Dead
How this story was actually broken is a bit weird. It all started when Microsoft announced that their Vancouver game studio, called Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver, was being rebranded as Black Tusk Studios, a much more awesome name. This was good news, as apparently a lot of studios in Vancouver have been shutting down, so some people at the Vancouver Sun went down to the studio. They talked about the studio, how things have changed since increasing their staff by a factor of 11, and then they got on the topic of what the studio will be working on. As it turns out, their working on Microsoft’s next tentpole franchise.
“What that means is we are working on Microsoft’s next big entertainment franchise,” said Mike Crump, the studio manager at Black Tusk, “We’re not working on an existing franchise, we’re looking to build the next Halo here in Vancouver, for example, which is really exciting. We are building something from the ground up.”
The studio currently has a staff of 55 people, but this project they’re working on is a big deal. The studio is hoping to double their staff by the end of the year for this project. The studio’s website, blacktuskstudios.com, has a bunch of job postings listed their, from animators to engineers to designers and everything in between. With the recent closing of two other Vancouver based studios, it looks like the studio will have plenty of talent to choose from.
This is some great news. Microsoft has not exactly made a huge push for original, console exclusive AAA titles recently that weren’t Kinect only, so it will be nice to see something new coming out for the only console I can afford to have right now.
No details have been given about the project. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to finding out more.
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