Xbox boss committed to ‘strong single-player focused games’

Xbox head Phil Spencer says Microsoft hasn’t given up on releasing single-player focused games.

While recent first party titles like Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 have had a co-op focus, Spencer said on Twitter that the addition of new Xbox Game Studios over the past few years puts the company in a position to deliver single-player focused titles too.

Within the space of a few years, Microsoft has acquired the likes of Ninja Theory (Hellblade), Playground (Forza Horizon), Obsidian (Fallout: New Vegas), InXile (Wasteland 3) and Double Fine (Psychonauts 2).

It’s also established a new Age of Empires studio and formed The Initiative, which has been employing developers who previously worked on the Tomb Raider, God of War and Uncharted franchises.

The growth plan has been put into action ahead of the 2020 launch of Microsoft’s next-gen console, Xbox Scarlett.

Xbox Game Studios is now 15-strong, and Spencer said recently there may be more acquisitions to come – he’d like to purchase a Japanese studio – as Microsoft’s CEO and CFO “see gaming as an important growth category”.

In July, the executive acknowledged Xbox needs to improve its first-party games output. According to Spencer, the significant investment in first-party studios has given the company more time to focus on delivering quality products.