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New Microsoft studios uncovered by the LXP website

Credit for this goes to BananasWithGuns who posted about it in the Xbox One Downloadable Games thread, I just believe it deserves more exposure so that we could dig out more information.

Leap Experience Pioneers or LXP has a new website at http://www.lxpstudio.com/

Apparently, they "create far future experiences, for inventive hardware" which could mean many things, from vanilla Xbox One, to Kinect, Project Fortaleza or something else entirely.

What's even more interesting is that they list some of their "sister studios" who are currently hiring at the bottom of the page. That includes already known about studios such as Good Science and Platform Next, but also some new names like SOTA (state of the art), [FUN]ction Studios, and something that I suppose might be called NP or N to the power of P.


lxp9esy2.png



Now, even though we already know about Platform Next, we still don't know what exactly they are working on. Similarly, [FUN]ction is not exactly brand new, since we already talked about it before last year's E3, and Steverulez published some more of his detective work on his blog. Still, the studio is pretty much a mystery at this point.

NP and SOTA are brand new, to my knowledge. I couldn't find anything about the former, and the only thing I found about SOTA is this guy on Linkedin who states that We Are Royale did some animation work for them at the end of 2013.

Detective GAF assemble!
 

Kampfheld

Banned
At least one of the job offerings is referring a "big new IP". I expect these are some of the unannounced studios Phil was talking about.

They also are hiring on many positions. I think Phil did some regrouping internally. Maybe he even got some new resources for growing 1st party.

You usually do not need an own branding for your team if you will not work on something directly for the consumer. I fully expect games to be in active development at some of these studios.
 

Calm Killer

In all media, only true fans who consume every book, film, game, or pog collection deserve to know what's going on.
They need more quality studios to pump out some solid first party games for sure.
 

JaggedSac

Member
At least one of the job offerings is referring a "big new IP". I expect these are some if the unannounced studios Phil was talking about.

They also are hiring on many positions. I think Phil did some regrouping internally. Maybe he even got some new resources for growing 1st party.

Which studio is it that is hiring for the new IP? I took a cursory glance and didn't see it.
 
Very good. Microsoft need to invest heavily in 1st party. They're far behind in that department and I think buying 3rd party exclusives won't be long term solution.
 

Alx

Member
They need more quality studios to pump out some solid first party games for sure.

Only speculation from my part, but from the way they present themselves and even the name of the studios, they sound more like people working on "experimental" projects. Like that company working on Crackdown, which is officially specialized in cloud processing.

and something that I suppose might be called NP or N to the power of P.

Must be the nerd in me speaking, but it makes me think of NP complexity and NP-complete problems. So like my above speculations, maybe they're specialized in solving complex computational problems.

Or maybe they're just plain boring game studios, who knows. :p
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Watch them all be mobile games. There's no way MS have set up this many Xbone development studios.
 

Kampfheld

Banned
Which studio is it that is hiring for the new IP? I took a cursory glance and didn't see it.
Leap Experience Pioneers.

"We are looking to push the boundaries of a larger playground. The Technology and Incubation team is part of a group chartered to revolutionize entertainment content. This group most recently helped drive and ship the award-winning Kinect, including creation of several of the launch titles. Excited yet? Fantastic! We currently have need of exceptional candidates to help us in achieving our goals. We are looking for an experienced creative individual who can help us bring Microsoft’s next big IP to life"
 
http://vimeo.com/95561794

[FUN]CTION Studios is a medium size incubation team at Microsoft Studios under the XBOX division, we work to bring new technologies to the consumer as we did with the Kinect along with some other amazing teams.

We produced this fun video in house to promote the culture, branding and the people who conform our team.

Great video.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Leap Experience Pioneers.

"We are looking to push the boundaries of a larger playground. The Technology and Incubation team is part of a group chartered to revolutionize entertainment content. This group most recently helped drive and ship the award-winning Kinect, including creation of several of the launch titles. Excited yet? Fantastic! We currently have need of exceptional candidates to help us in achieving our goals. We are looking for an experienced creative individual who can help us bring Microsoft’s next big IP to life"
I think it's time to add 'Secret Xbox One game' to the chalkboard
 
Only speculation from my part, but from the way they present themselves and even the name of the studios, they sound more like people working on "experimental" projects. Like that company working on Crackdown, which is officially specialized in cloud processing.
[/QUOTE/

Edit:

It would be a different take on game developing.... Having all the tech guys into separated specific tech teams, while the studios that make the actual game could be smaller and focused solely on the game. Can't wait to see how's that going to paint out.

Must be the nerd in me speaking, but it makes me think of NP complexity and NP-complete problems. So like my above speculations, maybe they're specialized in solving complex computational problems.

Or maybe they're just plain boring game studios, who knows. :p

I was about to point that :p
 

shandy706

Member
I think it's time to add 'Secret Xbox One game' to the chalkboard

Why does the Xbox One have a chalkboard?

It doesn't need "saving", it just isn't keeping up with its closest competitor.

The Wii U and Vita I understand...even though I wish my Vita didn't need one :(.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Why does the Xbox One have a chalkboard?

It doesn't need "saving", it just isn't keeping up with its closest competitor.

