Fresh from acquiring Bethesda, Microsoft are apparently in talks to buy some studios in Japan, Bloomberg have reported: “Several Japan-based game developers, from small to big, said [Microsoft] had approached them about buying their businesses.” The developers in question wished to remain anonymous, but this gels with a statement Xbox head Phil Spencer made last year, that “it would be nice if we found an Asian studio, in particular a Japanese studio”.
Microsoft are in an unenviable position in Japan. According to Famitsu, only 0.1 percent of this year’s console sales in Japan have been for the Xbox One. But both the Xbox Series S (small enough to fit in cramped Japanese living rooms), and Xbox Game Pass could help them improve their position in the world’s third-largest videogame market. If they were to outright buy, say, Platinum Games, that wouldn’t hurt either. (Although rumors of Platinum being bought by Micorosoft have been shot down by studio head Atsushi Inaba in the past.)
As the report concludes, though China and the US are both bigger videogame markets these days, Japan is the biggest based on per-capita spending. And that’s bound to be attractive to the company that’s already snapped up Mojang, Double Fine Productions, inXile Entertainment, and Obsidian, and according to CEO Satya Nadella, isn’t done yet.