Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced a slew of gaming studio acquisitions at the latest Xbox E3 press conference aimed at strengthening its original gaming content. This may be the brand's attempt at gaining a foothold in a market dominated by rival Sony's (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation.
Xbox head Phil Spencer announced Sunday that Microsoft has acquired Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, and Compulsion Games. The four studios will add to Microsoft's unique first-party game development. The company is also trying to bolster its game download subscription service Xbox Game Pass.
Microsoft has also been attempting to develop its own game-streaming service from the cloud.
Spencer revealed the company is hard at work building a streaming game service for any device. "Our cloud engineers are building a game streaming network to unlock console gaming on any device," says Spencer.
"Gaming is now at its most vibrant," he said. "In this significant moment we are constantly challenging ourselves about where we can take gaming next."
Spencer didn't give any confirmed dates on when the service will be available, but he's previously hinted that Xbox game streaming could be viable within three years. Many have tried to mimic this kind of game streaming service but have not been successful, since it's a challenging thing to get right. Sony acquired streaming games service OnLive only to shut it down, and previously acquired Gaikai, which eventually became part of its PlayStation Now service. Nvidia is trying to stream games to PCs, but all existing services suffer some defect that hinders full user adoption.
Spencer also elaborated on Microsoft's new Xbox consoles. According to Spencer, Microsoft's teams are "deep into architecturing the next Xbox consoles." Microsoft's research teams are also working on artificial intelligence for gaming. "Our experts in Microsoft Research are developing the future of gaming AI, so the world's and characters we enjoy will be more rich and more immersive," explained Spencer.
The newly acquired studios will all be kept under the Microsoft Studios brand, alongside a new venture called The Initiative, led by former Crystal Dynamics head of studio Darrell Gallagher. Microsoft Studios already contains groups like Halo-maker 343 Industries and the team behind Minecraft, which Microsoft acquired in 2014 for $2.5 billion.
Given that AR and VR technologies have emerged as a tangible reality lately, the path Microsoft is taking could open up a whole new direction for the company, especially considering the immense competition in other markets, such as software.
Xbox E3 briefing this year has been focused on finding the gaming equivalent of what Netflix is to the TV industry. Hence the immense attention being given to streaming: if the technology holds, it has the power to alter the entire nature of gaming on a global scale. Gamers will not be confined to only their homes, but instead have access to users across the world at any time with a never-seen-before ease.