Microsoft Vancouver renamed Black Tusk Studios, is working on new triple-A franchise

The developer formerly named as Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver has a new name – Black Tusk Studios.

Being a first-party studio at Microsoft means having both the mandate and the opportunity to think and act big,” the official website reads. All of Microsoft’s studios share the same commitment to innovation and quality, along with support from a world-class global marketing, sales, and distribution organization.

As part of the Microsoft Studios family, Black Tusk is able to leverage resources, technology, and experience from other first-party studios such as 343 Industries, Turn 10 Studios, Rare, Lionhead Studios, Good Science Studio and Twisted Pixel Games.”

Details regarding exactly what Black Tusk is working on remain thin on the ground, although studio manager Mike Crump told The Vancouver Sun that: We are working on Microsoft’s next big entertainment franchise. We’re not working on an existing franchise, we’re looking to build the next Halo here in Vancouver, for example, which is really exciting.

We have been officially green-lit by Microsoft executives to go ahead with the project that we’re on. That’s the way game development works — it’s just like making a movie, you go through pitching and concepting and then at some point you have a very large meeting with the executive team and present your full pitch with the business plan and you get the green light, so that’s happened for us.”