Xbox Entertainment Studios
Xbox Entertainment Studios was an American television and movie studio based in Santa Monica, California created internally by Microsoft Studios in 2012, in order to create "interactive television content" for Xbox Live.[2]
Subsidiary of Microsoft Studios | |
Industry | Entertainment |
Fate | Closed |
Founded | 2012 |
Defunct | October 29, 2014[1] |
Headquarters | Santa Monica, California, United States |
Key people | Nancy Tellem (president) |
Parent | Microsoft Studios |
On July 17, 2014, Microsoft confirmed that the studio would be closing.[3] On October 29, 2014, both the vice president and the president of the company departed, and the company was officially closed.[1]
Video content
At time of closure, Xbox Entertainment Studios was developing their first projects: a documentary about the video game crash of 1983,[4] a science-fiction drama titled Humans and a live action television series based on the Halo franchise in collaboration with film producer Steven Spielberg.[5] Future projects were to have included a remake of the BBC sci-fi series Blake's 7,[6] a reboot of the Canadian children's hospital documentary series Little Miracles, and an autobiographical series about rapper Nas.[7] The studio also intended to co-produce certain live events for Xbox Live, including future editions of the Call of Duty Championship, the Miss Teen USA beauty pageant and the VGX.[8]
Before the closure was announced, the studio released a street soccer focused reality series titled Every Street United to coincide with the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Before closing, it intends to release the video game documentary (provisionally titled Atari: Game Over), and the series spun off from Halo.[3]
In September 2014 The Hollywood Reporter reported that AMC was in talks to acquire the rights to revive Humans and that casting was underway.[9]
Content
Xbox Entertainment Studios offered original films and series that were produced in collaboration between professional studios.
References
- Pitcher, Jenna (October 29, 2014). "Xbox Entertainment Studios Reportedly Shuttered as Heads Leave". IGN. Retrieved October 30, 2014.
- Farber, Dan (2013-02-11). "Microsoft's Xbox Entertainment Studio working on interactive TV". CNET. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
- Dawn Chmielewski. "Microsoft to Shutter Xbox Entertainment Studios (Updated)". Re/code.
- "Xbox Entertainment Studios to Debut Documentary Series Exclusively on Xbox in 2014". xbox.com.
- McWhertor, Michael (2013-05-22). "Halo TV series early in development, but Microsoft expects 'dramatic impact on how people think about TV'". Polygon. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
- Sweney, Mark (2013-08-15). "Microsoft to fund Blake's 7 remake for Xbox Live service". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
- Samit Sarkar. "Report: Xbox Entertainment Studios making TV series based on Nas (update)". Polygon.
- "Xbox Execs Talk Momentum and the Future of TV". Microsoft. 2013-02-11. Retrieved 2013-12-20.
- Goldberg, Lesley. "AMC Lands Xbox Drama Series 'Humans'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 13 September 2014.