Microsoft announced at E3 today that they have acquired Forza Horizon developer PlayGround Games, State of Decay developer Undead Labs, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice developer Ninja Theory, and We Happy Few developer Compulsion Games.

They will also be founding a new studio in Santa Monica called The Initiative. The Initiative is a Santa Monica studio lead by Darrell Gallagher, who Xbox head Phil Spencer said is “a visionary storyteller” who has worked on “some of the most iconic franchises for over 20 years,” such as Tomb Raider. An update to Playground's website earlier this month hinted that their acquisition was likely, but the others were a surprise. Playground has more than Forza Horizon in the works, too, as a job listing indicated the studio is developing an open-world game which was confirmed by Spencer today.With a renewed focus on investing in studios to make more first party games , and rumors of a new Fable game reportedly in development at Playground , the acquisitions make sense for Microsoft right now.

Tom Marks is IGN's PC Editor and pie maker. You can follow him on Twitter