Activision Launches Standalone Studio Elsewhere Entertainment to Focus on New ‘Genre-Defining AAA Franchise’

Microsoft‘s Activision has launched a new internal, standalone studio with one mission: creating a new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise.

Titled Elsewhere Entertainment, the studio will be headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, with additional staff in the United States. Employees’ credits include work on “The Last of Us, “Uncharted,” “The Witcher,” “Cyberpunk,” “Destiny,” “Tom Clancy’s The Division” and “Far Cry.”

Per Activision, “Built from the ground up, Elsewhere Entertainment is a premier and standalone studio dedicated to establishing an environment that inspires bold and diverse ideas. The team’s underlying mission encourages everyone to explore and collaborate creatively to craft a franchise with an enduring legacy that resonates far beyond games.”

No other specifics about the Microsoft gaming-owned studio were provided, though Activision noted Elsewhere Entertainment will have access to Activision resources throughout development and production on its new from-scratch gaming franchise.

Elsewhere Entertainment’s launch comes one week after Microsoft‘s Xbox shut down three studios run by its Bethesda Softworks publisher, including Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Studios and Tango Gameworks. Additionally, Xbox shifted the team at Roundhouse Games to work on “The Elder Scrolls Online” game under ZeniMax Online Studios.

Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty said those “tough decisions” were made to “create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games,” and some employees of closed studios will be shifted to other remaining game studios at Microsoft.

These changes come after the official close of Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard and amid multiple layoffs across the gaming industry.