Head of Xbox Phil Spencer says that given how the industry is progressing and how development tools are becoming more accessible to developers around the world, he expects to see more studios in India, Africa, or South America in the near future. In an interview with The Guardian, Spencer said he would be surprised if he didn’t see such a development in the coming years.
All the aforementioned regions are not considered to be “traditional hubs” for game development, as Spencer puts it, which is so for a multitude of reasons. With the industry as well as tools for development expanding and becoming more accessible, however, Spencer believes that will change soon. Ubisoft, for example, has a studio in Pune, India, which is currently working on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake.
“Just knowing the talent that’s available, and the tools [such as game engines Unity and Unreal] that are so much more accessible… I would be surprised if in the next three to five years, you don’t see numerous studios in places that aren’t the traditional hubs of video game development,” says Phil Spencer.
Furthermore, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty says that it would be smart to not use these studios as support roles for bigger projects, but treating them as individual entities that are in-charge of development their own games. It would certainly be great to see studios in such regions realize their creative ambitions to the fullest, particularly, say, with Microsoft’s funds backing them up.