Microsoft Gaming is riding a victory lap after an impressive Xbox Games Showcase presentation at the David Geffen Theater in Los Angeles on June 9, which was anchored by the reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, followed by major announcements in all. Xbox studios, including Bethesda, Activision and Blizzard, as well as collaborations with third-party developers.
Matt Booty, president of Xbox game content and studios, sat down with Jennifer Maas, Variety senior TV and video game business writer to discuss highlights from this year’s presentation, the inner workings of Xbox post-Activision Blizzard and more about Diversity’s Strictly Business podcast.
“We’re starting to hit the pace we’ve always aspired to, and that’s really our commitment to our players, to be able to deliver a much more consistent pace of games at a more predictable pace,” said Booty. “We got really serious about buying and building our studio portfolio in 2018, and then we had the amazing ZeniMax/Bethesda acquisition in 2021… and then [in the fall of 2023], bringing Activision, Blizzard and King on board. But it took some time to improve all of this. And in the midst of that, we all went through COVID, which certainly had some ups and downs in the industry, not just in gaming, but in all of entertainment.”
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The Xbox showcase marked the first time that all of Microsoft’s recent game acquisitions were shown on the same stage — a factor that Booty feels greatly increased fan excitement and analyst approval surrounding the “critical mass” of announcements. Now, Booty says Xbox is “starting to catch up” and he believes the company is “in a position to hopefully deliver a great lineup and a great showcase next June.”
“I read an article where someone pointed out that this was a year that we didn’t have some of the traditional heavyweights from Xbox, like ‘Halo,’ like ‘Forza’ — and of course, we have teams working on those projects, and we we have a lot of cool stuff to share when the time is right,” Booty said. “But the fact that we delivered, hopefully, a critical mass of excitement, and it wasn’t dependent on the things we historically go into, I think that’s just a good indicator and a good sign that we’ve reached that step and that we’re going to we are able to continue to deliver at that pace moving forward.”
Additional topics covered by Booty on the Strictly Business podcast:
- What the ‘Fallout’ franchise has in store after a new update to its streaming service ‘Fallout 76’ and Amazon’s hit TV adaptation
- A big emphasis on day-and-date availability of new games, including the next Call of Duty title, via the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which saw its biggest launch ever in October when Diablo IV making its Game Pass debut
- The closure of Bethesda studios like Tango Gameworks and the complex decision-making that goes into figuring out the fates of development teams
- The rise in popularity of Sea of Thieves on both Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation since Microsoft began releasing select titles for its main console competitor and the Nintendo Switch
- The prospect of consolidating entertainment offerings in the gaming industry
“Strict business” is Variety‘s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.