The Wii U and Vita I understand...even though I wish my Vita didn't need one :(.

I'm not getting into a Sales Age fight with you

It was a reference to the 'Secret PS3 game' thing
 

Ape

Banned
Why does the Xbox One have a chalkboard?

It doesn't need "saving", it just isn't keeping up with its closest competitor.

The Wii U and Vita I understand...even though I wish my Vita didn't need one :(.

It's just a carry over meme from last gen, all in good fun. Some people might use it to channel frustrations from the PS3 era into this one as well. That chalkboard really hurt a lot of feelings and this is just a way for them to sort of have their payback. It makes them feel a little better I think. I know, it's sad.


I'm not getting into a Sales Age fight with you

It was a reference to the 'Secret PS3 game' thing

He wasn't asking you to fight with him. If you can't have a sales discussion without turning it into a "fight" then I think you need to take a step back and reevaluate things.
 
This is good news. Everyone should be hoping for success here, then there's less of a chance future third parties will be moneyhatted as often (I hope).
 

panda-zebra

Member
Apparently, they "create far future experiences, for inventive hardware" which could mean many things, from vanilla Xbox One, to Kinect, Project Fortaleza or something else entirely.

It's Leap, therefore it's Kinect or the kind of games/tech of that ilk.

BTW, they're such crazy guys!!!11xboxone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQH9NEVSTe8

and something that I suppose might be called NP or N to the power of P.

The alt text for the link is "NUI Publishing" (NUI = Natural User Interface)
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
He wasn't asking you to fight with him. If you can't have a sales discussion without turning it into a "fight" then I think you need to take a step back and reevaluate things.

Sorry, you're right, I should have said sales age 'discussion'.

I'm still not going to engage in one.
 
That's more like it!

I'm hoping for a more eclectic mix of games from them, not just the shooter/driving thing that Microsoft are known for.
 

Volotaire

Member
I like the sound of it. Building up exclusives with more first party content that seems to sounds different and innovative.
 

amardilo

Member
MS have seemed very short on studios about halfway through the 360's life cycle, good to hear they have new studios and are staffing up. I just hope they don't go through the same cycle as before (ramp up and then close them down).

Watch them all be mobile games. There's no way MS have set up this many Xbone development studios.

I think you might be somewhat right but I hope some are aiming for AAA quality Xbox One games.

I guess some are mobile developers and some are just internal incubation team that might not actually make a game but come up with concepts and ideas for others to use but at least it's something and could help other teams make cool stuff and come up with new ideas.

Also I'd be OK if these studios ended up working on games with more broader appeal or social games if that meant all the other big and established studios (Lionhead, Rare, 343 Industries and Turn 10) could focus on nothing but big budget AAA games aimed at core gamers.

The only other thing would be that a lot of these studios are somewhat new and if they are working on big budget games they would seem like those games maybe a long way off.
 
Before Microsoft kicked Kinect into a ditch and beat it to death I would have thought that most of these were Kinect/mobile/app studios. They do have some kinect DNA, as previously mentioned.

Hopefully Microsoft won't continue to beat a dead horse and let these guys make something fresh.
 
I hope most of these are game studios working on innovative new games for X1.

I think Phil said that they opened 5 new game studios back in E3 2013, so hopefully some good things will come of this.
 
So, correct me if I'm wrong, but LXP and these sister studios are a branch of MS Studios that are basically Tech & Incubation?

Early tech research, prototyping, ideas and working with external developers to turn them into games? The way LXP is made to sound is as if they've already pretty much been 'behind-the-scenes' in delivering some of the launch games already, similar to how KALE was working with Sumo on Xbox Fitness.

What's highly interesting is that half of them seems to be very tech-focused, which is pretty different from normal game incubation. Interesting to see where they go.

Watch them all be mobile games. There's no way MS have set up this many Xbone development studios.

Incubators don't need a lot of people. If anything, it will be somewhat similar to how Japan Studio and SSM co-develops games, these studios will function as partners in either MS-specific tech or something along those lines while working with someone else who will actually have the 100-man team of making those games.
 
Incubators don't need a lot of people. If anything, it will be somewhat similar to how Japan Studio and SSM co-develops games, these studios will function as partners in either MS-specific tech or something along those lines while working with someone else who will actually have the 100-man team of making those games.

Sounds like Phantom Dust
 
The only other thing would be that a lot of these studios are somewhat new and if they are working on big budget games they would seem like those games maybe a long way off.

[FUN]ction and SOTA have been around since last year, and LXP and Platform Next are older than that. We might start seeing something next year.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me if we got games from some undiscovered studios first either. Nobody saw Team Dakota coming until Project Spark was announced.
 
[FUN]ction and SOTA have been around since last year, and LXP and Platform Next are older than that. We might start seeing something next year.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me if we got games from some undiscovered studios first either. Nobody saw Team Dakota coming until Project Spark was announced.

LXP sounds like they've actually helped out with some launch games already, so maybe they've always been "Uncredited MS Devs" who is now getting a proper name/studio to their banner?

And wasn't Dakota an off-shoot of FUSE Labs folks who made Kodu?
 
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