E3 2018: Compulsion Games Brings its Off-Kilter Worlds to Microsoft Studios

When you make games that are out of the ordinary, you sign up for a future that’s hard to predict and maybe a little bit weird. To think that we, the 40-person team of Compulsion Games, the people who currently make unusual games from inside an old gramophone factory in Montreal, could become a part of Microsoft Studios is not something I would have predicted a few years ago.

We launched Compulsion Games in 2009 in an leaky office in Montreal, and assembled a team of creators who cared about doing something different.

Back at E3 2016, when we first revealed the introduction to We Happy Few, I was ecstatic to see reactions and predictions from fans and the press. We were excited to take the journey with Xbox Game Preview and craft our game with the input from players. We’re continuing to work on the game for its multi-platform release on Aug. 10.

Microsoft Studios wants to bring new experiences to players and we’re thrilled to join the team and gain more resources and freedom to fuel bigger creative ideas and more ambitious worlds. More importantly, we’re eager to prove that there truly is a place for a small studio and a different flavor of creativity in the big world of Xbox. It’s our dream to make an Xbox game that’s just as formative for players as the classics we’ve played and loved in the past.

We think this turn in our path is exciting, interesting, different, and just a tad scary (in a good way!). Good thing, then, that those are the qualities we look for in our games.