For nogle år siden bestemte Microsoft, med Xbox-chefen Phil Spencer i spidsen, at drastisk udvidde deres portefolie af førstepartsstudier, og de har siden da købt et hav af udviklere, lige fra Double Fine til Obsidian, fra InXile til Playground.
Under X019-messen sagde en anden Microsoft-chef at de nu var gået væk fra at købe studier, til udelukkende at udvikle spil, men her rettede Spencer ham, og slog fast at de endnu ikke er færdige - det mener han åbenlyst stadig.
I et interview med Stevivor slår Spencer nemlig fast, at de godt nok er i "execution mode", som betyder at de lige nu sikrer at deres studier leverer solide titler til Xbox-platformen, men at der er altså plads til "new points of view".
"We're always open. I liked the geographic diversity that we've been growing with our studios. If you look at Asia, we don't have any first party studios in Asia. I think that's an opportunity for us. We've moved from acquisition mode to execution mode. [We are] sitting here with 15 plus studios working on games. But it's not about a logo parade, or 'look at who we acquired this week', but really about what games [the studios] are going to go build."
"I do think that a strong, growing first-party is definitely part of our strategy. I'd love to see us continue to get new storytellers with new points of view into our first-party portfolio."