Microsoft Studios will now be known as Xbox Game Studio, the game developer announced on Tuesday in a statement written by Corporate Vice President Matt Booty.
This comes as part of a push from the company to increase the brand power of Xbox, to expand it beyond consoles.
“At Xbox, we believe when everyone plays, we all win,” reads the statement from Booty. “It’s why we’re passionate about building a portfolio of games for players across console, PC and mobile. As we’ve expanded our focus beyond the console, the Xbox brand has also evolved from its original roots. Today, Xbox is our gaming brand across all devices, no matter how or where you want to play, or who you want to play with. In that spirit, I’m pleased to share that we are changing the name of our game development organization from Microsoft Studios to Xbox Game Studios.”
“We’re also excited to see how the seven new game development studios we added to our team last year maximize their creative potential as part of Xbox Game Studios,” he continues. “As a gaming organization, we have never been in a better position to deliver a diverse line-up of exclusive games for Xbox fans now, and in the future.”
Last year Booty told Variety that Microsoft had no plans of abandoning Xbox consoles, but hoped to evolve its approach in support them and other platforms.
“Xbox, for us, is our home base. It is the root of our origins, a place where we built out a strong community of gamers,” Booty said. “As we look around the world and we think about the bigger collection of gamers on the planet, that goes beyond a console. It absolutely means we are going to have to pursue ambitions on PC and mobile as well. We need to go to where the gamers are, where the players are. But by no means does that mean to imply that we will spend less attention on Xbox and its fans on that journey. This is very much an additive situation.”
The reshaping of Microsoft’s approach to gaming first began in 2017 following Phil Spencer’s promotion to executive vice president of gaming. The interview can be read in full here.
Xbox Game Studios is made up of 13 game development teams, including 343 Industries, The Coalition, Compulsion Games, The Initiative, inXile Entertainment, Minecraft, Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, Playground Games, Rare, Turn 10 Studios and Undead Labs.
