Microsoft Can Be A Good Publisher” Across All Platforms, Including Sony And Nintendo, CEO Says

Microsoft is expanding its game development plans, as in a new interview, CEO Satya Nadella explained that the company aims to become a “good publisher” across all platforms. These comments come in the wake of Microsoft finally closing the deal on Activision Blizzard acquisition, a process that took more than a year to be completed and faced numerous legal challenges along the way.

“We’ve been at gaming, we love gaming. In fact, Flight Simulator was created before even Windows. But, we were number three, number four. And with Activision, I think we have a chance of being a good publisher–quite frankly–on Sony and Nintendo and PCs and Xbox,” Nadella said to Bloomberg. “We are very excited about that acquisition closing and very glad we’ve got it through.”

This isn’t the first time that Nadella has spoken about Microsoft’s plans to release games across more platforms–including competing ones–and there have been reports that Microsoft exclusives such as Sea of Thieves or Hi-Fi Rush could make the jump to Nintendo and Sony consoles soon.

Microsoft has not yet responded to these claims, although during the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard, it did pledge to keep releasing new Call of Duty games on PlayStation and it promised to bring the franchise to Nintendo consoles in the future. On a similar note, Microsoft’s first-party studio Arkane Lyon has not yet confirmed if its Blade video game will be exclusive to Xbox or if it’ll be released on other platforms.

This week will be a big one for Microsoft, as it’ll be offering a preview of its upcoming Indiana Jones games in its first Developer DIrect livestream of the year. The show will also include Avowed, Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga, and Ara: History Untold.