Snippets from Eurogamer's Q&A with Phil Spencer relating to studio acquisitions...
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-11-15-the-big-xo19-interview-xbox-boss-phil-spencer
You have 15 studios now. You've been on an impressive acquisition spree. Are you done now?
Phil Spencer: No!
I do think we can sometimes get a little infatuated with putting a bunch of studio logos on a slide and that becomes the news. They're not trading cards. They're studios. And we want them to build great games. I love the fact we're here announcing three new IP, two from our internal studios. As I look forward, there's not a show I can look at where we're not gonna be announcing new games, just because of the breadth of studios we have. It's not really some kind of PR battle about how many new acquisitions we can put on stage. Because if we're not building great games, the acquisitions don't matter.
But are we done? I don't think so.
You're still on the hunt then?
Phil Spencer: Yeah. There are great creators out there. Our business continues to grow. The company is incredibly supportive of what we're trying to build. Microsoft talks about gaming as a key pillar of its consumer interest and its strategy. We're getting a tonne of support from Satya Nadella, Amy Hood and the board. And we're running a good business today, so we've earned the right to continue to look.
What are you looking for?
Phil Spencer: I look at the geographic diversity of our studios. I love the fact we now have three studios here in the UK. You can go back decades... you could argue the UK is as strong as any country in terms of its impact on the history of video games. I love that we're here in such strength. Now we have studios in Canada, studios in other parts of the US. I think we have a hole in Asia. I've said that both to Matt and publicly. I would love to have more of an influence in our own first-party team from Asian creators. There's nothing that's imminent, so it's not a pre-announce of something. But if you just plotted where we are on the map with our first-party, that's a real opportunity for us.
I love the fact we can stand here and announce Yakuza and Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy coming. That's through third-party relationships, which take time. And we've been really focused on that. But I think we could have stronger first-party creation capability there. We have in the past and I think we should again.
You could just buy Nintendo and that would be sorted! I know this isn't your focus here, but you are launching Project Scarlett in a year, which isn't far. You have started to talk about it a bit more. With that in our consciousness now, is it a tough sell for Xbox One for the rest of the year? Is it, ultimately, a waiting game until next-gen?
Phil Spencer: For certain people we're doing things like Xbox All Access, which has the upgrade program of buying an Xbox for a monthly fee. You and I are probably too close to it. There are millions of people who play console games today on any of the platforms who couldn't name what generation they're in, or when the next-generation is coming. I look at our Xbox stats all the time. We still have millions of players who play on Xbox 360 every month. Still. That hardware is 12, 13 years old and they're still playing. Maybe they know there's an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 out there. Maybe they just enjoy playing their games.
You say, is it harder to sell a console? We're gonna sell millions of consoles this year. Yeah, for people who are aware, which is the reason we wanted to talk about it early, who know what an E3 is, or a Gamescom or an XO, we want to be transparent with those people. But we shouldn't lose sight that there are millions and millions of our customers who, just because it's the holiday season or birthday or somebody's got some spare cash says, hey, maybe we're gonna add a game console to our family. Let's just go to the store today and see what they have. And they're not thinking about what's next year or what's last year. It's very much a now decision. We want to have a great value proposition for them, and great games for them as well.
