Xbox is actively pursuing more developer acquisitions

Xbox is actively pursuing more studio acquisitions, the leader of Xbox Game Studios has revealed.

The news comes from Matt Booty, Xbox Game Studios head, speaking to a closed presentation to investors and analysts this past week. "We will continue to look for studios that can add great people, great teams, and great new ideas to our lineup," the head of Xbox Game Studios said during the briefing.

That Xbox is on the hunt for more acquisitions is unlikely to come as a great surprise. Ever since Microsoft moved to acquire Bethesda and the studios underneath it last year in September 2020, various reports have claimed knowledge of Xbox actively pursuing further acquisitions of other game developers.

So far though, none of these claims have materialized. The situation as of this moment is that Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda's parent company was approved by a European Union ruling body as of earlier this year in March, and Microsoft now officially owns Bethesda, as well as other game studios that were previously owned by the Maryland-based company. That includes the likes of Arkane, Machine Games, and many other development studios around the world.

As for what this deal means for Bethesda's games, we're yet to see. So far, Microsoft has pledged to uphold the previous exclusivity deals for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, both of which are timed console exclusives for the PS5. However, there's nothing about speculation surrounding Bethesda's upcoming RPG Starfield, as neither Bethesda or Microsoft have revealed whether the new game will be exclusive to Xbox consoles when it finally launches.

As for Booty's comments though, we ultimately have no idea which studios Microsoft could potentially be attempting to acquire. A previous report claimed that Microsoft was in talks with Bungie for a potential acquisition, although the head of the development studio shut those rumors down pretty swiftly through Twitter, calling the rumors "fake." We'll just have to wait and see how Microsoft's attitude towards acquiring new developers plays out over the coming months and years.

If you're still trying to purchase the more powerful version of Microsoft's next-gen console, you can head over to our Xbox Series X bundles guide for details of retailers with projected and current stock.