Microsoft’s Black Tusk Studios Is Making ‘The New Halo’

Microsoft has launched the new Black Tusk Studios in Vancouver. The team now consists of 55 employees and that number will double in the coming months. The studio is working for Microsoft on an Xbox game that is labeled by the makers as ‘the new Halo’.

Five former employees of Electronic Arts to make for Microsoft under the name Black Tusk Studios a new studio in Vancouver, Canada. The studio started in the building of Microsoft’s Big Park Studios, but has since grown out of the temporary accommodation. The team at the new studio has grown to 55 employees, but will be expanded to double in the coming months. The studio makes games for the Xbox 360 and is working on “Microsoft’s next big entertainment franchise,” according to studio boss Mike Crump. “We’re not working on an existing series, we’re trying to make the new Halo here in Vancouver,” he says.

Finding new staff shouldn’t be a problem for Crump and his followers. In recent months, there has been especially bad news for studios in the city on Canada’s west coast. For example, Rockstar Vancouver and Radical Entertainment had to close their doors. The studios in Vancouver face competition from companies from Quebec in Eastern Canada, where the government is giving significant tax breaks to developers and publishers. As a result of those measures, publishers such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Square Enix have set up studios with sometimes hundreds of employees in cities such as Montreal and Ottawa.