Subsidiary of Microsoft Studios | |
Industry | Video game industry |
Founded | 2008 |
Headquarters | Redmond, Washington, U.S. |
Owner | Microsoft |
Parent | Microsoft Studios |
Website | launchworks |
Launchworks, formerly Xbox Live Productions, is an American video game developer based in Redmond, Washington created internally by Microsoft Studios in 2008, in order to create "high quality digital content" for Xbox Live.
On January 30, 2008 Microsoft began hiring for Xbox Live Digitally Distributed Games (DDG) team, described as "a newly formed organization focused on digital distribution of games via Xbox Live Marketplace". Shortly after, internal studio Carbonated Games was disbanded on March 27, 2008, with some employees being folded into this new group.
General manager of Xbox Live, Marc Whitten, officially announced the studio on May 22, 2008. The first game to be released under the new label was Fable II Pub Games on August 13, 2008.
In 2013 Xbox Live Productions was rebranded as Launchworks.
Xbox Live Productions will also produce exclusive video content for Xbox Live.
Announced at Comic-Con 2008, the first original programming will be a series of free comedic short films, each less than ten minutes in length. The pilots will be directed by established horror film directors including James Wan, David Slade, James Gunn, Lucky McKee, and Marcus Nispel. The pilots will also be distributed via MSN and Zune Marketplace.