The next game from Ori and the Blind Forest’s developer will not be published by Microsoft. The unnamed RPG project that Moon Studios, Ori’s developer, is working on will instead be published by Private Division.
The new publisher almost guarantees a multiplatform game. Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps were exclusive to Xbox consoles and Windows PCs. A status caused by the publishing arrangement between Microsoft and Moon Studios. Since whatever the next game will be isn’t being published by a platform holder it’s likely to show up on all outlets. Of course, it’s too early to tell if any kind of timed exclusivity deal might happen since the game doesn’t even have a title yet.
Private Division is an indie-focused publishing house owned by 2K Games. Private Division also recently acquired rights to publish upcoming games from Armello makers League of Geeks and Roll7, developers of Oli Oli and Laser League. Past games published by Private Division include The Outer Worlds, Kerbal Space Program, and, Disintegration. The resources provided by Private Division allow smaller indie devs to create games of larger scope than they normally might.
In the case of Moon Studios, it’s more likely that Private Division represents a wider audience instead of resources. The Ori and the Blind Forest dev is coming over from Microsoft who are known for being fairly good partners to indie studios. The Ori games weren’t lacking in quality or polish by any description so resources were probably not an issue. This makes the wider publishing outlet that Private Division offers a likely reason for the deal.
Overall this news amounts to new games coming from three great indie studios and that’s enough to get cautiously excited. Even if it’s a bit too early to get really hyped.