The Coalition (formerly Zipline Studios, Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver and Black Tusk Studios) is a Canadian

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. The Coalition is best known for developing games in the ''

Gears of War ''Gears of War'' is a media franchise centered on a series of video games created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The franchise is best known for its third-person shooter vide ...

'' series after the franchise's acquisition by Xbox Game Studios from

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, M ...

History

The studio was formed in February 2010 as Zipline Studios, and under that name developed the

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

game ''Relic Rescue''. In May 2011, the studio was renamed Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver as it shifted its focus away from social games, instead working on ''

Microsoft Flight ''Microsoft Flight'' is an amateur flight simulation from Microsoft Studios created as a spin-off of the ''Microsoft Flight Simulator'' series. The game is offered "free-to-play"; charging players for downloading extra content, aircraft or s ...

'' and

Kinect Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flig ...

shooter game Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...

''Project Columbia''. On July 25, 2012, ''Project Columbia'' and further development on ''Microsoft Flight'' were cancelled, with all 35 employees being laid off. On November 29, 2012, the studio was renamed Black Tusk Studios, and tasked with creating a new major franchise for Microsoft Studios to rival their popular '' Halo'' franchise. On January 27, 2014, it was announced that Microsoft had acquired the ''

'' franchise from

, and that Black Tusk Studios would take on the development of future games in the series. As part of the ''Gears of War'' acquisition, Microsoft also hired

Rod Fergusson Rod Fergusson is a Canadian video game producer, best known for overseeing the development of the ''Gears of War'' franchise, originally at Epic Games and then as head of The Coalition. More recently, Fergusson moved over to Blizzard Entertainm ...

, who was the executive producer on the first three ''Gears of War'' games, to oversee development. On June 3, 2015, Fergusson announced that Black Tusk Studios had been renamed The Coalition; similarly to Microsoft's ''Halo'' studio

343 Industries 343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the ''Halo'' series of military science fiction games, originally created and ...

, the studio's name references an entity within the ''Gears of War'' franchise—the Coalition of Ordered Governments. Fergusson announced his departure as studio head in February 2020 to move over to Blizzard Entertainment to oversee the '' Diablo'' series.

Games developed

Cancelled

* ''Project Columbia'' (2012)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coalition (company), The 2010 establishments in British Columbia Canadian companies established in 2010 Companies based in Vancouver First-party video game developers Microsoft subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2010 Video game companies of Canada Video game development companies Xbox Game Studios