For some time now, there’s been a rumor that Microsoft has been interested in acquiring Warner Bros Games or NetherRealm Studios. Now, however, it seems like that rumor had a kernel of truth to it. Erin Piepergerdes, who had previously worked at NetherRealm, has been acquired by Microsoft as an executive producer. It’s a long shot however, it could just be a talent acquisition.
Piepergerdes had worked at NetherRealm Studios for eight years, then became an Executive Producer at Warner Bros games, the publisher for NetherRealm, for the past four years. He has now been working as Executive Producer at Microsoft Game Studios, which has been confusing fans of the studio who are wondering whether this heralds an acquisition or simple job-changing.
If Microsoft actually had bought Warner Bros Games, for instance, we likely would have heard of it online, the same way we did when Microsoft acquired Zenimax Online Media, since Warner Bros Games is a subsidiary of the wider Warner Bros corporation. There is also a possibility that Microsoft could only be interested in NetherRealm? Well, for the time being, all the are speculations for now and nothing can be said for sure.
The thought of a new Microsoft acquisition isn’t unfounded, however. The company in the past few years has gone on a tear of acquiring a variety of different acquisitions of certain studios to hopefully buff up the game library of future consoles. While Microsoft has said they don’t intend to do many console exclusives, claiming its mission is to introduce more people to video games, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any exclusives, such as with Bethesda’s Starfield.
Whether Piepergerdes just decided to accept a new Executive Producer position at Microsoft or if it’s actually a new Microsoft acquisition can likely be answered by a quick Google of the news cycle, but we’ll see if there actually is any truth to the rumor within the next few days. Mortal Kombat, after all, is a big classic, and Microsoft may want a big game like that as part of their exclusives at some point in the future.