With the completion of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in July 2023, Microsoft will become one of the largest game publishers in the ...
Xbox Game Studios (XGS) currently has 22 development studios. We decided to collect them all in one place and tell you what they are doing now and what games to expect from them in the near future. If all goes well, Activision Blizzard Studios will join this list next July.
Microsoft's own studios
Turn 10 Studios
Foundation: 2001
Location: Redmond (USA)
Portfolio: Forza Motorsport Series
In Development: New Forza Motorsport
One of the oldest modern Microsoft studios. Created specifically for the development of racing games Forza Motorsport. Some of the staff used to work on publishing (not developing) games in the Project Gotham Racing and Golf 4.0 series.
343 Industries
Foundation: 2007
Location: Redmond (USA)
Portfolio: Halo 4, Halo 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Halo Infinite
In Development: support for Halo Infinite
The studio was specifically created in 2007 to continue the development of the Halo series after Bungie left for free swimming. 343I first worked on content for Halo: Reach, Bungie's latest Halo game. In 2011, together with Saber Interactive, they made Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and in 2012 the first full-fledged game of the studio, Halo 4, was released. The studio was named after the character of the Halo series, 343 Guilty Spark.
The Coalition
Foundation: 2010
Location: Vancouver (Canada)
Portfolio: Gears 4 and 5, Gears Tactics
In Development: unknown; helps other Microsoft studios
During its existence, the studio managed to change its name several times: Zipline Studios, Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver, Black Tusk Studios, and finally The Coalition. After the end of the contract with Epic Games, Microsoft bought the rights to the Gears of War series, the continuation of which The Coalition is engaged in. Along with the rights to Gears of War, the producer of the series, Rod Ferguson, also moved to The Coalition. Similar to 343I, the studio borrowed the name from a game they were working on. The Coalition of Ordered Governments was the military organization that Marcus Fenix served in, the protagonist of the Gears of War trilogy.
By the way, at the beginning of 2020, Rod Ferguson went to Blizzard to save the Diablo series.
The Initiative
Foundation: 2018
Location: Santa Monica (USA)
Portfolio: no
In Development: Perfect Dark relaunch
Specially created in 2018 to develop AAAA games (yes, there really are four A's). The studio has brought under its roof not the latest people from BioWare, Naughty Dog, Respawn Entertainment, Santa Monica Studio, Blizzard, Insomniac Games, and Rockstar Games. The founder of the company was Darrell Gallagher, the former head of Crystal Dynamics. During The Game Awards 2020, a reboot of the Perfect Dark series was announced.
World's Edge
Foundation: 2019
Location: Redmond (USA)
Portfolio: Age of Empires IV with Relic Entertainment
In Development: unknown
The studio was specially created for the development of real-time strategies under the Age of Empires brand.
Studios Acquired by Microsoft
Playground Games
Foundation: 2010
Became part of XGS: 2018
Location: Leamington Spa (UK)
Portfolio: Forza Horizon series
In Development: Fable restart
The studio was founded by former Codemasters employees. It has three divisions that focus on the Forza Horizon series, mobile games, and the reboot of the Fable series announced in 2020.
Compulsion Games
Foundation: 2009
Became part of XGS: 2018
Portfolio: Contrast, We Happy Few
In Development: unknown
Founded by a native of Arkane Studios. To earn money for their own game, the studio helped develop third-party projects, including the Darksiders, Dungeon & Dragons: Daggerdale, Bagelburg: The Bagelening series. Now Compulsion Games has about 80 employees and is working on an unannounced project with roguelike elements and a third-person view.
Double Fine
Foundation: 2000
Became part of XGS: 2019
Location: San Francisco (USA)
Portfolio: Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, Broken Age, Psychonauts 2
In Development: unknown
Founded by Tim Schafer, former game designer for classic LucasArts quests: The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and more. Double Fine popularized the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform and raised money for most of their future games with the help of fans.
After THQ went bankrupt, Double Fine took back the rights to the games it developed under a contract with a publisher., as well as the rights to distribute Psychonauts.
