On September 21, Microsoft announced the purchase of ZeniMax Media, a video game holding that, among others, owns id Software, Arkane Studios and Bethesda Game Studios. Thus, the number of studios included in Xbox Game Studios has increased to 23. Cybersport.ru talks about the main ones.
->
->
->
->
->
The studio became famous for its unusual approach to video games: it is with the name Arkane that the Immersive Sim genre is primarily associated today. In addition to complex non-linear games with many ways to solve various problems, the developers are famous for their visual style, worked out to the smallest detail. Key Arkane franchises include Dishonored and Prey, and those who have followed the studio for a long time may also remember Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.
At the moment, Arkane Studios is busy developing the shooter Deathloop, announced as a temporary exclusive to PlayStation 5. Will something change for the game, or it will still remain with competitors – time will tell.
The studio, founded by cult game designer Tim Schaefer, is renowned for its quirky games. Among them, for example, the heavy metal hybrid of strategy and slasher Brutal Legend and Psychonauts – a platformer whose events unfold in someone else’s mind. In addition, Schafer managed to secure the rights to his titles from his time at LucasArts and re-release the classic quests Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle for modern systems.
Under the wing of Microsoft, the studio is working hard on a sequel to its very first game, Psychonauts, due out in 2023. Double Fine has not yet announced the exact release date for fear of another postponement.
Swedish company founded by the people who made The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness. Its main achievement for today is the restart of Wolfenstein: in 2014 Wolfenstein: The New Order was released, which began a new round in the life of B.J. Blaskowitz.
Now the studio is working on a triquel shooter, information about which is practically absent. The latest games to date are Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot in VR and the co-op shooter Wolfenstein: Youngblood, expanding the title’s universe. In the third part, users will again have to take on the role of BJ.
The creators of the beloved Fallout: New Vegas and their own Pillars of Eternity series have also become part of the large Microsoft family. The studio became famous for creating sequels to famous titles: for example, it worked on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, Neverwinter Nights 2 and Dungeon Siege III. Since Obsidian is founded by people from Black Isle Studios, which has created titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment, it should come as no surprise that more often than not she works on RPGs.
At the moment, the studio is actively developing its own survival-title Grounded about the shrunken teenagers, and also announced the start of work on Avowed, an RPG that has already been dubbed the “Skyrim killer”. Given that both Obsidian and Bethesda are now part of Microsoft, I want to cross my fingers and hope for a sequel to New Vegas, especially since the developers themselves are adding fuel to the fire.
Microsoft’s dark horse, founded as a kind of response to Sony’s internal teams. It is known that at the moment it includes former employees of leading game studios, and the project they are developing is positioned as an AAAA title, which means the budget is much higher than that of most modern games.
The studio is rumored to be working on a reboot of Perfect Dark, which turns 20 this year. Whether this is really so, we can only guess: there has not yet been an official announcement of the game from The Initiative.
