Compiled by James Davenport
The Xbox Games Showcase had a little bit of everything. Sure, Microsoft has always placed a heavy emphasis on its core FPS and racing games like Halo, Gears of War, and Forza, but the 2020 showcase was dominated by big games, small games, third-party games, and a deep-dive on the highly anticipated Starfield.
Microsoft has traditionally treated games as an afterthought, but the business sales and office productivity software that generates 90% of the company’s revenue, along with Windows being included on essentially every PC sold, has been its focus for decades. Xbox, however, marked a huge change in Microsoft’s strategy, though it took it outside of the existing PC market.
The Xbox brand has its ups and downs, and saw a few PC disasters like Games for Windows Live, but Microsoft eventually pivoted from focusing solely on the console to an ecosystem of PC, cloud, and subscriptions, where the Xbox – and its games – serve as an entry point, and with an overwhelming focus on the future importance of subscriptions.
The ultimate result of that pivot was the Xbox Game Showcase, which showed off the results of Microsoft’s mid-to-late 2010s acquisition spree, starting with Mojang for Minecraft, then buying Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Labs, Obsidian Entertainment, inXile Entertainment, and establishing the Initiative in Santa Monica (which has become a secret-but-not-that-secret hub for developing Xbox games). On top of that, it wasn’t long before Microsoft acquired the studio created by Tim Schafer, Double Fine, and started a publishing label for smaller games.
As a cherry on top, in 2020 Microsoft acquired Zenimax for over $7.5 billion in cash. That’s around three times what they paid for Mojang. While the goodwill that comes with the Elder Scroll series probably played a big part in that equation, it shows just how spectacular the results of Microsoft’s large acquisition spree of the mid-to-late 2010s have been, as seen in the Xbox Game Showcase.
Games from Microsoft’s acquisitions
There were games from several of Microsoft’s acquisitions in the Xbox Game Showcase – Fable by Playground Games, Elder Scrolls: Doomwind from Ninja Theory, Obsidian’s Grounded, and The Ascent from Neon Giant (acquired by Xbox Game Studios in 2019), among others.
But these games don’t look like the work of developers with troubled pasts, rather they are experiences gamers stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Halo, Gears, and Forza with highest quality. It goes beyond producing these big games, too; Microsoft also put an emphasis on smaller titles and games from new developers.
The smaller games
Smaller games featured prominently, with Cuphead developer Studio MDHR and superhero game Valiant Charge being among theses titles. Drool, the studio behind the mysterious (and very Wind Waker-looking) dogfighter Fear True, was also on hand with True Fear Nocturnal. It made for a wonderful mixture of different-sized studios and art styles, with a focus on whatever Microsoft deems ‘unique experiences’.
The final segment of the showcase was a deep dive on Starfield, Microsoft’s next big unannounced game. Spencer kicked off the final segment and gave fans a broad look at the game, from explaining how its development schedule works under the new Dynamic Systems Program, explaining that work on Starfield is divided into three two-year sections, and then talking deeper about the game and its world. The showcase was a wonderful demonstration of confidence in smaller games, as some lesser-known developers took the stage to showcase even their smallest titles.
Microsoft’s acquisition spree continued into Part Two, when the company announced it had acquired filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s game studio and its ‘secret project’ codenamed LUNA.