In late January, Microsoft cut 1,900 team members from its gaming divisions, including many at its recently acquired Activision Blizzard publisher. Last week, the company closed three game developer studios and merged another from its Bethesda division.
However, it would appear that Microsoft isn"t trying to just cut down on its gaming properties. Today, the Activision division announced it is starting up a new game development studio in Warsaw, Poland, called Elsewhere Entertainment.
In a press release, Activision stated Elsewhere is currently working on a "new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise." It added:
Built from the ground up, Elsewhere Entertainment is a premier and standalone studio dedicated to establishing an environment that inspires bold and diverse ideas. The team’s underlying mission encourages everyone to explore and collaborate creatively to craft a franchise with an enduring legacy that resonates far beyond games.
Activision didn"t name any specific team members in the press release. Still, it stated the developers have worked on titles like The Last of Us and Uncharted (Naughty Dog), The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt RED), Destiny (Bungie) and Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Far Cry (Ubisoft).
Activision has concentrated most of its efforts on making games in the Call of Duty series for several years. This would be the first all-new internally developed Activision game that is not based on another IP in quite a long time.
Since Elsewhere is just starting up, we may not learn about the actual game the team is making for quite some time, especially if it"s being developed as a AAA title. These days, those kinds of big-budget titles take several years to complete.
We will certainly learn more about Microsoft"s short-term game release schedule for Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and its own Xbox group in less than a month. That"s when it will be live-streaming its Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday, June 9.