Microsoft announce a new game studio with a very impressive list of employees

[Master Disaster]

Back at E3 Microsoft made a big deal over the fact they've acquired some new gane Studios and now we have a LinkedIn post (since deleted) about a brand new first party Microsoft studio called The Initiative. Some of the names dropped include industry veterans from the likes of Rockstar, Crystal Dynamics, Respawn Entertainment & Santa Monica Studios.

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The head of Microsoft's new studio, The Initiative, has taken on a wealth of new talent from a number of high profile studios, including Sony-exclusive Santa Monica Studio, Rockstar and Crystal Dynamics.

 

Studio head Darrell Gallagher originally made the announcement on LinkedIn, but has since deleted the post. However, ResetEra's CrimsonEclipse was able to take a screenshot before the post was removed.

Some of the games this list are responsible for include Red Dead Redemption, Tomb Raider & Rise Of The tomb Raider and the hugely popular God Of War (2018).

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New additions to the team include God of War (2018)'s lead producer Brian Westergaard, Rockstar's Christian Cantamessa, Daniel Neuburger from Crystal Dynamics, and Microsoft's own senior director of portfolio planning, Blake Fischer.

 

Annie Lohr - an experienced recruiter who's worked at Riot, Respawn, and EA - also joins the team along with ex-Crystal Dynamic's Lindsey McQueeney, who will be The Initiative's new HR & Culture Manager.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-08-12-new-microsoft-studio-the-initiative-acquires-senior-talent-from-santa-monica-studio-rockstar-and-crystal-dynamics

 

I gotta admit, that's an impressive list right there, you've got to believe whatever they're working on is going to, at least try, to be something big. With names like that a AAA story driven action/adventure title is my guess. It's just a shame it's probably years until we find out what.

[Arika]

maybe we can go back to the days when Microsoft Game Studio wasn't a steaming pile of garbage

[asus killer]

i give it 2/3 years top before MS changes is mind again

[Master Disaster]

Just now, Arika S said:

maybe we can go back to the days when Microsoft Game Studio wasn't a steaming pile of garbage

I think seeing how well 1st party exclusives do for Sony has kicked Microsoft up the ass a little bit tbh.

 

Microsoft have nothing to respond with at the moment but this is the perfect time to launch a counter offensive tbh. Sony is losing ground over crossplay and if MS can get some amazing first party exclusives ready for the next gen launch its very possible they could win the race of the next gen, or at least the launch period anyway.

[Master Disaster]

2 minutes ago, asus killer said:

i give it 2/3 years top before MS changes is mind again

A few years ago I would have agreed but under Phil Spencer I don't know anymore.

 

He seems to be a genuine guy who genuinely cares about games and the Xbox brand.

 

Based on history I can't disagree fully but there's a small part of me that thinks he might turn this around.

[Master Disaster]

Just now, CK1968 said:

When was it ..... never

Back when they made Age Of Empires, Flight Simulator & Midtown Madness.

[vanished]

This would be cool to see.  I'm sure many of us remember great titles from them but to my knowledge they haven't been doing much for a long time now.  Hopefully they won't lock all their games to the Windows store, but something tells me there's a pretty substantial risk of that.

[Master Disaster]

3 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

This would be cool to see.  I'm sure many of us remember great titles from them but to my knowledge they haven't been doing much for a long time now.  Hopefully they won't lock all their games to the Windows store, but something tells me there's a pretty substantial risk of that.

Yeah, I gotta agree. No matter how much of a good guy Phil Spencer seems to be Satya Nutella is still in charge and he, well isn't a nice guy.

[asus killer]

13 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

A few years ago I would have agreed but under Phil Spencer I don't know anymore.

 

He seems to be a genuine guy who genuinely cares about games and the Xbox brand.

 

Based on history I can't disagree fully but there's a small part of me that thinks he might turn this around.

to me this is because the launch of the new generation of consoles. In regards to PS remember he is the guy you can blame to what happened to Rare.

[Dabombinable]

It would be a Microsoft studio though. Thoroughly homogenized game development & publishing 24/7.

[Derangel]

18 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

A few years ago I would have agreed but under Phil Spencer I don't know anymore.

 

He seems to be a genuine guy who genuinely cares about games and the Xbox brand.

 

Based on history I can't disagree fully but there's a small part of me that thinks he might turn this around.

The problem isn't Spencer, its the people above him. They demand results and if he doesn't find a way to turn the division around I wouldn't be surprised to see him join the list of former Xbox heads before the new console is out.

[asus killer]

7 minutes ago, Derangel said:

The problem isn't Spencer, its the people above him. They demand results and if he doesn't find a way to turn the division around I wouldn't be surprised to see him join the list of former Xbox heads before the new console is out.

EA sucks because they are all about greed. MS sucks because they are run at the top by people that doesn't have a clue what gamers want like push for kinect, always online, no used games, no exclusives, making the console a tv,...

[suicidalfranco]

tfw am the only one on the thread who doesn't give two cents about third person action adventure with or without stealth elements games.

All i want is an age of empire reboot or age of empire 4 or age of empire online without the f2p mechanics (thank god for project Celeste in that regard!)

[Mustalem93]

I hope they add the new exeliosives to xbox store in windows 10 like the current on so I can purchase them. Am not planning to buy xbox consoles .

[asus killer]

38 minutes ago, Mustalem93 said:

I hope they add the new exeliosives to xbox store in windows 10 like the current on so I can purchase them. Am not planning to buy xbox consoles .

perfect comment to close this thread. And i rest my case as to "people at MS have no idea what to do"

 

 

[Trixanity]

Isn't it a futile endeavor?

 

Microsoft open a game studio, then close it. They buy a game studio and they close it. It's their MO.

[Jtalk4456]

and then they release it on the microsoft app store and no one cares...

[Commodus]

5 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Yeah, I gotta agree. No matter how much of a good guy Phil Spencer seems to be Satya Nutella is still in charge and he, well isn't a nice guy.

Nadella's a fine person -- he just knows that Microsoft's future revolves mainly around cloud services.  He's much better than Ballmer was about the Xbox division, at least.  Part of why the Xbox One was such a mess on launch was that Ballmer saw the console as a way to push Windows in the living room, not as a game system that happened to share roots with Windows.

[dalekphalm]

7 hours ago, CK1968 said:

When was it ..... never

 

7 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Back when they made Age Of Empires, Flight Simulator & Midtown Madness.

Freelancer - granted that was DigitalAnvil and was started by Chris Roberts, but Microsoft Game Studios published it.

 

Man I always wanted a Freelancer 2... I wonder who owns the rights to that IP.

[PlayStation 2]

2 hours ago, Trixanity said:

Isn't it a futile endeavor?

 

Microsoft open a game studio, then close it. They buy a game studio and they close it. It's their MO.

You've got Microsoft mistaken for EA.

[Trixanity]

1 hour ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

You've got Microsoft mistaken for EA.

Birds of a feather.

[Evolution.]

12 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Satya Nutella is still in charge and he, well isn't a nice guy.

why is that?

[Andreas Lilja]

14 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Back when they made Age Of Empires, Flight Simulator & Midtown Madness.

AOE:DE is okay, it was killed by the platform though.

 

On Steam it would have sold 1000s of copies.

[Beskamir]

Hopefully business exes won't ruin this.

[ARikozuM]

New Legacy of Kain game? Take all my money!