Microsoft Isn't Done Buying New Studios

It feels like the gaming world is still rocking from the bombshell reveal that Microsoft has purchased ZeniMax Studio for 7.5 billion dollars, the second most expensive acquisition in gaming history. Of course, for people who have followed Microsoft over the years, they'd know this isn't abnormal: in recent years, Microsoft has been on a spending spree, buying developers like Obsidian, Double Fine, and inExile in a bid to flesh out their exclusives portfolio. However, if you were laboring under the impression this most recent purchase was the climax of their little initiative, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told CNet that nothing could be further from the truth.

"You can't wake up one day and say, 'Let me build a game studio,'... The idea of having content is so we can reach larger communities. Content is just the incredible ingredient to our platform that we continue to invest in... This doubles the size of our creative organization."

Microsoft certainly has the capital to invest, and there's certainly no shortage of third parties they could gobble up to flesh out their portfolio. The question now is how Sony plans to fire back, if at all -- while it seems their own stable of studios is much smaller, between Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, and their own Sony Interactive Entertainment, they have some genuine powerhouses that have put out some of the most critically acclaimed games of the decade, which include, of course, Spider-Man, InFamous, and God of War.

Microsoft has yet to produce any exclusives that can rival these games, although it looks as if Halo Infinite, postponed until next year, might be their first big shot at such a thing.

In any case, since all their games will also be coming out on Windows PC you can hardly call them that exclusive in the first place.