It seems that the shopping season is not yet closed for Microsoft: after the announcement of thenew studies made at E3 and the news of the acquisitions for playground's second studio (engaged, according to rumors, on the new Fable), today is the time to learn more about the activities of The Initiative, thesuper-studio "AAAA" opened by Microsoft in Santa Monica, California.

The head of the firm Darrell Gallagher, formerly head of Crystal Dynamics, recently posted on Linkedin (before probably removing them for privacy reasons) the names of the new talents acquired for the studio, and among them we find prominent figures from imported studios all over the world.

Specifically, Microsoft's new Californian studio has been awarded the services of senior managing producer of the new God of War in Sony Santa Monica Brian Westergaard (formerly Lead Producer of Rise of the Tomb Raider in Crystal Dynamics)and Christian Cantamessa,Leader Writer and Designer for Red Dead Redemption in Rockstar Games; to these are added, also from Crystal Dynamics,the head of recruiting Annie Lohr (who also held the same role in Respawn)and the co-director of Rise of the Tomb Raider Daniel Neuburger.

There is also an "internal" acquisition: Blake Fischer,a former Microsoft employee who worked as head of Xbox title portfolio planning and involved in bringing titles such as The Witcher 3, Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Ninja Gaiden, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Blinx, Tao Feng, Fall Out 3, Killer Instinct, Cuphead, The Elder Scrolls IV and many others, is now an integral part of The Initiative.

In short, Microsoft is demonstrating with facts its own interations to create a studio full of leading talents and extensive experience: however, the studio is currently under construction, so it is very likely that it will be the last, among all the new Microsoft studios, of which we will see a game: also given the ambitiousness of the team, we will probably have to wait no earlier than 2022 to be able to see something.