Microsoft Working on New AAA Service-Based Core Game In Collaboration With Third Party Studio

Giuseppe Nelva June 4, 2014 5:03 PM EST

Looks like Microsoft’s Game Studios have another AAA game in the pipeline, as revealed by a new career opportunity ad published today seeking a Senior Producer.

Below you can check out an excerpt from the post, with the relevant parts bolded.

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Microsoft Studios is looking for a Senior Producer to drive the future of gaming through AAA core games and service-based experiences, technology, and business models. You will work with AAA external game developers and an internal team of top-notch, experienced, cross-discipline employees in Microsoft’s Xbox organization. Qualification for the role must include a min of 6+ years making AAA games with a min of 2+ years at a Senior Producer role.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

As a Senior Producer in the Microsoft Studios Publishing organization, you will work directly with an Executive Producer to lead the efforts on a core AAA title.

This role has a range of responsibilities:

Lead the development and execution of a gaming service based on a AAA game for core gamers that both keeps them enthusiastically engaged while also driving financial success.

Lead a cross-functional, virtual team across design, engineering, business, analytics, user research, IT, and more.

Drive communication between Microsoft Studios and development partner, and across the rest of the Xbox organization. Provide regular status to the various Studios teams, including conducting internal reviews with leads and Studios Management.

Identify problems in advance and drive creative solutions to fix them. A Senior Producer needs to be able to see challenges before they arise, create plans to manage the tasks and alleviate the risks, and pitch in to execute those plans as needed.

Assess development risks and evaluate teams, create and maintain development schedules and project plans, establish milestone themes, guide and setup process, removes roadblock, ability to manage the final/burn down of the game.

Work with the external partner and the teams in Microsoft Studios to manage the game schedule and milestones.

QUALIFICATIONS/SKILLS:

Min 6+ years of experience shipping games, must have experience shipping AAA console or PC games through multiple product cycles.

Deep Experience Shipping AAA titles. Understanding intersection between experience, technology, and business is a must. Shipping AAA console or PC games is a bonus.

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The description above indicates a core game of the AAA quality, but service-based, meaning based either on subscriptions or microtransactions. The requirements also seem to indicate a title for both consoles (probably Xbox One) and PC.

Interestingly, the ad also describes a game created in collaboration between Microsoft Game Studios and an external third party partner.

Considering this generation’s focus on free to play and microtransactions, it’s not surprising to see Microsoft preparing to develop another games fitting that bill. We’ll have to keep the feelers out, and see if any further details will be shared anytime soon.