Last year, it was revealed that Microsoft is building a game development super team out in Santa Monica, CA. Called The Initiative, the team is led by Activision's former senior vice president and head of development Darrell Gallagher. Microsoft has been hiring on a major staffing drive for around the last 9 months.

These staffing efforts have continued, with the latest name on The Initiative staff roster being Chris O'Neill who previously worked as the senior staff level designer on God of War. O'Neill's LinkedIn page has now been updated, confirming that as of January 2019, the developer is an employee at The Initiative. O'Neill becomes the last former God of War developer to join the team. Just five months ago, it was revealed that Microsoft had hired six more developers who had worked on God of War, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Destiny 2.

Curiously, the listing that confirms that O'Neill is working at The Initiative doesn't include a job title; it only features a full stop. The job description section is also a generic description of The Initiative and its plans to develop the "next big thing," along with a link to the studio's current openings. The secretive nature would suggest that Microsoft is working as hard as possible to keep The Initiative's projects under wraps.

Microsoft is doing a reasonably good job of keeping The Initiative's developments under wraps, as nothing has trickled out thus far. But the evidence would indicate that Microsoft wants to create an incredible RPG. All of the hires that Microsoft has made already, which also includes devs who've worked on Red Dead Redemption, have worked on games with open-worlds and/or RPG elements.

A role-playing game would be a good way to show off the capabilities of the next Xbox, which is expected to release in 2020. RPGs work well for highlighting graphics and the power of a console's hardware. More than that, RPGs that take hundreds of hours to complete and are regularly updated with post-launch DLC would be a good selling point for Microsoft's subscription service, Xbox Game Pass. A game that takes a long time to complete (such as an RPG) would encourage recurring subscriptions, thus boosting the company's bottom line even more than a one-time game purchase.

However, it's unclear how long it will be until The Initiative's work is revealed. If the Microsoft studio is still hiring for positions such as level designer, it may still be in the pre-production stage or in very early development.

Source: LinkedIn