If this is the case, then they are growing much faster than I was expecting. Almost 100-200% growth in some cases. NT and InXile were under 50. Obsidian was just over 150. Turn10 was under 100. Playground was a small studio.
Playground has been expanding the fastest amongst XGS. If we count current vacancies, they will have two team in two separate location of approximately 200 devs each.
It depends on the ambition of the studio too, if they don’t want to expand too much I don’t think Xbox can force them to. Playground for example have a lot shown lots of desire for expansion, whereas Ninja theory still want small teams to deliver AAA experiences.
2 Likes
Seriously, it doesn’t have to be MS, I just wish someone cared about making vehicular combat games again.
3 Likes
Any idea what Rare is at, I’d love to see them grow Rare and Double Fine by a lot.
It’s in the post that you quoted. Rare is at 250.
2 Likes
LOL thanks, been a wild monday
You’re welcome.
1 Like
Insomniac is ~350 people split across two locations. Since they have two game pipelines it’s not the same as Naughty Dog where they have 500ish staff on just one project.
SSM has 300ish on Linkedin. Yes it’s always possible that staff counts there are undercounting a bit, but that’s true of all studios. I don’t use LI to ever estimate Japanese studios since they dramatically undercount there because fewer people use it.
Staff counts are also a little dubious since even major developers like Naughty Dog and 343i use huge amounts of outsourcing. Ideally we’d see some kind of approximate hours-spend on a project, but we’re never going to get that info.
Fuzzy Estimates based on info I can find, lilnkedin, and random guesswork in some places:
- Naughty Dog: ~500
- Guerilla: ~400
- Insomniac: ~350
- Santa Monica: ~350
- Japan Studio: ~300??? Totally unclear on this, I’ve seen wildly varying guesses.
- Polyphony: ~170
- Sucker Punch: ~160
- Bend: ~150
- London Studio: ~80
- Media molecule: ~50
Plus:
- PixelOpus: ??? (but small)
- San Mateo: ??? (unsure if still open)
- Malaysia: ??? (new support studio)
I would peg this at roughly 3000 people, maybe a bit higher since I could easily be undercounting some.
It’s interesting that they may only have slightly more developers now than 2011 (when it was known to be a staff count of ~2700), in part because between 2012 and 2020 they shut down:
- Bigbig Studios
- Studio Liverpool
- Zipper Interactive
- Sony Online Entertainment
- Evolution Studios
- Guerrilla Cambridge
- Manchester Studio
Which probably lost quite a lot of staff count.
Number of Xbox Game Studios’ employees according to LinkedIn (not the best source – just take a look at Tango Gameworks!).
| Studio | # of Employees |
|---|---|
| 343 Industries | 589 |
| Mojang Studios | 548 |
| ZeniMax Online Studios | 386 |
| Bethesda Game Studios | 368 |
| Playground Games | 276 |
| id Software | 272 |
| Arkane Studios | 251 |
| Rare | 247 |
| Obsidian Entertainment | 229 |
| The Coalition | 168 |
| Turn 10 Studios | 154 |
| MachineGames | 123 |
| inXile Entertainment | 102 |
| Ninja Theory | 102 |
| Undead Labs | 96 |
| Double Fine Productions | 77 |
| The Initiative | 69 |
| Compulsion Games | 62 |
| Alpha Dog Games | 14 |
| Tango Gameworks | 9 |
Total: 4,142 employees
4 Likes
Yes as I said in my post directly above, for Japanese studios LI is useless. For American ones, you can assume it’s (relatively) close, the numbers aren’t far off known figures in some cases for example.
2 Likes
Compulsion has grown 
2 Likes
Seeing this sickens me to see that Coalition hasn’t cracked the 200 mark, the Coalition should be in the 300 and have the budget that 343i gets for the Gears franchise.
1 Like
They should be making The Coalition into a 2 big games studio for sure. They’d be prime to make a big time 3rd person action adventure.
3 Likes
Coalition does a bunch of outsourcing. 1000+ on gears 5 credits.
Additionally if I am not mistaken, a big chunk of 343 is for stuff outside the games.
Honestly, 343 should have a lot more than coalition just because of how massive the halo universe is.
Though it would be nice to see coalition add another 200 to form a team for other games outside gears. But then I would also like to see 343 do the same to tackle different takes within the Halo sphere.
2 Likes
Yeah, a lot of 343 manages halo as a brand in general. The tv show, merchandising, marketing, brand deals, books, toys, the works. Plus they have stuff outside infinite, like MCC Updates and whatever other projects they might have incubating
Xbox does not need to make 3rd person games, what an absolute dumpster fire of an idea. Why don’t they get the best developers, story tellers, artists, and etc… to make whatever they want. We want them to innovate not limit their scope and tell them what they should be making. Take perfect dark for example, they are going with what they see fit their vision to be, making a first person “eco-scifi” game. This is intriguing, they are trying to make their own type of speculative fiction. Let all xbox game studios do this, if they don’t sell well then move on to the next thing. Keep in mind that 1 failed game in a bundle of 35 teams making games on an average of a 4 year cycle is nothing close to doom and gloom. So I would ask those who only want a certain genre to be made to take a look at the bigger picture. I want to be amazed with new things, this is what gets me excited to be a gamer.
Now for the acquisition part, XGS should find studios to make these kinda games: Platformers (Banjo?) Multiplayer social games ( Among US, Phasmophobia) Hack n’ Slash game ( God of War, Castlevania, DMC)
These genres are in my opinion what they can add, obviously there are many more. I do want XGS to acquire Techland and Crytek
5 Likes
I feel like they should consolidate that to one area across all their studios.
Its likely better for the studio that runs the IP to manage all of that, as they will have a closer connection to the IP than an office at microsoft hq, and each IP can be managed separately as it needs to be
I mean I could see it being better for the IP for sure, maybe a combination would be better. Have a few people responsible for creativity and direction and such and then a big team that handles all of the actual wheeling and dealing and busy work. I could see that helping the smaller studios too and sharing best practices and opportunities across the studios.
Amen and this 1000% as I keep saying. Stop chasing talent or forcing an idea on developers to chase a bubble that will burst. Matt and Phil should continue the laissez faire approach for the devs, and future acquisitions, and simply empower them to make what they wish to do so. Bleeding Edge may not be for everyone, but no other publisher would let a passion project like that take off, for example, and it’s fantastic that Xbox did. Stop trying to overinflated the importance of a sub-genre that isn’t nearly as popular as certain people make it out to be.
6 Likes