Xbox Will Not Slow Down Acqusitions After Activision Blizzard Deal is Complete

In its bid to grow its line-up of first-party studios, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has stated that the company is open to more acquisitions down the line.

Speaking to CNBC, Spencer was responding to a question about whether Xbox and Microsoft are going to slow down on their spree of acquiring game companies after the completion of its Activision Blizzard deal.

Spencer responded by stating that the competitive video games market essentially emans that Xbox won’t get to pause its expansion plans.

“This is such a competitive market, I don’t think we get to press pause on anything,” Spencer said. “Tencent is the largest gaming company on the planet today and they continue to heavily invest in gaming content and game creators. Sony is a larger business than we are in gaming today and they continue to invest.”

“We strive to be a major player here,” Spencer said. ” We want to deliver great content for our players and we’re going to remain active, whether that’s investing in our internal teams that are already building great games that people know and love, whether it’s building new partnerships.”

Spencer also spoke about networking and forming new partnerships at the currently ongoing Tokyo Game Show.

“One of the things I love about coming here to Tokyo is the developers I get to meet with, the new partnerships we have with people like Kojima Productions, and going to talk with some of our existing publishing partners and independent creators about games that we want to build,” said Spencer.

“And if it turns into acquisitive M&A work, we’re active there too. So, the work for us never ends. It’s a competitive market and I want to make sure Xbox is at the forefront of innovation and competition.”

Microsoft and Xbox are currently going through their acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which would essentially make some of the biggest titles in the world—franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Overwatch—first-party franchises for Xbox.

However, the acquisition has been slowed down a bit owing to the UK regulatory body considering deeper scrutiny of the deal in light of PlayStation’s protests about Call of Duty potentially becoming Xbox-exclusive.

$MSFT's @XboxP3 talks #Tencent, #JRPG's, and @discord – and explains why it's not time to follow $SONY's hike in prices. #Xbox #PlayStation pic.twitter.com/BCIY0wE8Gt

— Squawk Asia (@asiasquawkbox) September 16, 2022