Oddworld Inhabitants no longer working with Microsoft

Californian developer Oddworld Inhabitants is seeking a new publisher for its next Xbox game in the Oddworld universe, tentatively titled Stranger, as Microsoft no longer has any involvement with the title.

The new game, which is the first to be produced by the company since the Microsoft-published Xbox launch title Munch's Oddysee, was originally known as Steef's Oddysee, but now appears to have adopted the name Stranger, which is also the name of its new lead character.

The company hopes to finish the title, which was shown off in video form at GDC last week, before the end of the year. However, a publisher for the Western-themed game has not yet been found, although Oddworld Inhabitants representatives at GDC did confirm that they are in talks with a number of companies.

The game is expected to remain Xbox-exclusive despite the fact that Microsoft is no longer publishing it. Oddworld's original deal with Microsoft for Munch Oddysee was rumoured to be highly lucrative for the company and its founders, Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna, with the now-popular term "money hat" (used to describe a payment made to a developer by a platform holder in order to keep their products exclusive to one console) being originally coined by satirical videogame comic-strip Penny-Arcade to describe the exclusivity agreement.