Studio games are distinguished by a special visual style, humor, and voice actors. Among others, Jack Black and Elijah Wood voiced the main characters in the Double Fine games, while rock legends Lemmy Kilmister, Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford, and Rob Helford appeared in Brütal Legend.
inXile Entertainment
Foundation: 2002
Became part of XGS: 2018
Location: Newport Beach (USA)
Portfolio: Wasteland 2 and 3, Torment: Tides of Numenera
In Development: unknown
inXile was created by the former founder of Interplay Entertainment, Brian Fargo. The studio continues the work of Interplay and is developing classic isometric CRPGs.
Obsidian Entertainment
Foundation: 2003
Became part of XGS: 2018
Location: Irvine (USA)
Portfolio: Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, Grounded (Early Access)
In Development: Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, unannounced project
One of the founders of the studio was Chris Avellone, designer and screenwriter of Planescape: Torment, Fallout, Pillars of Eternity, and dozens of other games. In its early years, the studio made sequels to BioWare: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2.
Together with inXile and Double Fine, they organized a crowdfunding platform Fig. Its main difference from Kickstarter is that patrons become game investors.
Rare
Foundation: 1985
Became part of XGS: 2002
Location: Leicestershire (UK)
Portfolio: Battletoads, Killer Instinct, Sea of Thieves
In Development: Support for Sea of Thieves, Everwild
The oldest studio in Microsoft assets. They are the authors of such games as GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong, Battletoads. After a series of unsuccessful financial decisions, Microsoft was bought in the late 1990s. During the Xbox 360 era, Kinect games were made.
Mojang
Foundation: 2009
Became part of XGS: 2014
Location: Stockholm (Sweden)
Portfolio: Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons
In Development: Minecraft support
It was bought by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion, at that time the audience of Minecraft was more than 50 million users. In 2020, Microsoft reported that the game sold over 200 million copies. If you count in copies, this is the best-selling game in the world. The second is Tetris.
After selling the studio and Minecraft rights, Markus 'Notch' Persson Continues to develop small indie games.
Ninja Theory
Foundation: 2000
Became part of XGS: 2018
Location: Cambridge (UK)
Portfolio: Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, DmC: Devil May Cry, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Bleeding Edge
In Development: Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Project: MARA
The British studio is famous for its collaboration with Hollywood figures. With screenwriter, writer, and director Alex Garland, they worked together on Enslaved and the relaunch of DmC. Andy Serkis appeared in Heavenly Sword as a villain, and in Enslaved he voiced and played the main character (spoiler: and a villain).
At one time, the studio was on the verge of bankruptcy, but Sony saved it by funding the development of Heavenly Sword. But the game did not sell well, and under the contract, all the studio's technologies were transferred to the Japanese giant. After the modest financial performance of DmC: Devil May Cry, the studio retrained to develop "Independent AAA", small games, but with production like full-fledged AAA titles. That game was Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.
Undead Labs
Foundation: 2009
Became part of XGS: 2018
Location: Seattle (USA)
Portfolio: State of Decay series
In Development: State of Decay 3
Jeff Strain, the founder of Undead Labs, once worked for Blizzard Entertainment on all three of the company's major titles, including as lead programmer on World of Warcraft. In 2000 he became one of the founders of ArenaNet, the creators of Guild Wars. In 2009, he founded Undead Labs and began developing the State of Decay. In October 2021, Jeff founded a new studio to "make the games he's dreamed of all his life."
Last year, 2021, the studio opened a new division that will deal with animation on Unreal Engine 5 for the needs of Undead Labs itself and other teams at Xbox Game Studios.
ZeniMax Media / Bethesda Softworks Studios
Arkane Studios
Foundation: 1999
Location: Lyon (France), Austin (USA)
Portfolio: Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Dishonored series, Prey, Deathloop
In Development: Redfall
One of the few studios that make games in the "immersive sim" subgenre. Arkane has worked with JoWooD Productions, Ubisoft, Valve, Activision, 2K Marin, and even on a joint project between EA and Steven Spielberg. In 2010, while working on the first part of Dishonored, ZeniMax Media bought the studio.
