Microsoft har netop gennemført deres køb af Activision Blizzard, og dermed er banen kridtet op til at forøge deres output af førstepartssoftware de næste år. Selvom at de selv har malet et ret dystopisk billede af deres position på spilmarkedet, skulle deres satsning slå fejl, så lader det ikke til at de fjerner foden fra speederen lige foreløbig.
I et nyt interview med Axel Springer (via MSN) siger Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, at de "doubler down" på at være en robust spiludgiver.
"For us, there are a few things that go all the way back for us as a company. Gaming is one, right? When I think about Microsoft, I think of perhaps developer tools, proprietary software, and gaming. Those are three things that we've done from the very beginning. And so, to us, gaming is the one place where we think we have a real contribution to make in consumer markets. If I look at it, the amount of time people allocate to gaming is going up and Gen Z is going to do more of that. The way games are made, the way the games are delivered, is changing radically. Whether it's mobile, or consoles, or PCs, or even the cloud. So, we're looking forward to really doubling down both as a game producer and a publisher. Now we'll be one of the largest game publishers and also as a company that's building platforms for it."
Det betyder at de både vil udgive egen software, men at de også vil agere publisher for tredjeparter, såsom de gør med Avalanches Contraband, og muligvis også IO Interactives Project Dragon.