Xbox Game Studios moving from "acquisition" to "execution"

Microsoft has been pretty busy acquiring Xbox Game Studios over the last few years, including the likes of Obsidian Entertainment and Double Fine, but Xbox chief Phil Spencer has said in an interview with Stevivor that the focus has shifted more to getting results out of these studios.

"We've moved from acquisition mode to execution mode," Spencer explains. "[We are] sitting here with 15 plus studios working on games. But it's not about a logo parade, or 'look at who we acquired this week', but really about what games [the studios] are going to go build."

"I do think that a strong, growing first-party is definitely part of our strategy. I'd love to see us continue to get new storytellers with new points of view into our first-party portfolio."

This doesn't necessarily mean that they won't grow even further though, as Spencer made clear that "we're always open" when it comes to more studios.

"I liked the geographic diversity that we've been growing with our studios. If you look at Asia, we don't have any first party studios in Asia. I think that's an opportunity for us."

Spencer also adds that he believes Xbox Game Studios get to flex their creative muscles when they're part of the program:

"The ability to give studios financial stability so they can experiment with new things, absolutely, is one of the things that Matt [Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios] and the team brings."

"Because you have enough studios and enough rolling business, it's not make or break for every experiment that a studio takes. We should be able to take some risks."

Should Xbox Game Studios grow further?