People Can Fly enters work-for-hire deal with Microsoft on Xbox series

People Can Fly will be developing a game for one of Microsoft's Xbox franchises. 

In a translated press release, the Outriders developer revealed it entered a work-for-hire deal with Microsoft to create a triple-A project "based on the intellectual property rights of the publisher." Microsoft will be funding the project, which is currently codenamed Project Maverick and will be published by Xbox Game Studios. 

A specific franchise was not disclosed, but according to People Can Fly, this new project will be budgeted between $30 million and $50 million. 

Microsoft and People Can Fly go back a bit

Project Maverick serves as a reunion between Microsoft and People Can Fly. In March 2013, the Polish studio developed Gears of War: Judgment, a spinoff of Epic Games' shooter series. It also created the 2006 PC port for the original Gears of War, which first put the studio on Epic's radar. 

Earlier this year, People Can Fly announced it would be self-publishing its own games following its strained relationship with Square Enix over 2021's Outriders. But it said it would continue to take work-for-hire deals on "selected projects" that would provide stability for the studio in between those self-published efforts. 

Microsoft has previously let third-party studios develop games for its key franchises. In the past, this has resulted in Creative Assembly on Halo Wars 2 and Splash Damage on Gears Tactics. 

That practice is continuing with Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics for the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot.