Xbox’s first-party studios and recent acquisitions have been getting all the headlines lately, but Microsoft does also have a number of third-party publishing deals in place for the coming years. One of those deals will see one of Xbox’s long-standing partner support studios, Certain Affinity, trying their hands at a co-op, Monster Hunter-style game.
According to Jeff Grubb’s sources, via VGC, one of Xbox’s recent publishing deals involves Certain Affinity, a long-time support studio that has helped out on some major titles – including the Halo series and Left 4 Dead. The game is described as a “Monster Hunter clone” with a focus on co-op gameplay. This game is also part of an effort to differentiate the Xbox Game Pass line-up.
“They’re like, ‘we probably can’t get Monster Hunter on Game Pass, that would be pretty expensive, but we definitely want a game like that, because we see the potential for that to grow and be a big thing with long-term support”, Grubb said.
This lines up with some information that we already know, as Certain Affinity has confirmed that it is developing a new IP. However, no specific details about the game have been officially revealed.
KitGuru Says: Microsoft has a huge number of studios for shooters and RPGs at this point, so I’d expect to see Microsoft experimenting more with third-party studios in other genres, like co-op multiplayer. Whether or not this game will be able to rival Monster Hunter or a similar game like Dauntless still remains to be seen.