Microsoft buys The Gunstringer developer

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 12 October, 2011

Twisted Pixel joins the family.

Microsoft has bought The Gunstringer developer Twisted Pixel.

The Texas studio is now part of the Microsoft Studios Family, and will to "help incubate and develop the future of game and entertainment offerings on Microsoft's Xbox 360 platform".

Twisted Pixel's credits include Xbox Live Arcade game Splosion Man and Kinect game The Gunstringer.

"Twisted Pixel has an incredible track record of innovative, critically acclaimed, and most importantly, fun, games," said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president, Microsoft Studios.

"Microsoft Studios is home to cutting-edge entertainment experiences, and the incredible creativity of the Twisted Pixel team will help drive further innovation around Kinect and Xbox Live."

"It is really exciting for us to solidify our long-standing relationship with Microsoft Studios, who we consider to be the leader in digital distribution and creating new innovations in gaming like Xbox Live and Kinect," said Michael Wilford, co-founder and chief executive officer of Twisted Pixel.

"As part of the family of Microsoft Studios we look forward to bringing even bigger and richer experiences to Xbox and Twisted Pixel fans around the world."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (33) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Cobalt_Jackal #1 8 months ago

    R.I.P. Twisted Pixel
    2006-2011

  • MattEdWithCheese #2 8 months ago

    Haven't all of their games been on 360 anyway? Either way; It's a good thing as now they will be better supported. Or: It's a bad thing as Microsoft will make them create bad games. Only time will tell

    /Thread

  • Monkey_Puncher #3 8 months ago

    Good move by Microsoft, just hope they don't try and mess around with the way Twisted Pixel works though. Leave them to do their own shit, don't pull another Rare on these guys!

  • Peew971 #4 8 months ago

    Microsoft does need a few more developers, good for them and Twisted Pixel. Now can I have Splosion Man on my Windows Phone please?

  • Haerger #5 8 months ago

    Should have bought Bungie and Bioware instead.


    Too late.

  • captain_Carl #6 8 months ago

    Start piling out the kinect crap for a year before Microsoft close you down, boys.

  • miiiguel #7 8 months ago

    Negative ppl make me sad.

  • wizlon #8 8 months ago

    Tbh, Splosion Man was their only good game in my opinion. Relegated to Kinect minigames like RARE I'm sure.

  • Markusdragon #9 8 months ago

    To quote Jerry Holkins "this is sort of like paying someone to accept money."

  • frunk #10 8 months ago

    Good to see Microsoft investing in small studios... about time... Sony has been doing it for ages - they need to catch up and start buying rather than selling/disbanding.

    However I suspect they may have just grabbed them for Kinetic (& Kinect 2) stuff - which would be a terrible waste.

  • Dizzy #11 8 months ago

    Getting ready for next gen.

  • Beano #12 8 months ago

    A shame - Splosion Man was pretty good but now they will be forced to churne out Kinect games for Xbox 720 launch.

  • IncredibleKoosh #13 8 months ago

    Although I don't own Kinect, I could see Twisted Pixel making a better fist of using the tech in future than others. With funding from MS, and their humour I could see it working out quite well, if that were the route MS went down. However I don't think they will.

    Wouldn't be surprised to see TP make a proper Lemmings style puzzler for WP7 and XBLA.

  • othelaatko #14 8 months ago

    Love Twisted Pixel. Good for them. It is always good (for any studio) to have a strong partner behind them. Cheers.

  • RodHull #15 8 months ago

    Always good to hear that a good developer has a rosy future ahead. Hopefully MS will let them develop what tickles their fancy. The problem that Rare had was they were allowed to develop what they wanted for the first five years under MS, it's just that us gamers didn't buy the games they released. Viva Piñata barely scraped a six figure sales number, they make Kinect Sports and that hits 3 million sales. At least MS didn't do an Activision and shut Rare down in the face of little success.

