Microsoft acquires two veteran gaming studios in ongoing Xbox exclusive push

At Microsoft’s 'X018' Xbox gaming event in Mexico City, the company announced a raft of new measures that it's hoping will reignite fan passion for the Xbox platform, including imminent support for keyboard and mouse controls in select games.

That wasn’t the only big announcement, however. Back in June, Microsoft acquired five gaming studios to try and bolster its repertoire of first-party exclusive gaming titles – on both Xbox and PC – and now the company has added another two big veteran names to its roster: Obsidian Entertainment and InXile Entertainment.

Both studios are well-regarded for their work on RPG titles, with Obsidian gaining plenty of attention for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and more recently for its two Pillars of Eternity games, while InXile is best known for the Wasteland, Bard’s Tale and Torment franchises.

These two studio acquisitions are the latest in Microsoft’s bid to produce exclusive titles for the Xbox and Windows platforms, bringing the total number of development teams to 13 – a roster which already includes the likes of Ninja Theory, Playground Games, Undead Games, Compulsion Games and freshly-created studio The Initiative.

These existing Microsoft-owned studios have produced some recent hits, such as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Forza Horizon 4, State of Decay and We Happy Few, which have helped bring more attention to both the Xbox console and its Game Pass subscription program, which is now available for Windows.

InXile and Obsidian are PC-focused studios and have a loyal fanbase tied to their titles and franchises. Spokespeople for both the studios and Microsoft have confirmed that nothing will be changing as far as the studios' current projects are concerned.