Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games are joining Microsoft, Xbox announced during E3 2018.
Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games, two critically-acclaimed indie developers responsible for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and We Happy Few respectively, will be joining Microsoft Studios to create games exclusively for Xbox One and PC.
Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games were acquired by Microsoft to develop titles exclusively for Microsoft’s two platforms, Xbox head Phil Spencer revealed during Microsoft’s E3 2018 press conference. Alongside each developer’s acquisition, Spencer also announced The Initiative, a first-party studio launched to create games exclusively for Xbox One and PC. No games were revealed from The Initiative yet.
Related: Here’s everything that Xbox showed off at its E3 2018 press conference
Each developer joining Microsoft has quite an impressive resume on the Xbox One and PC. Undead Labs created the State of Decay series, an open-world zombie game focused on resource management during the apocalypse. Playground Games, on the other hand, developed the immensely-popular Forza Horizon franchise for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Suffice to say, Microsoft benefits greatly from bringing each developer under its wings for exclusive Xbox titles.
No new video games were announced by each developer during E3 2018, although the news came with a story trailer for We Happy Few, which finally received a release date for Aug. 10, 2018. Expect the game for both PC and Xbox One when it launches later this summer.
