Following up on a report by Jez Corden on The Xbox Two podcast, VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb corroborated through his own sources that Mainframe is indeed working on an MMO for Xbox Game Studios. The working title is “Pax Dei” and it’s cloud-native, which means that the same game will be accessible through any device. Grubb added that “People on the Xbox team are excited about for multiple reasons.”
Currently, the developer is looking at gameplay mechanics “that can only work in a game that exists primarily on a remote server.” The game’s cloud-native nature means that all players can do anything regardless of their device but “certain tasks will make more sense depending on where you are playing.” An example provided was doing quicker tasks like farming or crafting when at work and undertaking missions like raids at home.
But that’s not all. Grubb notes that, “Key Xbox figures are also excited about Pax Dei because of its value in highlighting hurdles with cloud-based development. The hope among those at Microsoft is that Pax Dei can create an opportunity to set up best practices for this kind of game. And then other studios can run that same playbook in the future.”
One such developer that Xbox Game Studios is looking to apply this to specifically to Hideo Kojima and his rumored Xbox title. A deal between Kojima and the publisher hasn’t been finalized but Xbox is reportedly “lining up resources” to aid him. This includes the hiring of Kim Swift for overseeing cloud-native game development. Stay tuned for more details on Pax Dei in the meantime.