Originally Posted by CNET
"You can't wake up one day and say, 'Let me build a game studio,'" Nadella said in an interview after the company announced its $7.5 billion cash purchase of ZeniMax Media, which owns several industry-leading game developers, including Bethesda Softworks and Id Software. "The idea of having content is so we can reach larger communities."
That's why Microsoft will consider buying even more video game companies in the future, he said, and why it continues to invest in its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Spencer also said Bethesda will run semi-independently, in an effort to keep the company building the games that brought it success in the first place. "It is about the culture of those teams," he said. "They're not about becoming us."
It's also why game companies will continue to be on Microsoft's radar. "We'll always look for places where there is that commonality of purpose, mission and culture," Nadella said, noting that the Xbox team has worked with ZeniMax companies including Bethesda since the first Xbox was released in 2001. "We will always look to grow inorganically where it makes sense."