Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg Discusses Studio Acquisitions and Building a “Family;” Teases Secret Games

Over the past couple of years, Microsoft has gone shopping for many studios to add to its first-party lineup, laying the foundations for a radical change in the balance within the video game library on Xbox Platforms.

During an interview at Gamescom 2018 in Cologne, Germany, we talked about these acquisitions and their effect with Xbox Games Marketing General Manager Aaron Greenberg.

Greenberg immediately mentioned that this will bring a lot of new games coming to the platform.

“Each of these studios that we acquired is working on multiple projects. There is going to be a lot of new games coming out on Xbox, I think fans are going to be really excited about, and more than ever before probably in the history of Xbox.”

That being said, I asked whether Microsoft is now done with the acquisitions or not.

“It’s a tough question to answer. We were very deliberate. […] There was a period of time in which we were very focused on adding more content to our first-party studios. 

[…]

It’s been exciting and it’s been great getting to know all these teams, going out and sitting down with Ninja Theory, or the team at Obsidian or inXile, and seeing the stuff that they’re working on now that people know about and the secret things they have in the works that people don’t know about yet. We’ll in time be sharing more about those.

I think we feel good about the level of content we have coming from our internal studios, but we felt good about that and then the opportunity with Double Fine came and that was a perfect fit.

You never know, but right now I think where we are, with our 15 internal studios, we feel really good about the amount of content we’re getting from that, whether it’s supporting Project Scarlett, or supporting Xbox Games Pass on PC and console, we feel like we have a healthy set of content across multiple genres, multiple game types, that will excite our fans.” 

Greenberg also described how Microsoft’s teams are often meeting and collaborating with each other, creating what’s pretty much a family.

“Matt Booty is our head of Xbox Game Studios and I would say those are some of my favorite meetings because you get these incredible leaders and really a diverse set of folks. 

[…]

I do feel like I’m a table of royalty and there is a lot of collaboration an sharing of tech and engines… There are so many great teams. 

To put that kind of creative talent together, I think what Matt has done that’s really inspiring, is bringing them together as a team, and how do you think about what does it take to make great games, and how the teams work together, and how they share tech, and how they work collaboratively.

There is a lot that people don’t see, but the teams do really help support each other on the back end. 

[…]

These teams don’t have to operate always alone , and it’s great to see Craig Duncan going down to meet with the team at Ninja Theory… I think they hosted like a pic-nic and brought people together. 

It’s really fun, and I think what we’re building is like a family. I think the result of that is that people really form bonds, they share knowledge but also you get better results. 

We may get to hear more about some of the games the recently-acquired studios are working on at XO19 in November, as Greenberg himself teased surprises coming at the show.

Of course, you should stand-by for the full interview here on Twinfinite, as he shared many more interesting details.