New Microsoft team Lift London to act as studio incubator
Will act as mentors for young talented start-ups in development sector
Microsoft has officially named its most recent Soho team Lift London, and confirmed the outfit will act as an incubator for other studios.
The team, headed by former Rare man Lee Schuneman, was originally formed to concentrate on tablet formats, but that remit has now been expanded to include a focus on products that will incorporate cloud services as well.
One of the first studios "in residence" is called DLaLa and although tied to Microsoft with a commercial agreement will remain independent. Lift will offer advice and is targeting young and talented start-ups.
The details were revealed today at a press briefing held in London, where Microsoft also confirmed that former Rare studio manager and Microsoft veteran Scott Henson was taking over Fable studio Lionhead as head of operations.
Discussing the studio late last year, vice president of the Interactive Entertainment business Phil Harrison said that he sees Microsoft as a multiformat games business - one that's competing with entertainment on a wider scale than just games.
"We think this expands our competitive map," he said. "We're no longer just competing with the traditional console companies, but our competitive landscape includes the likes of Google, the likes of Amazon, it includes obviously the likes of Apple."