In about two weeks, Microsoft will be releasing its next-generation consoles where the company hopes to improve its market share and experiences for consumers. With the hardware nearly here, the primary focus is on games and the company’s growing library of studios.

With the Bethesda acquisition making its way through the regulatory journey, Phil Spencer in an interview with Game Reactor covered a wide variety of topics relating to future plans for acquisitions and Game Pass.

As expected, Microsoft is not done buying studios and will always leave the door open for future acquisitions but in the interview, Spencer made it clear on the type of games or studios he would like to acquire – specifically, casual style games.

I think what is missing from our portfolio is casual content with a broad appeal. E-rated content (to use an ESRB rating) is not a strength for us.

In the interview, he acknowledges that Minecraft has performed well for Microsoft and those are the types of titles that he would like to expand the portfolio with and it makes quite a bit of sense. Considering the company will have 23 studios post-Bethesda acquisition, having a robust lineup of games that range from FPS (first-person shooter) to casual titles will be important to making Game Pass appeal to a wide audience and not the typical ‘hardcore’ gamer associated with consoles.

A few other points from the interview are that you should not expect Game Pass on Switch or PlayStation anytime soon, he downplays this by saying that iOS, TVs, and other platforms are likely of a higher priority for the team. Of course, he does leave open the idea of bringing Game Pass to those platforms but I would not hold my breath for that.

Over the next two weeks or so, we will have a lot more on the new Series S and X – stick around, the fun is about to begin.

Tagged with Game Pass, Microsoft, Phil Spencer, Xbox