Earlier in the week, rumors circulated from a Bloomberg report about Microsoft’s alleged interest in acquiring Japanese studios. While the company supposedly hasn’t landed any deals, the Bloomberg article claimed “evidence” suggests the group is attempting to make moves with several larger and smaller Japanese developers. Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently said otherwise, though. According to him, such reports are not accurate.
In an interview with GameSpot this week, Spencer addressed the Bloomberg claims outright. When asked if there was any truth to reports of Microsoft approaching Japanese companies for acquisition purposes, the executive said,
I don’t think so. I say, I don’t think so… I mean, I’m not in every meeting that every team has, but I’ll say not from me. Most of the opportunities that we’ve had to date have been a long-lasting relationship, and so, I don’t think we’re out there with our business card, throwing them out on the corner, trying to find people.
I’ve talked about my affinity for Japanese studios and thinking back in the day when we had more games that were created in Japan as part of our first party. I’m excited when the deal closes to get to spend more time with Tango [Gameworks] and the work that they’re doing. So it’s an area that I’m interested in, but no, I don’t think it’s… I think that’s not accurate.
This news should be of special interest to PlayStation fans, since Koei Tecmo President, Hisashi Koinuma, said Microsoft reached out in an effort to possibly form a partnership of some kind. Koei Tecmo, of course, is the parent company of Team Ninja–the crew behind Ninja Gaiden and, most recently, PS4 exclusives Nioh and Nioh 2.
As noted in the above quote from Spencer, Microsoft already has one massive acquisition under its belt this year. In September, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Bethesda Softworks’ parent company, Zenimax Media, for a whopping $7.5 billion. The deal is expected to be finalized next year.
