The Initiative Brings in More Big Talent

Microsofts new studios wont stop hiring.......

https://ticgamesnetwork.com/news/the-initiative-brings-in-more-big-talent

The Initiative is Microsoft’s premier new first-party studio headed by Darrell Gallagher. It is no secret that Microsoft wants to make this studio the crown jewel of their first party studios. This has become even more clear thanks to a postfrom Darrel Gallagher himself on Linkedin that has since been deleted.

Now this list of people may not mean much to a lot of people outside of the industry, but thanks to some work from users on Resetera, we are able to piece together the body of work that these developers have worked on.

Brian Westergaard worked on God of War (2018) as the lead producer.Annie Lohr is the recruiter and worked at Respawn.Christian Cantamessa – the writer from Red Dead Redemption is at the company.Blake Fischer – Senior Director of Portfolio Planning for MS, but now working with The Initiative.Daniel Neuburger & Lindsey McQueeney are from Crystal Dynamics

This is some very serious industry talent Gallagher has managed to recruit. Cantamassa was one of the key writers for Red Dead Redemption and Westergaard played a big role in 2018’s masterpiece God of War. While it may be a while before we see anything from The Initiative, there is no doubt that they will be a studio to watch in the coming years. Especially if they continue to recruit such top-tier talent.

Are you interested in what The Initiative could bring to Xbox? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to check back for the latest gaming news and information.

That’s some very exciting news there. I’m really looking forward to seeing what this developer brings out.

Buying Studios and creating more jobs, that could only mean one thing. MS is getting ready for there next-gen Xbox Scarlet and they want to make sure they deliver more new exclusive games for it. I'm curious now how this will all turn out in the end. After all, competition is good for the gaming world.

Means nothing until it produces results. 343 and Coalition are big studios with lots of talent and massive budgets and have done nothing but make average at best games.

LOL. Jesus Christ. You broken lems are hyping next gen jobs now Ahahahahahahahaha. Saddest most pathetic fanbase known to man

Definitely some good talent. I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

Talent is nice and I applaud it. Problem has never only been the talent tho'. Main problem with MS is their unwillingness to take risks.

MS seem to care more about services and service based games than creating top quality games like Sony and Nintendo are doing. They wasted Rare all these years because of this type of attitude, and so far nothing they've released this gen has shown that they are abandoning this damaging attitude. Maybe they'll change next gen but until I see it actually happening I'm not gonna hold my breath. I still remember when lems were hyping the Coalition and 343 and all we got from them was mediocre Gears 4 and Halo sequels.

Definitely promising signs... looks like MS really are trying to make this their premier studio.

With all that talent, and MS giving them creative freedom, looking forward to seeing what they come up with (along with the others).

How many studios did Sony close this gen. Most Sony games are overrated and get a pass from the bias media like Gameshill.

1? Can't think of anyone other than Evolution that was shut down this gen.

Horizon is the only one I'd call overrated. Take away the graphics and nothing stands out about it. I genuinely enjoyed God of War, Uncharted 4, and Ratchet & Clank.

Ok sorry I got a little piss off today.

The fact that you're talking about next gen instead of playing games now means Sony did something right. With Xbox, you always have to wait for something. Wait til E3, wait for the cloud, wait for Scorpio, wait for next gen. WAIT WAIT WAIT!

I can tell you one thing is that Next Gen MS is going to be a lot more competitive than this current one.

Hopefully because they weren't this gen at all. I hope they start pumping out great exclusives and put some pressure on Sony. I doubt they can though. They can't even get Halo right these days let alone a new IP.

LOL at MS unwilling to take risks but supports a game like Sea of Thieves, bought 4 studios and created a new one.

They are building the new Halo to return to greatness. They are getting devs from all over including some from Sony studios. The last Halo game was four years ago.

Sony doing some innovate?

No good new IPs for Microsoft this gen , its just sad

Halo and Gears...

Come on just kill it like Sony did with Uncharted , people got so tired of them already.

Take risk and make the damn new IP