Bethesda Game Studios
Foundation: 2001
Location: Rockville, Austin, Dallas (USA), Montreal (Canada)
Portfolio: The Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 3, 4 and 76
In Development: Starfield, The Elder Scrolls VI
The main asset of ZeniMax Media and meme generator about porting Skyrim to every iron. In addition to the Elder Scrolls series, she is also responsible for the revival and popularization of Fallout. Interestingly, TES IV: Oblivion for PC and Xbox 360 was published by 2K Games, and for PlayStation 3 by Ubisoft.
Starfield will be the first new IP studio in 25 years.
ID Software
Founded: 1991
Location: Richardson (USA), Frankfurt (Germany)
Portfolio: Doom, Quake, Rage, original Wolfenstein
In Development: Quake restart (rumor)
id Software once created the first-person shooter genre as we know it today. Currently, according to rumors, the studio is working on a restart of Quake, and the continuation of Doomslayer's adventures through the fabulous world of Hell has been sent on vacation.
After 30 years, id Software remains one of the main developers in the FPS genre, and id Tech is one of the most optimized game engines of our time.
Machine Games
Foundation: 2009
Location: Uppsala (Sweden)
Portfolio: relaunching Wolfenstein
In Development: Indiana Jones
It was created by natives and the founder of Starbreeze Studios. After several unsuccessful negotiations with various publishers, including Bethesda Softworks, the founders were already ready to mortgage their own houses or completely close the studio. However, in 2009, ZeniMax buys id Software and receives the rights to all the developer's games, including Wolfenstein. In 2010, MachineGames again approached ZeniMax Media with an offer to develop a Wolfenstein reboot. At the end of the same 2010, ZeniMax completely bought out the studio.
Roundhouse Studios
Foundation: 2019
Location: Madison (USA)
Portfolio: original Prey, Brink, Rune series
In Development: unknown, assisting other studios
Another studio was founded by people from another legendary studio, this time the donor was Raven Software. Human Head Studios' latest game at the moment is Rune 2 for publisher Ragnarok Game. The game was released on November 12, 2019, and on November 13, the studio closes and reopens under the new name Roundhouse Studios as part of Bethesda Softworks. Ragnarok Games sued the former Human Head Studios, and later ZeniMax and Bethesda Softworks were added as defendants. Litigation is still ongoing.
Tango Gameworks
Foundation: 2010
Location: Tokyo (Japan)
Portfolio: The Evil Within dilogy
In Development: Ghostwire: Tokyo
The legendary Shinji Mikami, the creator of the equally legendary Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, after leaving Capcom, worked for some time as a freelancer and created his own studio Tango Gameworks, which was bought out by ZeniMax Media almost immediately.
Alpha Dog Games
Foundation: 2012
Location: Halifax (Canada)
Portfolio: mobile Wraithborne, MonstroCity: Rampage, and Mighty DOOM
In Development: unknown
The studio was bought by ZeniMax Media in 2019. Engaged in mobile development.
ZeniMax Online Studios
Foundation: 2007
Location: Maryland (USA)
Portfolio: The Elder Scrolls Online
In Development: Support for The Elder Scrolls Online
Created specifically for the development of MMORPG. The studio was led by Met Firor, former director of development for the online game Dark Age of Camelot. By the way, EA still supports the game, although it was released more than 20 years ago - back in 2001.
The first announcement of The Elder Scrolls Online happened only in 2012, and the release only in 2014 - seven years after the creation of the studio. In addition to supporting TES Online, ZeniMax Online Studios helped develop Doom (2016) and Fallout 76. Thus, the most diverse developers have already gathered within the walls of Xbox Game Studios, from which you can expect both a small but interesting creative project and a full-scale AAA blockbuster. We hope Phil Spencer will properly manage the talents of individual developers, and will not force them to make as many gag games for Game Pass as possible. And we will find out what will happen to Activision Blizzard in a year. And don't forget to check out our section on the takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
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