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How 5 new studios will help Microsoft in the console war

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Microsoft’s deals to buy or build five game studios could shake up the balance of power in the game industry, and these moves were the biggest news to come out of its 2018 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show presentation yesterday.

Back when Microsoft entered the Xbox business in 2001, its leaders bragged at the time that it had dedicated more than 1,000 game developers to the cause of making games for its original video game console.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.