I’d love it if Xbox had a studio that could pump out small, fun arcade games on a frequent basis. Geometry Wars, Castle Crashers, Mark of the Ninja, and many other XBLA games were awesome during the Xbox 360 era. Plus it could fill the gap with E-rated games.
The studios you listed are all great, I’d be very happy if one of them were to be acquired. Moon is on the top of my list, but unfortunately it looks like that’s not happening, at least not now. Excited for Moon’s ARPG, though.
I don’t think MS should be looking into studios with less than 50 people. Just not much point in acquiring studios that small imo
The only one I think they “Need” (selfishly) is iron galaxy, killer instinct is still the first thing on their website and there are a lot of killer instinct posters in the staff pictures, so they would likely be happy doing another killer instinct. Another plus is that they are a decent sized support studio in their own right, with 160 employees, so they could totally make fun experimental small games and do killer instinct at the same time. Double helix made killer instinct with 75 people, for reference, and they were working on two projects simultaneously that released nearish to each other.
One reason that I think they might be willing to sell is that their publicly known jobs are mostly switch ports, and if the switch is nearing its end of life in the next 2-4 years it could be an uncertain time for them
I think Satya Nadella kinda hinted at this after Microsoft entered in agreement to aquire Zenimax studios by saying “we will keep looking to buy more studios, you just cant wake up and decide to build studio” I hope Microsoft goes crazy when it comes to buying Studios in 2021 cause Gamepass needs it to become the Netflix of gaming.
I don’t think Xbox needs to acquire a studio for the purpose of arcade games. I think simply creating their own studio for that purpose would be good. If they have a studio that can consistently pump out fun arcade games, I think it will work very well with the Xbox Game Pass model and end up being a success. I feel the same way about a Japanese studio, there aren’t too many options in Japan.
I think Motion Twin could be a good pick for a small studio. Dead Cells is being updated for 2 years if I’m not wrong (they created a small subsidiarie to take care of dead cell). And now Motion Twin has a new game on development.
They are a worker cooperative. So that’s not gonna happen. Amazing game though, I’d love if Xbox worked with them.
Maybe alpha dog can do those kind of games. I mean, it’s a mobile game studio and i really doubt Microsoft are going to put them away of those kind of games, thats because with that one Microsoft can make a library of games that doesn’t need a controller for game streaming in smartphone
Thanks for the info 
Hope Game Publishing is searching for those small games that can last a good time, things like metroidvanias and rogue likes.
I think if they have a track record of good stuff, MS should go for it. Also, the challenges faced by smaller teams can be addressed by MS and Gamepass.
Innersloth, the team behind Among Us, is only 3 people and struggled in regards to marketing. That’s an area where MS could help out. If their games are good, it becomes a win for both sides.
Also, look at GP content right now…a lot of it is high quality indie stuff from small teams. The Outer Wilds is one of my most favorite games in the past generation and that came from a small dev.
Small devs can help with more frequent releases and as such there is more of a chance of one of the teams striking gold with a “Fall Guys” of their own, which would obviously be invaluable for Gamepass.
Lastly, they are cheap. There’s some indie developers out there that are great game designers but they are not entrepreneurs. Some game devs look to grow their business to make more money, and others wouldn’t mind a steady paycheck just to make fun games.
But my point is predicated on them having a decent history of great games (regardless of commercial success). There are a good number of Indie games on Gamepass and what’s remarkable is that they’re all high quality. Whoever curated these games did a great job. Now, not every game is for me, but when I play some of them I can see that they’re high quality.
But you could be right in that perhaps with those teams it makes more sense to agree to publish those titles as Gamepass lifetime exclusives.
I like ghosttown games and Hello Games for small studios
Couldn’t agree more with this though I think there are probably some exceptions if the studio produces the best content in that genre in the industry. Like for party games there aren’t huge studios, Jackbox games is small but best in industry. Same for the Rogue like games or platformers, Supergiant is the best and it’s small. I think they’d take those teams.
But for something like strategy or action or MMO or rpg etc I think they will only swing big.
I don’t agree at all, the game has very simple puzzles.
Yeah true yet this is the majority 
I don’t think they should be purchased by anyone per se, but I really dig Cellar Door Games. They have such a great approach to design and a rare ability to follow through on promises. I’d love to see them get some big funding and go hard.
They should prioritize quality and go out and do whatever needed to buy Supergiant Games, From Software, WB Games, Asobo, Moon, Dontnod and Larian. The studio portion of Valve as well if they are willing to just sell the studios.
Agree with this 100%, Gamepass it’s nowhere where it needs to be. Gampass in a calendar year should give us 12 AAA titles while showing us the roadmap for the next year batch of 12 AAA titles.
That would be INSANE!
and also insanely awesome for Gamepass 
but I think Phil said like 4-6 first party games a year was the goal! but I’ll take 12 a year
12 AAA titles is not realistic unless they have 60 studios working on AAA games.
So… 60 by 2022? I kid. 55 should be fine.