There have been quite a few news regarding the first party support for Microsoft Xbox 360 console lately and I can't think of anything not positive. Some people said MS had the weakest first party support, but the best 3rd party support of the big three.

The investments Microsoft made are really big so that a new look at the Microsoft studios is worth it. So let's go:

Lionhead Studios

Currently working on Fable: The Journey
www.lionhead.co.uk

Microsoft Studios Vancouver
new studio, opened May 2011,

currently working on unanounced core game
www.mgsvancouver.com

Turn 10 Studios

currently working on: Forza Motorsport 4 DLC
http://forzamotorsport.net/turn10.aspx

Good Science Studios
currently working on Kinect Fun Labs, unannounced title

Twisted Pixel
currently working on: unannounced game
www.twistedpixelgames.com

Rare
currently working on: Unannounced game, Kinect Sports Season 2 DLC
www.rare.net

343 Industries
currently working on: Halo 4
http://www.microsoft-careers.com/go/343-Industries-Jobs/190537/

Big Park
currently working on: unannounced title
www.bigpark.com

Microsoft Studios Soho
currently working on: unannounced tile (still hiring)
http://www.microsoft-careers.com/key/microsoft-game-studios-soho-jobs.html

Microsoft Family
currently working on: unannounced title (still hiring)
http://123kinect.com/xbox-360-kinect-experimental-studio/15848/

Microsoft Victoria
currently working on: unannounced title (still hiring)
just opened

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There is still the MGS Mobile studio, which produces games for Windows phone 7 and XBLA (Ilomilo) and Xbox Live Productions, which created South Park Tower Defense play.

I think with 5 new studios in 6 months MS made it obvious that they are heavily investing in their first party lineup. MS Victoria should be a team of 60 employees, which is quite a number.

The people working at 343 industries are basically a bunch of the top developers in the world. RARE just hired 5-6 new people coming from all over the world and with different industry background.

Lionhead is working on another title beside Fable.

If MS keeps up their awesome 3rd party support and the 2nd party partnerships with Epic, Remedy and Crytek they offer the total package. All the new stuidos and new staff will be ready for next gen. Give them a year or two to build everything from the ground up and you are fine. 2013 should be perfect for them.

I am quite amazed by the growth in the past 6 months. Maybe they buy another studio next year as well. Remedy, Frontier or even Epic Games were rumored.

^they started,bye

btw OP,MGS have 14 first party studios right now,not just 11

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Studios_(game_studio)

Just about everything he said was right on point.

To be honest, I believe Microsoft had a better line up of exclusives last gen then this gen. The first 2-3 years of the 360's life cycle was when Microsoft actually had a decent amount of good quality exclusives, including jrpg's.

Now it's almost as if Microsoft no longer cares for exclusives anymore. With all the kinect shovelware and all this timed DLC, I am starting  to think Microsoft has given up in that important category of games.

I don't don't understand the negative comment. All the thread is implying is that MS has been investing a lot into 1st party developers recently. Just this year MS has created 4 new studios and bought Twisted Pixal. Obviously we wont see anything from those new 1st party studios until probably next year, but it just shows MS is dedicated to making more 1st party IP's for the 360 and their next system. Then somehow you turn it into a negative thing. Congratz you derailed the thread on the first post.  

Lionhead working on a NON Fable game? Hell has frozen over!!!

I think they should buy Ruffian, beef it up there, and give them more dev time. Crackdown was competant but C2 sucked (mainly cos it had like 7 month dev time) so I think they're capable of a great game, nothing AAA though ...

Remedy, no brainer for me .... also Harmonix. And Double Fine. All other ones they should buy.

i don't understand it as well. op only said they are investing a lot atm and they need little bit time and then we will see more first party games than w did before which makes sense if they buy new developers or open new studios. it's not like microsoft does this to let them brew beer or so (which wouldn't be bad as well)

for me microsoft should work on or buy developers who can work on:

1. one more ego-shooter series. halo isn't enough if you think about how popular shooter games are on xbox. with one more exclusive ego-shooter this would be even more interesting for tose gamers and they don't have to fear that they will buy a ps4 then. so buying the resistance guys wouldn't be so bad

2. a western rpg. western rpg's are clearly the most popular atm and if they could produce a game like fallout or skyrim this would be really epic. they will never win many fans in japan i think so they need better games for america/europe

3. maybe a game like mario kart. sure they don't have mario and so on but maybe it could be possible to get the permisson of other developers to put their figures in the game. they don't need it but i wish to play this kind of games and if i don't by a wii u i need it on xbox or playstation^^

4. a game with zombies haha. if they could make a game like resident evil this would be very cool :)

5. kinect games with nice concepts. on youtube there are so many great ideas and still microsoft didn't manage to put ideas like those in kinect games. i mean it's their kinect they should know it more than anybody else.

Yup they are developing a lot of Kinect games, pity they are not making the one good Kinect game all the "core" gamers want. Where is Black & White Kinect? Lionhead is wasting their time not making it, instead they are making another on rails game that isn't on rails...

Yeah MS have really been stepping up their game in acquiring/making new 1st party studios which is only a good thing. Now looking at that list it looks like MS have really no good games coming....but that assumption couldn't be more wrong. There are about 9-10 studios there that have unannounced titles which means MS are gearing up for a big 1st party launch for the next Xbox as well as most likely announcing a good number of games for the 360 in the coming year (most likely on E3)

And who knows, they might not even be done getting new 1st party studios.

Well most of those new studios are working on unannounced games. Its unlikely they'll be releasing any games on the 360. They're probably gearing up for the Xbox 720 launch. Which brings the question, how long till Xbox 720? Microsofts 1st party lineup is already really barren.(just take a look at this years releases, only 1 AAA first party game) Next year will be even worse.

3rd party support is basically the same as PS3.

Why is the Xbox 360 having such an amazing year sales-wise when their exclusives are far in between?
People could buy a PS3 and get the same exact experience.

Despite their major investments a lot of the studios you mentioned are expected to be smaller studios. 60 man studios are not big enough to create a major AAA block buster title efficiently. You need a bigger team to deliver such a high quality title in such a short period of time. Rare has roughly 200 developers and they haven't made a big AAA game in years, with that big team and even bigger in the past it still took them years to deliver high caliber software. LionHead also has hundreds of staff.

Lets face it these new studios aren't going to be bringing us the next Gears or Halo. If they have less then a hundred employees in total the best we can expect are casual based cheaply made software.

MGS Vancouver looks promising though and so do some of those mentioned. But many are not indications at all that we will see amazing games coming to Nex-Box. At least not to many more then usual.

Actually scratch that considering Microsoft began next generation software development in 2008, expect their to be a massive wave of high quality software for launch of the NextBox. But it won't be completely due to these guys.