Head of Microsoft Studios Matt Booty has announced that the company has changed the name of their game development organization from Microsoft Studios to Xbox Game Studios. This renamed brand is made up of 13 distinct game development teams at 343 Industries, The Coalition, Compulsion Games, The Initiative, inXile Entertainment, Minecraft, Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, Playground Games, Rare, Turn 10 Studios, Undead Labs and Microsoft's Global Publishing group.
According to Booty, "2019 is going to be a great year for Xbox gamers everywhere. Exclusive games including Crackdown 3, Gears 5 and Ori and the Will of the Wisps will be available to Xbox Game Pass members on the same day they launch worldwide. We’re also working to deliver big content updates for games like Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 4 and Minecraft that players are going to love."
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has changed the name of its collective of game developers as 2000's Microsoft Games was re-branded into Microsoft Game Studios in 2001. MGS was changed once again to the Microsoft Studios label we’ve known until yesterday in 2011. Crackdown 3 will be the first game released under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella, coming to PC and Xbox One on February 15, 2019.