List of Microsoft Gaming studios

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BlizzardIrvine.jpg
Mojang Studios 2022.jpg
Blizzard Irvine and Mojang Stockholm are examples of Microsoft Gaming studios.

This is a list of Microsoft Gaming video game studios, including development studios, support studios, satellite studios and offices. Microsoft Gaming is a American video game company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, US, founded on January 18, 2022. After several acquisitions, Microsoft Gaming has become one of the largest video game companies, and it has one of the largest in-house development team, with more than 20,100 employees working in over 40 studios in 17 countries as of February 2024. [1] [2] The three subsidiaries consist of: Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media, and Activision Blizzard. It owns 5 video game publishers labels, including Activision Publishing, Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, Blizzard Entertainment, and King Digital Entertainment.

Contents

Microsoft Gaming opened and acquired studios in 17 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, France, Spain, Mexico, China, Japan, Ireland, Malta, Australia, Hungary, Taiwan, South Korea and Poland.

North America

Canada

Mexico

United States

Europe

France

Germany

Hungary

Ireland

Malta

Poland

Spain

Sweden

United Kingdom

Asia

China

Japan

South Korea

Taiwan

Oceania

Australia

Former studios

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xbox Game Studios</span> American video game publisher

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethesda Game Studios</span> American video game developer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beenox</span> Video game developer, established in Quebec City, Quebec

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