Microsoft, Amazon, Google are all targeting studio acquisitions, claims report

A new report claims Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are all actively seeking studio acquisitions.

The report comes from Brad Sams, a journalist with a track record of accurately reporting Microsoft-related news ahead of time. "I’ve been hearing a lot of conversations behind closed doors about acquisitions in the industry. There’s a lot of moving things going on right now," Sams says in the video below.

"It’s hard to see which companies are going to get snatched up and by what vendors… but I can tell you there are some big industry names out there being approached by Microsoft included, but then you also have Amazon, and you also have Google," he continues.

Sams goes on to add that Sony is very much part of the group pursuing studio acquisitions, but nowhere near as aggressively so as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. The journalist also names EA as a publisher going after new developers to acquire, as with the recent Codemasters deal.

2020 saw the blockbuster purchase of Bethesda by Microsoft, in a move that saw the latter acquire a number of Bethesda-owned studios, including Arkane and Tango Gameworks, among others. More recently, Nintendo purchase Luigi's Mansion 3 developer Next Level Games earlier this month, a noteworthy move from a publisher that typically holds off on acquisitions.

According to Sams, we've hardly seen the end of studio acquisitions by big-name publishers. If the claims are accurate, we could be seeing some big-name purchases throughout 2021.

For a complete list of all the upcoming games slated to launch at some point this year, head over to our new games 2021 guide for more.