Microsoft is starting another long-term play in the gaming industry. Which is somewhat surprising, given how the company agreed to pay $7.5 billion for ZeniMax Media after already investing tens of billions into Xbox Game Pass without any expectation of seeing something resembling a return from any of those investments. And that was just this morning.
In all seriousness, given those recent waves Microsoft has been making, a free online game dev academy certainly doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. But seeing how we’re talking about a pretty comprehensive program here, today’s announcement of the so-called Xbox Academy is worth paying attention to.
Especially seeing how the program is being positioned as a long term source of accessible training for countless aspiring developers the world over. This undertaking is officially a Microsoft Store project, mind you. And it’s being co-helmed by Playground Games, the developers behind global, hit Forza Horizon 4.
Other than PG, Microsoft also enlisted some outside help in the form of Games London and East London Arts and Music school. Have we mentioned the academy is ran out of London? Fortunately, you can access its online classes via the Microsoft Store for free, no matter where in the world you’re located – starting from today.