[Updated on August 6, 2024, to ensure the source link has been added.]
Playground Games, Undead Labs, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games were independent studios revealed to be acquired by Microsoft at this year’s E3. Microsoft also announced that they are opening up a new studio called The Initiative.
In an interview with Seth Barton from MCV, studio director at Playground Games Gavin Raeburn discussed why they joined up with Microsoft:
“We’ve built up a great relationship and a huge amount of trust with Turn 10 and Xbox over the last eight years. We both have a shared vision to create the very best experiences we can for our fans.
Seth Barton, MCV
So now that we are developing two major titles for Xbox, becoming first party felt like a natural progression for us. It’s a change that I believe will enable us to make even greater games in the future.
We can now collaborate more closely with Xbox and the other first party studios, which I’m really excited about. And we can also help influence platform level decisions.”
Along with that, Raeburn stated:
“Our goal until recently for the studio was to become the best independent developer in the world. But now that we’ve been acquired, we want to leverage the additional support of Microsoft to become best developer in the world.”
Seth Barton, MCV
That is a monumental goal to accomplish, but now that it’s joined up with Xbox, Playground Games (best known for its work with the Forza Horizon series) will have all of the capital necessary to make those high-quality titles.
For those of you who are uneasy about this situation and feel that this acquisition will impact the way Playground Games develops its titles, don’t worry. The studio said that it was important to keep its culture and the way it develops games the same. It is currently rumored that the studio will be working on a new open-world RPG game. Many fans believe that this could be a new installment of the popular Fable series. With this announcement at E3, those rumors are sure to heat up over the next few months.
