Xbox is meeting with "big and small" Japanese studios for new acquisitions

Phil Spencer’s acquisition funds haven’t dried out yet! The Xbox boss is reportedly still looking to acquire Japanese studios to create exclusive Xbox content in the future.  

Reported by Bloomberg, it was revealed that a number of Japanese studios were approached by Xbox with regards to full studio acquisition over the course of the year.

While no specific companies were named in the report – the studios requested to be left anonymous – Microsoft has been looking at a variety of developers “big and small”.

Xbox’s goal of acquiring more Japanese studios for exclusive Xbox development has been a focus of Xbox boss Phil Spencer for a while now.  With Japan being Xbox’s fastest growing market, Microsoft has been keen to expand their reach in the region.

The company is in the midst of acquiring a single Japanese development team,  Shinji Mikami‘s Tango Gameworks, through their ongoing £7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda Softworks parent company Zenimax Media.

However,  Xbox’s Japanese plans aren’t going perfectly.  While both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are selling out in Japan,  their biggest Japanese launch title,  Yakuza Like A Dragon,  will not be launching on the system in that region.