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Xbox head would ‘be surprised’ if it doesn’t buy a studio in India, South America or Africa

Vasto

Member
Xbox chief Phil Spencer has said he expects to see the company acquiring a developer from India, Africa or South America in the future.



The regions are not traditionally associated with big-budget games, but Spencer told The Guardian that it’s only a matter of time before Xbox purchases studios in those areas.

“It would actually surprise me if that doesn’t happen,” Spencer replied.

“Just knowing the talent that’s available, and the tools [such as game engines Unity and Unreal] that are so much more accessible, I would be surprised if in the next 3-5 years you don’t see numerous studios in places that aren’t the traditional hubs of video game development.”

Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty agreed with Spencer’s reply. “There should be a several-hundred-person studio [in one of these territories],” he added.

“And not for outsourcing or support, but a team building whatever the version of the best blockbuster game may be for that market. That is very much the vision.”


 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
After all, isn't it some studio from India which supply them car models to Forza games?
 

AJUMP23

Member
Phil has said this before in opining for Xbox to have a god of war or something similar. Who wouldn’t want those tent pole games on their system.
who wouldn’t want a Mario game on their system.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
Work List GIF
 

CamHostage

Member
After all, isn't it some studio from India which supply them car models to Forza games?

There are a lot of countries investing heavily (or being exploited for cheap semi-skilled labor, depending on how you look at it) in being development studios for assets and services in interactive software. Look everywhere Epic Games has an office aside from its development studios and you'll probably find small people-factories churning out UE Marketplace assets and other materials/functions.

There's talent out there, albeit primarily low/mid-level talent trained in their particular, narrow discipline... but, that may change if some of these people find ways to prove themselves skilled beyond what their bosses are tasking them with, or find the financial backing to become their own boss. It could be really cool to see that kind of emersion of game designers. We saw it in Poland, we've seen it in China (albeit it's not all good vibes in Chinese game producing...), we're seeing it in Korea, etc. Empowering and backing those countries' creative geniuses isn't always a given (and a lot of hacks will try to drive the business before somebody proves themselves as an ace,) but where the seed does germinate, there should be a nutritive workforce of abundant, skilled and hopefully eager teammates down the line to make that grow.
 
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reksveks

Member
It was an interesting part of the KF video about how the pandemic kind of sped up the technology needed to make this sort of things more feasible now.
 
There are only a handful of Indian studios that have worldwide recognition.

The big Indian studios are:

  • IndiaGames - HUGE mobile gaming studio. Acquired by UTV (subsidiary of Disney).
  • Ubisoft Pune - Used to be called Gameloft Pune, an overseas studio of French developer Gameloft, until Ubisoft acquired Gameloft. Big in mobile gaming, and still are with multiple studios around the world. Currently working on the infamous, badly backfired, PoP Sands of Time Remake.
  • Ubisoft Mumbai - Is currently a support studio for Pune
  • Gameshastra - Mostly released mobile games till now, does outsourcing work like QA testing, also has a university teaching game development.
  • Lakshya Digital - Specializes in art, modelling, and asset creation. Their recent big project that I remember was Shenmue 3.
  • Dhruva Interactive - Used to be just like Lakshya, did some work for famous games like Burnout, Forza Horizon etc, but got acquired by Starbreeze studios, who then sold them to Rockstar, and now are named to Rockstar India, working on GTA 6 probably.
  • Juego Studio - Mostly mobile games.
I'm 90% sure, the Indian studio Phil is talking about here is Lakshya Digital. Not only the work they did in Shenmue, but for Microsoft, they have done previous (and currently ongoing) work in games like State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves and Bethesda's Elder Scrolls Online.

Lakshya Digital are also a private company, with around 500 employees, and has an overseas studio in Seattle, Washington. So, it's a perfect lock for them. I'm guessing the talks are already underway for the buyout.
 
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Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
Phil has said this before in opining for Xbox to have a god of war or something similar. Who wouldn’t want those tent pole games on their system.
who wouldn’t want a Mario game on their system.
Who wouldn't want a halo, gears, Forza, Forza horizon, Elders Scrolls, Doom, Dishonored, Starfield etc... Just saying.
 

kittoo

Cretinously credulous
There are only a handful of Indian studios that have worldwide recognition.

The big Indian studios are:

  • IndiaGames - HUGE mobile gaming studio. Acquired by UTV (subsidiary of Disney).
  • Ubisoft Pune - Used to be called Gameloft Pune, an overseas studio of French developer Gameloft, until Ubisoft acquired Gameloft. Big in mobile gaming, and still are with multiple studios around the world. Currently working on the infamous, badly backfired, PoP Sands of Time Remake.
  • Ubisoft Mumbai - Is currently a support studio for Pune
  • Gameshastra - Mostly released mobile games till now, does outsourcing work like QA testing, also has a university teaching game development.
  • Lakshya Digital - Specializes in art, modelling, and asset creation. Their recent big project that I remember was Shenmue 3.
  • Dhruva Interactive - Used to be just like Lakshya, did some work for famous games like Burnout, Forza Horizon etc, but got acquired by Starbreeze studios, who then sold them to Rockstar, and now are named to Rockstar India, working on GTA 6 probably.
  • Juego Studio - Mostly mobile games.
I'm 90% sure, the Indian studio Phil is talking about here is Lakshya Digital. Not only the work they did in Shenmue, but for Microsoft, they have done previous (and currently ongoing) work in games like State of Decay 2, Sea of Thieves and Bethesda's Elder Scrolls Online.

Lakshya Digital are also a private company, with around 500 employees, and has an overseas studio in Seattle, Washington. So, it's a perfect lock for them. I'm guessing the talks are already underway for the buyout.

He might also be taking about studio that made Raji an ancient epic, a pretty well received game.
Raji is also on gamepass.
 
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