Improbable partners with new studio founded by ex-Halo dev

The first project from Midwinter Entertainment, a studio recently founded by former 343 Industries studio head and Halo series creative director Josh Holmes, will use Improbable's SpatialOS cloud-computing tech thanks to a partnership between the two companies.

Midwinter is the latest of many studios to pick up Improbable's flagship technology, but this partnership is especially worth noting since Midwinter is the first studio to receive project funding from Improbable in return for using and helping to inform the future of SpatialOS.

SpatialOS itself is a cloud-based computational platform that seeks to ease the process of creating and running large online worlds by dividing the workload up between multiple servers in the cloud.

In the case of Midwinter's in-development game Scavengers, the use of SpatialOS should mean that the game is able to handle more complex AI as well as more players and AI occupying a large, shared online environment. 

“We started Midwinter with the goal of creating innovative, shared experiences for millions of players around the world,” said Holmes in a press release. “When we introduced Warzone in Halo 5, it represented the pinnacle of blended PVE/PVP. Now with SpatialOS, we have the ability to push the boundaries of ‘co-opetition’ gameplay in Scavengers, with teams of players competing as armies of smart AI move intelligently across the map, hunting down players and each other.”