One takeaway we had from the recent Xbox Games Showcase is that Microsoft needs more exclusive AAA projects and the maker of the Xbox is responding in kind by buying studios and even partnering with some.
Most recently, Microsoft has signed a deal with Outriders developer People Can Fly for a new Xbox game with a budget of between $30 million to $50 million. The upcoming title, codenamed Project Maverick, was made official on Wednesday:
The development of the Game by [People Can Fly] 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.
People Can Fly was established in 2002 and recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. The Polish studio is best known for the work it has done on titles such as Gears of War: Judgement, Bulletstorm, and most recently Outriders. The studio was briefly owned by Epic Games until it spun off under the leadership of CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski in 2015.
People Can Fly announced back in July 2020 that is working on a highly ambitions AAA game. The project is being led by Just Cause 3 director Roland Lesterlin and is in partnership with Take-Two. However, the studio announced last September that Take-Two had left Project Dagger and it will self-publish the game instead although it didn't rule out working with another publisher.
The studio hasn't released details about the upcoming Xbox Game. And, before you think that it's Gears of War 6, keep in mind that the budget is too low for a AAA game.
People Can Fly's most recent game, Outriders, was on the Game Pass at launch. This new title for Xbox will likely follow the same route. And, unlike Square Enix, who expressed disappointment in the game's sales, or the lack thereof, Microsoft will probably be more than happy with the results as long as it gets people to subscribe to the Game Pass.
Microsoft only has a handful of exclusives coming to the Xbox platform based on the recent games showcase. In order to compete with Sony, Microsoft needs more titles like Starfield and Forza Motorsport, which are coming out on September 6 and October 10, respectively.
