With both Microsoft and Sony upping the ante in recent months when it comes to the acquisition of studios, significant shockwaves have been felt throughout the video game industry as the list of each companies' first-party studios continues to grow. Microsoft, in particular, has rocked the gaming world with itsacquisition of Activision Blizzard, which signaled the largest deal in gaming history to date. With multiple fan-favorite titles coming under the umbrella of one company or another, gamers have been left questioning what changes this will mean for the landscape of the industry, and if owners of only one console will lose out on a whole host of games.
WithXbox’s list of first-party studios more than rivaling PlayStation’s, gamers have wondered whether Microsoft’s studio acquisitions across recent years have been an attempt to compete with PlayStation’s dominance when it comes to sales and community popularity. With the PS5 reportedly outselling the Xbox Series X/S by around 5.44 million units by the end of 2021 according to VGChartz, Microsoft has no doubt been looking at ways to promote its consoles over its closest competitor. While acquiring new first-party studios may be a part of this strategy, the war between two of the gaming industry’s titans continues to rage. Now that the dust has settled on some of the newer additions to the various companies' first-party stables, players are wondering how they measure up against each other.
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Xbox’s First-Party Studios
Over the last few years, Microsoft has established itself even more firmly as a force to be reckoned with in the gaming industry, acquiring some of the largest studios to house under its ever-expanding roof. With Phil Spencer’s promotion to Microsoft’s Senior Leadership Team in 2017 to become the Executive Vice President of Gaming, the company has gone from strength to strength. With major studios like Obsidian andpublishers like Bethesda and Activision Blizzardjoining the team, multiple popular franchises suddenly came under Microsoft’s purview, as well as some serious developer talent.
While a handful of names may be more familiar among the first-party studios than others, it is important to note that a number come under the title of larger, more recognizable names like “Bethesda” or “Activision,” such as Tango Gameworks (The Evil WithinandGhostWire: Tokyo) and Toys For Bob (SkylandersandCrash Bandicoot), respectively. The full list now makes for impressive reading, with studios covering everything from top-tier racing games, MMORPGs, and massive franchises likeHalo, to newer, more boundary-pushing titles likeHellblade.Microsoft has made some ambitious plans, and with this many studios now under its belt, it’s no wonder that the company has a firm eye towards expansion and the continued creation of content.
For a full list of Microsoft’s first-party studios, please see below:
PlayStation’s First-Party Studios
While Microsoft may be making history with one of the largest recent acquisitions in gaming, Sony is far from slacking off. With an already impressive library of first-party studios full of Game of the Year winners and record-breaking titles, PlayStation has been steadily building up an enviable and award-winning catalog of games over the past decade or so. With a large number ofstudios reportedly working on first-party games for Sony, this trend looks set to continue.
Although at first glance Sony’s first-party studio list may not look as impressive (or impressively long) as Microsoft’s, that is misleading. With studios producingAAA titles likeHorizon Zero Dawnand its upcoming sequel, as well as highly anticipated games likeMarvel’s Spider-Man 2andMarvel’s Wolverineas PS5 exclusives, Sony doesn’t have a lot to worry about when it comes to creating experiences that are commercially successful and critically praised. With the recent news that Sony will be acquiring Bungie (Halo,Destiny), Sony further solidified its dominance of the gaming market with its efforts to improve its live-service game offerings.
For a full list of PlayStation’s first-party studios, please see below:
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How They Compare
While it’s easy to look at the sheer number of studios now falling under Microsoft compared to Sony’s slightly more modest offering, things aren’t that simple. Before the last year or so, Sony acquired first-party studios at a much slower rate than Microsoft, as the latter’s attempts to compete with the gaming powerhouse saw it add more and more studios to its list. However, with a number of high-profile acquisitions causing Microsoft to rocket to the top of news headlines, Sony has started to pick up the pace recentlyin comparison. In 2021 alone, Housemarque, Bluepoint Games, Nixxies, Valkyrie, andFiresprite all joined Sony.
When looking at prestige for game releases, Sony certainly has Microsoft beat. Its first-party studios have produced multiple award-winning titles, such as thecritically-acclaimedThe Last of Us, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima,andMarvel’s Spider-Man, to name but a few. With the slower churn but higher success rate of PlayStation’s first-party hits compared to Xbox’s offerings, PlayStation comes out on top when looking at well-received games from its first-party studios.
Microsoft’s focus on quantity does serve to bolster its impressive andindustry-leading subscriptions service, Xbox Game Pass. The massively popular service has seen gamers flock to it in recent years to enjoy the vast and varied array of titles on offer, inching it above PlayStation’s comparable subscription package. However, one of Xbox’s historic failings has always been its lack of exceptional first-party support in comparison to what PlayStation offers. AlthoughGears of WarandHalohave been popular and lucrative series, there hasn’t been anything truly rivaling PlayStation’s singleplayer offering when it comes to exclusive content.
With the new acquisitions and unexpected changes over the past few months, gamers will no doubt be interested to see how this starts to ripple through the community and change up the exclusivity of games on both Xbox and PlayStation. Microsoft now has a bafflingly diverse and promising array of first-party studios, with teams that cover almost every genre, style, and gaming niche. As long as Microsoft leaves its studios to do what they do best without interfering too much, Xbox could have a stellar few years of first-party content to look forward to. This could potentially topple PlayStation’s dominance of the exclusivity sphere, but Sony’s attempts tooutmaneuver Microsoft with its acquisition of Bungieshow that it’s not going down without a fight.
