Relic Entertainment, known for real-time strategy titles such as Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, might be Microsoft's next studio acquisition if rumors are to be believed.
This comes after Klobrille, a consistent and reliable leaker, revealed a Tweet showing the newly-named Xbox Game Studios and Relic Entertainment's logo side-by-side. Klobrille focuses on Xbox-related tweets. In the past, he has revealed most of what Microsoft's E3 2016 had to offer as well as the announcement of Age of Empires 4 being in development.
https://twitter.com/klobrille/status/1100010065111801856
Speaking of which, Age of Empires 4 is being developed by Relic Entertainment, which would make this rumor appear even more plausible. Age of Empires is an intellectual property owned by Microsoft. Currently, Relic Entertainment is owned by Sega, which complicates matters a bit. Sega isn't in the best financial situation, however. So, this could be a good move for Sega to get some sort of financial gain while this studio is already working on a very high-profile title for Microsoft.
While rumors are rumors, Microsoft is setting sights on plenty of studios as of late. The acquisitions of Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment shook things up a bit but also shows that Microsoft is willing to branch out and take developers that develop a wide array of genres.
Acquisition or not, we'll see Age of Empires featured on March's Inside Xbox. This would be a great time for Microsoft to announce the news, and we might also expect news on Relic's upcoming fourth entry.
Quick Take
Let's just say that this rumor becomes reality. I think it will be very interested to see what the future has in store for Relic. My guess would be that the company becomes a studio dedicated to the Age of Empires franchise, especially if this other tweet by Klobrille is true. It's already an extremely popular IP and they are developing the fourth game in the series. Relic's developers are also veterans of the genre, having created quite a few excellent and extremely popular RTS titles. I know that I'm very excited to see what Age of Empires 4 has in store, and with Relic at the helm that's even better.Do you like the idea of Microsoft acquiring Relic? Let us know in the comments below!
