Xbox plans to ramp up in-house development efforts

Xbox head Phil Spencer says that, with the Xbox One X on its way out into the world, the team at Xbox is looking at breathing new life into its own game development efforts.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Spencer said that Xbox is looking to put more money and energy into developing video games in-house and that those efforts could take shape in the form of either new in-house studios or the acquisition of other developers.

This notable shift of Xbox's focus comes both right before the launch of the Xbox One X and shortly after Microsoft as a whole reported that game revenue had slowed to a crawl, showing only a 1 percent increase in quarterly revenue since the preceding year.

In that financial report, Microsoft said that slow hardware sales were partially to blame for the loss of momentum. With the One X due out in only a matter of days and a stronger focus on in-house development in the cards, the company's fortunes could be changing.

"We need to grow, and I look forward to doing that. Our ability to go create content has to be one of our strengths," Spencer told Bloomberg, explaining that the company had noticeably scaled back its in-house development efforts in years past. "We haven't always invested at the same level. We've gone through ups and downs in the investment."