Xbox chief Phil Spencer is open to acquisitions after Activision deal

After a difficult year, Microsoft’s video gaming chief is still looking at acquisitions and mapping out how to compete and collaborate in the handheld gaming and mobile retail markets.

Deals that add “geographic diversity,” including in Asia, could be worthwhile, Phil Spencer said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York office on Tuesday. Buying another mobile company would add to the titles Microsoft picked up in its $69 billion (about Rs. 5,82,417 crore) acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year, he said.

“We absolutely want to be active in the market, and if we can find teams, technology and capabilities that contribute to what we’re trying to do in gaming at Microsoft, we will absolutely hold our heads high,” Spencer said. Still, nothing is imminent and very large deals are likely off the table at this point as the company spends a lot of time absorbing Activision Blizzard employees, he said.

Microsoft wants to diversify the teams working on games by looking more toward China, he said. The company developed a new mobile version of Age of Empires, a world-building franchise that first appeared in the 1990s, by partnering with Tencent Holdings Microsoft, and Tencent released the game globally in October.

“It’s been a good area for us to learn from creative teams with really unique capabilities,” Spencer said. “The real opportunity is to collaborate globally with creative teams in China.”

The executive, who has repeatedly expressed his admiration for portable gaming devices, said the “expectation is that we would do something” in that category. While the company is working on prototypes and thinking about what it could do, Spencer also asked his group to look at the market and develop its vision based on what it learns. Such a device will be available in a few years, he said.

In the coming months, designers and engineers will focus on making the Xbox app work better on existing portable devices and work with hardware makers to ensure their products sync with Xbox games and experiences, he said. The Xbox app is more good than great on some of these gadgets at this point, he said.

“Long term, I think it’s great that we’re building devices,” Spencer said. “And I think our team could do some really innovative work, but we want to be informed by learning and what’s happening now.”

The company’s planned online store for mobile games has been postponed as the group conducts additional research into the market, Spencer said. Xbox president Sarah Bond had announced the store in May, with a planned release date in July. But the staff is still in talks with mobile developers, including those responsible for Candy Crush and Microsoft-owned Call of Duty Mobile, to hammer out a plan. While regulatory matters involving Apple Inc.’s iOS stores and Alphabet Inc.’s Android mobile stores. are involved, working their way through courts in several countries, Microsoft still has no effective way to get its own store on mobile phones.

“So an online store would mean that someone doesn’t have to go to the app store to try to install something, but you still have to have a way to find the store,” Spencer said. “If we just hope, like if we build it, that they will come, I bet that won’t work.”

That means Xbox needs to make its store unique to players and figure out what will attract content creators. At the same time, it’s preparing for a world where mobile devices from Apple and Google are more open to Xbox.

“I think the ball is moving in the right direction,” Spencer said. “I think this idea of ​​open platforms, where users have more choice, creators have more choice, you see the momentum, right?”

After releasing the first wave of Xbox games for Sony Group’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Switch, Spencer is pleased with the results. Microsoft will do more of that, he said, and won’t rule out any game in Microsoft’s stable.

“I don’t see any red lines in our portfolio that say, ‘You are not allowed,’” he said. It’s too early to make a decision on the next version of Halo, he said.

After acquiring Activision, Xbox cut more than 2,500 jobs and closed three game design studios. With the company coming off a tough year in a challenging mobile gaming market, Spencer is feeling good about 2025.

“The Xbox business has never been healthier,” he said, citing growth in cloud and PC gaming and console usage. “The company is performing well right now, and I think this means a healthier future for the hardware and the games we build.”

Spencer also said he is optimistic about the growth of mobile games.

“I feel pretty good about where this industry is going,” he said. “To reach new players, we have to be creative and adapt to new business models, new devices and new ways of access. We are not going to grow the market with $1,000 (roughly Rs. 84,408) consoles.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)