Elsewhere Entertainment features “storytelling experts” who worked on The Last of Us, The Witcher, Cyberpunk, and more.
Activision has opened a new studio in Warsaw, Poland called Elsewhere Entertainment, the company announced on May 16.
Activision assembled Elsewhere to exclusively create a "brand new narrative-based IP," according to a blog post. Although Activision built Elsewhere from scratch, the studio features "storytelling experts" who worked in popular AAA franchises including The Last of Us, Uncharted, The Witcher, Cyberpunk, Destiny, Tom Clancy's The Division, and Far Cry.
The news comes a little more than a week after Microsoft, Activision's parental company, shut down four Bethesda Studios — Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Games.
What is the goal of Activision's new studio Elsewhere?
As said, Elsewhere's task is to create a new "narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise," according to the blog post.
"Elsewhere Entertainment is a premier and standalone studio dedicated to establishing an environment that inspires bold and diverse ideas," the blog post reads. "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."
The creation of Elsewhere happens at a time when Activision has mostly focused on developing new Call of Duty games following the acquisition by Microsoft in October 2023. Folks expect Activision to reveal the next Call of Duty game on June 9 during the Xbox Showcase.
It's unclear, though, when Elsewhere will release its first game. But, based on what was announced today, it'll likely take at least a couple of years before we see the studio's first AAA game if they want to develop a "genre-defining" title.
Related articles
A breath of fresh air for game developers
On the bigger side of things, the opening of the Elsewhere studio by Activision could incentivize well-known directors to return to big publishers should they have a great release.
A lot of popular directors have gone independent due to numerous studio closures and layoffs in the gaming industry that have been happening over the past few years. The few names still working for major publishers include Todd Howard (Microsoft), Ken Levine (Take-Two Interactive), and Cory Barlog (Sony Interactive Entertainment).
