Microsoft acquires four new game studios under its new venture called 'The Initiative'

Microsoft had a whole bunch of **new announcements at E3 2018** regarding the various games it plans on launching this year and the next. Apart from that, some more news also came through, one which involved the acquisition of gaming studios. [caption id=“attachment_4458851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Microsoft CEO Satya Narayana Nadella. Reuters[/caption] At the conference Xbox head, Phil Spencer said that Microsoft had moved towards acquiring Playground Games, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games and Ninja Theory. As per a report by TechCrunch, all the new acquisitions will be grouped under a new venture called ‘The Initiative’ and it will be lead by former Crystal Dynamics head of studio Darrell Gallagher. The report states that Playground Games is behind the hit racing series Forza while Undead Labs was the developer for State of Decay series. Ninja Studio designed Hellblade and Compulsion is in works for developing the We Happy Few, which was announced at E3 and will release in 2019. Microsoft had earlier also bought the rights of its hugely popular shooter Halo from its original developer Bungie. The Redmond-based tech giant then formed the 343 Industries whose focus was to create more titles for the Halo series. To catch up on the latest highlights from Microsoft’s E3 keynote, click here .