Job listings for company’s new studio confirms development of undisclosed RTS sequel.

by Chris Mawson

Microsoft Game Studios are currently developing the ‘next installment in a beloved strategy game franchise’, according to a number of listings on their careers site.

According to the posts, the company’s Decisive Games team, which ‘is focused on world class strategy game development’, is hiring three senior software engineers to work on its latest project.

The job listings go on to request applicants with ‘familiarity of Direct X11 or Xbox 360/Xbox One rendering APIs’, effectively confirming a release on both PC and Xbox consoles.

The studio is hiring a generalist game development engineer and a senior tools engineer, but perhaps the most significant listing is a post for a senior client-server network engineer. This listing confirms a significant multiplayer component to the game, with successful applicants being responsible for ‘leading the networking and multiplayer aspects of gameplay, including both the real-time gameplay networking solution as well as supporting out-of-band systems such as matchmaking and grouping.’

The identity of the RTS game in question has yet to be confirmed. Some fans are speculating that it could potentially be a follow-up to 2008’s Halo Wars. Which strategy series sequel would you like to see Microsoft release? Let us know in the comments.