  • Subdominator #16 8 months ago

    Microsoft has been acquiring and creating new stories these last couple of months, sort of a change from where they were three years ago, when they were basically shutting down every second 1st party studio they had. Might be a sign that the next gen is just around the corner, the first couple of years are the only ones where you have to have a great 1st party lineup to get people to buy your console. They are doing things different than Sony, who seem to buy every studio that had a single PS3 exclusive.

  • Beano #17 8 months ago

    "Always good to hear that a good developer has a rosy future ahead. "

    Or maybe the good people at TP will just grab the money and form a new multi-platform studio in 6-12 months time. I would.

  • Subdominator #18 8 months ago

    Should've bought Bungie? LOL, that's what they did in 2000. The reason why they let them go was because they keep Halo and Bungie wanted to do a MMO. Microsoft doesn't like MMOs with subscriptions on its platform because they can only sell them once. For a platform holder it's much more interesting to sell a few games that last five hours than one that lasts 500 hours. People that play MMOs don't buy games, don't buy movies, don't buy anything except XBL Gold.

  • lockload #19 8 months ago

    Twistel Pixel and DoubleFine have been my favourite XBLA developers, their humour seem similar to mine!

  • MrJihad316 #20 8 months ago

    @Subdominator
    I wish what you said about Sony buying up every studio with an exclusive on their platform were true. I'm really surprised they haven't bought Insomniac Studios. They make consistently great games and up until recently they developed strictly for Sony platforms.

  • SheffAl #21 8 months ago

    Another one bites the dust.

  • retr0gamer #22 8 months ago

    Weird decision. Thought these guys made games with a good sense of humour but the games were usually a bit crap. Not sure what MS saw in them.

  • WinterSnowblind #23 8 months ago

    The Maw, Gunstringer and 'Splosion Man games have been excellent. Their only real disappointment was Comic Jumper and even that was saved by being absolutely hilarious.

    I see this as a good thing, better funding should allow them to make even crazier games, as long as MS don't force them into constantly developing for Kinect, and MS badly need more first/second party developers, so it's a win/win situation.

  • NotSoSlim #24 8 months ago

    MS finally realising what we knew years ago..you cannot get anywhere just on third party exclusives or content.

  • DreamT #25 8 months ago

    @Frunk, if that's true, then why is XBLA so much better than PSN?

    @NotSoSlim, makes no sense. Seems what they're doing is working well for Microsoft, check out the you know...sales and revenue.

    Hopefully this will be good. With some more resources I'd imagine a XBLA 3D platformer will be in the works from Twisted Pixel.

  • inutaihanyou #26 8 months ago

    i was about to say why people were lambasting MS by doing the same thing they wanted them to do, the same thing sony's doing. Glad that isn't the case though in these comments

  • IMD1_Pk #27 8 months ago

    If you haven't played the wavy tube man chronicles then you have missed one this gaming generations best gifts to mankind. That dlc validates the existence of Kinect. That's how good it is

  • FearCrads #28 8 months ago

    Good move Microsoft though i thought it would happen sooner or later. Ive loved all the Twisted Pixel games so far.

  • Machiavellian #29 8 months ago

    If you look at the type of games that TP makes, they are very well positioned in MS gameplan. I see this as a plus for both companies. MS can ramp up TP and TP already make the type of games that MS want on their platform. TP probably pitched a few ideals, told MS it would be good if you purchase us, shower us with money so we can bring these games to life and combat your arch enemies, Nintendo and Sony.

  • miiiguel #30 8 months ago

    Or maybe the good people at TP will just grab the money and form a new multi-platform studio in 6-12 months time. I would.

    Yes because TP has a great portfolio of multi-plat games. Btw, what's your favourite PS3 TP game ?

  • man.the.king #31 8 months ago

    Good move by Microsoft!

    Each platform needs their own exclusives that just cannot be had on the other platform - imo, this is the only way platforms that are more or less similar in capabilities can really differentiate themselves, i.e in terms of the games.

  • andrewsqual #32 8 months ago

    Hopefully all the lead staff won't leave like what happened with Rare 10 years ago. Then just like Rare all it has is the name, no actual talent.

  • cyber_nicco #33 8 months ago

    Negative ppl make me sad.

    Then you're on the wrong website.