Acquisitions have become a big part of the modern gaming landscape, with both Sony and Microsoft snapping up studios left, right, and center over the past decade or so. Many worry that this practice will ultimately lead to weaker competition and inferior video games for consumers, yet it's difficult to really know what kind of impact these kinds of big-budget acquisitions will have on the industry in the long run.

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As Microsoft pushes on with its bid to purchase Activision Blizzard, video game fans may be interested to learn how some of the studios that were previously snapped up by Microsoft are currently faring. By looking at the caliber of games released both before and after these developers joined Xbox Game Studios, it may well be possible to get a better idea of how becoming a first-party studio affects a developer's output.

Compulsion Games (2018)

Microsoft announced the acquisition of Compulsion Games at E3 2018 just a few months before the release of the studio's second title, We Happy Few. Since then, the size of the developer has grown considerably as the team continues to work on an action-adventure game called South of Midnight. As of the time of writing, there is no news on when exactly the game will be released.

Double Fine Productions (2019)

Double Fine Productions has continued to grow in size and stature since being founded by Tim Schafer back in July of 2000. The studio was acquired by Microsoft just shy of two decades later, with the award-winning platformer Psychonauts 2 being the only game to have been released since the deal went through.

inXile Entertainment (2018)

Acquired by Microsoft in 2018, inXile Entertainment was best known for its work on the Wasteland and The Bard's Tale series before the deal went through. Since then, the team has continued work on the former, releasing both a remastered version of the first Wasteland game and the series' third installment in 2020.

Mojang Studios (2014)

Microsoft shocked the world when it purchased Mojang for $2.5 billion in September of 2014. Given the huge success of the studio's flagship game Minecraft though, it's pretty easy to see why Microsoft was so keen on striking a deal. The tech giant has released several Minecraft spin-off games in the years since the deal went through, though none have come close to the original in terms of popularity or critical acclaim.

Ninja Theory (2018)

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Microsoft snapped up Ninja Theory in 2018 following the success of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which had been released just the previous year. Since then, Ninja Theory has had a few minor releases, but the bulk of their time and attention has been spent working on a sequel to the 2017 title, with Senua's Saga: Hellblade II set to release at some point during 2024.

Obsidian Entertainment (2018)

Obsidian Entertainment was one of several big studios that Microsoft acquired in 2018. The developer has already released three fairly big titles since then, with a few more currently in the works. These include a sequel to 2019's The Outer Worlds and an action RPG game called Avowed, the latter of which is set in the Pillars of Eternity universe.

Playground Games (2018)

Microsoft and Playground Games had already been working together for quite some time when the former announced that it would be acquiring the latter in June of 2018. The studio had been responsible for the Xbox-exclusive Forza Horizon series and has continued to work on it in the years since, while also developing the upcoming Fable reboot.

Rare (2002)

One of Microsoft's first big acquisitions and undoubtedly one of the least successful, Rare was responsible for some of the very best games on the SNES and Nintendo 64. However, since being picked up by Microsoft around the turn of the century, the studio has struggled to recapture the success that flowed so freely for it throughout the nineties. Things have improved a bit in recent years, but today's Rare is a very different studio than the one that Microsoft acquired back in 2002.

Undead Labs (2018)

Another studio that already had a healthy relationship with Microsoft prior to being acquired by the tech giant in 2018, Undead Labs is the developer responsible for the Xbox-exclusive seriesState of Decay. The first two games were developed before the deal went through, with a third game having been in development since.

Bethesda Game Studios (2021)

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Together with Rare, Bethesda is probably the biggest studio to have been acquired by Microsoft at the time of writing, both in terms of its size and the caliber of games that it produces. The developer is best known for The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises and is currently applying the finishing touches to its open-universe action RPG, Starfield. The latter is the first new Bethesda IP in more than a quarter of a century and looks set to become the first true system-seller for the Series X.

Arkane Studios (2021)

Arkane Studios was founded by Raphaël Colantonio in late 1999 and became part of the ZeniMax Media Group around a decade later. With facilities in both Lyon, France, and Austin, Texas, Arkane often works on multiple games at a time and is best known for its Dishonored series. However, the studio has spent most of its time working on the 2023 title Redfall since Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax in 2021.

id Software (2021)

id Software is one of the founding fathers of the FPS genre and has been responsible for the creation of numerous highly esteemed IPs, including Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein. The developer was picked up by ZeniMax Media in 2009 and became one of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios following the latter's acquisition of the former some twelve years later.

MachineGames (2021)

MachineGames took over the development of the Wolfenstein series in the early 2010s, with 2014's Wolfenstein: The New Order being the studio's first big contribution to the long-running video game franchise. Since then, the developer has released multiple Wolfenstein games and is currently working on Wolfenstein 3 as well as an as-yet-untitled Indiana Jones game.

Tango Gameworks (2021)

Tango Gameworks was founded by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami in early 2010. Its first big release was the 2014 survival horror gameThe Evil Within, which received a sequel some three years later. Just one year after Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax in 2021, the studio released Ghostwire: Tokyo and followed this up by shadow-dropping the well-received rhythm game Hi-Fi Rush in January of the following year.

Zenimax Online Studios (2021)

ZeniMax Online Studios is responsible for the development and ongoing maintenance of The Elder Scrolls Online. Some of the team did also help out with the development of Doom (2016) and 2018's Fallout 76, but have presumably been focused mainly on TES Online since becoming a part of Xbox Game Studios in 2021.

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