?
Yeah.... considering what studios they bought up, it would probably be a niche developer and nothing major. Some small , exclusive Japanese game would bolster the diversity for gamepass, but doubt that it would be popular enough for it to be warranted.
They have already tried that route.
Don’t know why. Most Japanese games don’t sell well on the Xbox platform. Even big ones like kingdom hearts 3, mgs5, FFVX didn’t sell that well.
Xbox is a platform for western games, mostly shooters and sports. Sony and Nintendo have the Japanese games covered.
They have money so they could easily buy a japanese studio.
On the Double Fine, I don't like they purchasing them because I liked their games, but have been a long time since I had (besides their remake of Full Throttle, Grim Fandango and that one about twins).
why do i sense in about 5 years Microsoft will be closing down some of their acquired studios.
Buy Platinum Games and From Software.
Please save them from Sony censorship!
Please make Freedom Wars 2!!
Buy Platinum games and finish Scalebound.
Squaresoft
