Xbox’s New Team Is Stealing Developers From Sony

Microsoft has revealed, long ago, that one of its new teams is working on a new IP for Xbox (probably Scarlett, since production has just started). We are talking about The Initiative, one of the Xbox Game Studios teams, which is still hiring new employees. Now, thanks to a report by VGC, we learned about the latest developers who joined forces with the Californian group.

The Initiative, which is based in Santa Monica, has taken various names of a certain weight: Ian Miller, Kai Zheng, Chris O’Neill, and Ray Yeomans are among the last “purchases” of the company. They are all level designers of God of War, the highly acclaimed PlayStation 4 exclusive from 2018, developed by Santa Monica Studios. In addition, even senior designer Robert Ryan of Naughty Dog has decided to join The Initiative. It could almost be said that Xbox is “stealing” the Sony developers.

Much of the team is expanding, but there are still plenty of free positions. Through the site, we know that they are still looking for an art director, a senior gameplay animator, writers, engineers, and even producers.

As already mentioned, the team is still far from being able to work at full capacity on a new game, so it is highly likely that their project is directed solely at the Xbox Scarlett. Microsoft strongly believes in the new gaming platform and, thanks to services and streaming, sees a bright future ahead of it. Tell us, what do you think about Microsoft’s current strategy?