Last year, Microsoft acquired Bethesda in one of the biggest video game buyouts ever. The Xbox creator purchased Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax for a total of $7.5 billion. In doing so, it granted itself exclusive ownership over popular gaming franchises such as Fallout and Skyrim, and whatever else Bethesda creates in the future. It was the kind of move many Xbox fans hoped Microsoft would make, as the console suffered from not having as many popular, exclusive games as the PlayStation.

From the sounds of recent rumors, Microsoft isn't satisfied with having just Bethesda. Apparently, the corporation is looking to add more big-name video game developers to its roster. Exactly what companies Microsoft could be interested in remains a mystery, and there's nothing in recent grapevines suggesting developers are looking to sell. Even if there was, they would be rumors like this one, and would also need to be taken with a grain of salt.

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That said, the current rumor does have some credibility, as industry insider Xbox Ragna backed it. Ragna claimed Microsoft was about to purchase a very big gaming studio three weeks before Microsoft announced its Bethesda-Acquisition deal. When this new rumor surfaced from the gaming forum XboxEra, Ragna agreed with the individual sharing it. He claims he doesn't know who the individual is, but he's been hearing the same thing for months and thinks Microsoft will announce the purchase around the end of this year or sometime early next year.

However, even without Ragna's affirmation, it's not hard to believe that Microsoft is preparing to buy more gaming studios. As big as it is, if Microsoft is going shopping, it doesn't make sense for it to stop at one developer. With that in mind, Microsoft's profits rose dramatically after the release of the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S. It made enough to buy Bethesda twice over, so it has money to blow.

If Microsoft does go through with purchasing another studio and it does happen to be of the same caliber as Bethesda, that might spur Sony into buying more studios as well. One of the more talked about advantages that PlayStation had over Xbox was that it possessed more well-known exclusives. If Microsoft is purchasing more studios in response to this, it only makes sense for Sony to retaliate, though what the outcome of that may look like remains to be seen.

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