Laurel McConnell/Microsoft
Microsoft Gaming is taking 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 across all Xbox studios including Bethesda, Activision and Blizzard, as well as collaborations with third-party developers.
Matt Booty, Xbox president of gaming content and studios, spoke with Jennifer Maas, Variety senior business writer of TV and video games, to discuss highlights from this year’s presentation, the inner workings of Xbox after Activision Blizzard, and more Variety’s ‘Strictly Business’ podcast.
“We’re starting to find the rhythm that we’ve always strived for, and that’s really our commitment to our players, to be able to deliver a much more stable cadence of games at a more predictable rhythm,” Booty said. “We really started acquiring and expanding our studio portfolio in earnest in 2018, and then we had the wonderful acquisition of ZeniMax/Bethesda in 2021… and then [in the fall of 2023], with Activision, Blizzard and King. But it took a while for this all to get up to speed. And in the midst of that, we’ve all been through COVID, which certainly had some ups and downs in the industry, not just in gaming, but in entertainment.
Listen to the full podcast here:
Xbox’s showcase marked the first time that all of Microsoft’s recent gaming acquisitions were showcased on the same stage – a factor that Booty said greatly increased fan excitement and analyst support around the “critical mass” of announcements. Now Booty says Xbox is “heading in the right direction” and he believes the company is “capable of hopefully delivering a great lineup and a great showcase next June.”
“I read an article where someone pointed out that this was a year where we didn’t have the traditional heavy hitters of Xbox, like ‘Halo,’ like ‘Forza’ – and of course we have teams working on those projects, and we have a lot cool things to share when the time is right,” Booty said. “But the fact that we’ve hopefully delivered a critical mass of excitement, and it wasn’t dependent on the things that we’re going to historically, I think is just a good indicator and a good sign that we’ve taken that step and that we can continue to perform at that pace in the future.”
Additional topics Booty covers on the ‘Strictly Business’ podcast:
- What the “Fallout” franchise has in store after another update to Amazon’s “Fallout 76” live service and hit TV adaptation
- The heavy emphasis on day-and-date availability of new games, including the next “Call of Duty” title, through the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which saw its biggest launch ever in October when “Diablo IV” entered its Game Pass made his debut
- The closure of Bethesda studios like Tango Gameworks and the complex decision-making required to determine the fate of developer teams
- The increased popularity of “Sea of Thieves” on both Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation since Microsoft began releasing select titles to its main console competitor and Nintendo Switch
- The prospect of bundling entertainment offerings in the gaming industry
‘Strictly business’, yes Variety‘s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about media and entertainment. (Click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes drop every Wednesday and can be downloaded from Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.