Apparently Microsoft subsidiary Activision thinks now is a good time to open a new studio and put together a team to develop an entirely new franchise. The company unveiled Elsewhere Entertainment this week, a brand-new studio based in Warsaw, Poland, that is “exclusively focused on creating a new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise.”
The studio is made up of “storytelling experts” whose prior game credits include The Last of Us, Uncharted, The Witcher, Cyberpunk, Destiny, The Division, and Far Cry. The announcement further touts that it will have access to “additional resources in the US” along with “full access to Activision’s resources and tools,” and confirms a job search to help develop this unspecified new game.
The timing of this announcement is more than a little eyebrow-raising, particularly since Microsoft axed over 800 Activision employees as part of a wider shedding of 1,900 workers at the start of this year, then shuttered multiple game studios and began offering voluntary severance deals to Xbox and ZeniMax employees. Opening an all-new studio out of the country and attempting to establish a new IP might sting a little with that framing.
