Phil Spencer loves id Software technology

Xbox boss says the engine could be a tool many Xbox first party studios can use to help make their visions a reality.

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With Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, now officially closed, the company has acquired not only games, franchises, and studios, but also all of the technology developed by those studios, including game engines.

One of the most impressive game development engines in the industry right now is id Software’s idTech – and Xbox CEO Phil Spencer is pretty excited about the engine’s potential under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella.

During the recent Microsoft Bethesda roundtable, Spencer indicated that id Software could work with the other shooter-developing Xbox first-party studios The Coalition and 343 Industries in the future.

“When you think about the capabilities of id Software and the fact that they work and talk with The Coalition and 343 Industries and just the first person / third person shooter room that we have, the studios that are there “I think it’s just some kind of amazing ability.”

343 Industries, of course, developed their own brand new, proprietary SlipSpace engine that was used to develop Halo Infinite, but The Coalition in particular could really benefit from an in-house first-party toolset, as Gears of War is still at Unreal now Engine remains.

However, Spencer sees idTech as more than just an engine for shooters, and suggests that it could be used much more broadly within the Xbox Game Studios by several development teams.

“The other thing that we haven’t really talked about yet is the future of idTech and what that could mean within Xbox,” he said. “Obviously we have a lot of studios doing a bunch of different types of work. I love the way Marty Stratton talked about how they worked with our Bethesda studios on idTech, and I’m just thinking about how we can take that to the next level. Like, what can we do within our organization with idTech, which is one of the world’s best game engines out there, and simply make it a tool that so many developers can use to realize their visions. “

Given how impressive idTech is, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Microsoft encourages its developers to use it more often and more widely. The widespread use of in-house engines among studios is something that is often seen with companies – EA likes to stick with Frostbite, Capcom has switched more of its franchises to the RE engine, Ubisoft is using Anvil Next and Snowdrop – so it’s entirely possible that idTech will become a central part of Microsoft’s development approach in the future.

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