State of Decay 2's Designer Director feels Microsoft is not fooling around in the console gaming space

Microsoft has seen reasonable success with the Xbox One franchise but still lags behind Sony when it comes to exclusives and overall sales numbers. Richard Foge, the Designer Director of Undead Labs, makers of the hit game State of Decay 2, has said that Microsoft is not 'fooling around' when it comes to being on top with the best games and hardware. Undead Labs was among the recent Microsoft acquisitions to solidify its first party game portfolio. Foge said,

It’s still kinda early days in terms of what that’s going to shape up to be. I get the impression I’m going to be working on State of Decay for the foreseeable future. I think in my personal opinion, Microsoft is swinging for the fences. They’re not fooling around, they really want to be on top, they want to be on top with the best games, the best hardware and making people happy.”

Foge was also optimistic of the future of the State of Decay franchise. He said,

This acquisition signals Microsoft’s and Undead Labs’ commitment to growing the State of Decay franchise and continuing to deliver the ultimate zombie survival experiences for fans, both those new to the franchise and those already dedicated to the community.”

Time and again, Microsoft has proven that it is pretty much focussed on taking the market away from Sony as evidenced by the recent spate of new studio acquisitions and announcement of the next generation Xbox at E3 2018. While the PS4 Pro is a great console, the Xbox One does have a few tricks up its sleeves. It doubles up as a great entertainment setup with even the lower-end Xbox One S offering the ability to natively play UHD Blu-ray discs with Dolby Atmos support.

Xbox Live, Game Pass, and backward compatibility with Xbox 360 games all tilt the scales in Microsoft's favor but the lower number of exclusives on the Xbox has always been a cause of concern for Phil Spencer and team. Microsoft needs to continue innovating in this space not just to overtake Sony but even to remain relevant in the consumer space as it slowly but surely transitions to a Cloud and Enterprise-first company.

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