There once was a time when one of the biggest criticisms that gamers had of Xbox was its lack of exclusive games. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer and Microsoft have worked to change that perception, mainly by acquiring existing studios to develop Xbox console exclusives. Microsoft and Xbox have made some industry-shaking acquisitions in recent years, significantly increasing the number of studios working on Xbox exclusive projects.

Xbox Game Studios' incredible growth was highlighted in a recent tweet by Xbox insider Klobrille. The tweet features two images, one that shows how many studios were under Xbox's umbrella in 2017, and one that shows how many studios it now controls as of 2022. The first image shows that Xbox was starting out rather small, with just Rare, Mojang, Turn 10, 343 Industries, and The Coalition under its belt, while the second image almost has too many studios to list.

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Since 2017, Xbox has acquired Double Fine, Obsidian Entertainment, Ninja Theory, and started The Initiative. InXile, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games, and Forza Horizon developer Playground Games have all also been added to the lineup of Xbox first-party studios. However, Microsoft's acquisitions of Activision Blizzard and Bethesda are really what have put Xbox Game Studios over the top.

With Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda, it has obtained Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, Tango Gameworks, MachineGames, Arkane, ZeniMax Online, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios. Bethesda Game Studios is the developer responsible for some of the most popular games in history, like The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, and it's set to deliver Xbox's flagship console exclusive release for 2022, Starfield, so it was no small acquisition.

Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has yet to be approved and likely won't happen until mid-2023 or thereabouts, but when it happens, Xbox will be adding even more heavy-hitters to its lineup of first-party studios. This includes Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, and Treyarch, not to mention World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch company Blizzard Entertainment.

Acquiring all these studios not only brings a ton of proven talent to Xbox, but it also gives it control of some of the industry's most important IPs. Xbox now owns everything from Crash Bandicoot to Fallout, and while some of the impact of these acquisitions has yet to be felt, the coming years should be absolutely massive for the Xbox brand. It's possible that there will be even more acquisitions in future, so fans should keep that in mind as well.

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