GamesIndustry.biz interview with Matt Booty, head of Microsoft Studios.
News about studio culture is especially nice to see. Reading how the integration of FASA into Microsoft destroyed that studio, and how efforts from Jordan Wiseman to prevent that from happening again allowed Bungie to maintain its identity under MS shows how important that can be.
Plenty more in the article.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-08-23-why-xbox-bought-ninja-theory
"We started looking at studios that are built around creative leads and people. An amazing thing about Ninja Theory is that it is very clear that the studio orbits around ideas and creativity, and the characters, storytelling and settings really come first for them. That just meshes really well with our desire to provide our players, especially those in Game Pass, with content that is new, unique, has variety and sits outside of the stuff we are doing with our bigger franchises."
Microsoft will hope the same will be true of Game Pass; people come in for Sea of Thieves, but stick around for Hellblade. So with that in mind, is Microsoft keeping its cheque book out to buy more mid-tier studios? Or is the shopping done?
"I don't want to seem like we're going out to fill a quota," he says. "It's not about filling a spreadsheet by any means. We will, however, have an interest in studios right now that fit this criteria of 50 to 100 people, who are making games on a two to three year cadence, and have content that we think will be of interest to our Game Pass subscribers. That means content that is a little different to what our big AAA franchises can deliver.
Booty insists that there's no desire from Xbox to make any fundamental changes to these studios. The plan is to help them if they need it, eliminate the financial concern, but otherwise leave them to do what they've always done.
"Our plan for the studio in terms of integration is very much the same with what we did with Mojang and Minecraft. Which is a very, very minimal level of integration. We are not trying to come in and change the culture. We're not trying to overdo the Microsoft presence. But what we do is make the studio feel supported, empowered and capable of focusing entirely on the content, without needing to worry about the other day-to-day realities.
These new studios are not expected to become franchise studios, either. Compulsion Games was not picked up for We Happy Few, and Ninja Theory was not bought for Hellblade. Rather, it's what those games represent that most excites Microsoft.
News about studio culture is especially nice to see. Reading how the integration of FASA into Microsoft destroyed that studio, and how efforts from Jordan Wiseman to prevent that from happening again allowed Bungie to maintain its identity under MS shows how important that can be.
Plenty more in the article.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-08-23-why-xbox-bought-ninja-theory