People Can Fly, the studio known for high-octane shooter experiences like Bulletstorm, is now working on a game for Microsoft"s Xbox publishing division. Officially announced today via the studio"s corporate wing, a new "Development and Publishing Agreement" has been reached between the two companies.
Not many details regarding the partnership and project are within the short document shared today, June 14. We know that "Project Maverick" will be the codename for the title while it is in development, and that it will be a triple-A title. It"s unclear how many of the studio"s over 600 staff will be dedicated to work on this Xbox game either.
Per the document (PDF), "the development of the Game by the Company will be performed under the work for hire model, based on the intellectual property rights owned by the Publisher and will be entirely financed by the Publisher when advancing by the Company of the development works under the milestones."
Considering this mentions an IP owned by Microsoft being the focus of the project, it may be a franchise People Can Fly is familiar with. The studio helped with porting the original Gears of War to Windows in 2007, and went on to co-develop the Gears of War: Judgment prequel spin-off in 2013.
Project Maverick"s budget is set at 30 to 50 million USD, according to the document. The game should hit PC and Xbox consoles when it is ready, as well as Microsoft"s Game Pass subscription services. Considering the project is probably just being spun up, however, it may be some years until Xbox fans get to witness the results of this partnership that we are just seeing the beginning of now.
People Can Fly"s most recent release was Outriders, a cooperative action RPG published by Square Enix. The game was released in 2021, followed by an expansion, Worldslayer, in 2022.