Xbox Acquires Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic Developer

Microsoft has announced it will acquire Obsidian Entertainment, developer of role-playing games including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Alpha Protocol, and Pillars of Eternity, among others. The announcement was made during X018, an Xbox fan event that is taking place in Mexico City.

"As one of the industry's premiere RPG developers, we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to add their expertise to Microsoft Studios, while enabling the studio to preserve its unique culture and build on its talent and vision to fully realize their creative ambitions," Microsoft said in a statement.

This is one of two acquisitions Microsoft revealed intentions of making during X018. It is also set to acquire inXile Entertainment, the studio behind Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep. As Microsoft notes itself, these two studios share heritage and develop games in similar genres. The platform holder has said both Obsidian and inXile "will continue to operate autonomously and bring their unique talents, IP, and expertise to Microsoft Studios as they build new RPG experiences for our players and fans."

Microsoft also notes that with these two new studios as part of its family, Microsoft Studios is now made up of "13 distinct and diverse game development teams." During E3 2018, Microsoft confirmed acquisitions of Santa Monica-based The Initiative, a new studio led by Darrell Gallagher, former head of studio for Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics.

Additionally, State of Decay developer Undead Labs, Forza Horizon studio Playground Games, We Happy Few developer Compulsion Games, and Ninja Theory, the British developer of Heavenly Sword, DmC: Devil May Cry, and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, were also added to its studio portfolio.