We Happy Few Dev Reveals New Information About Next Game With Microsoft And Xbox

Xbox-owned studio Compulsion Games has revealed some new information about its upcoming title. In an interview with Xbox Squad (translated from French by VGC), community developer Nalia Hadjas said that production on the game started only a few months after We Happy Few's full release in 2018.

We Happy Few's last DLC, We All Fall Down, launched at the end of 2019, and a few months later the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. However, Compulsion Games has managed to roughly double its workforce to 80 people during the time. The studio still prefers to work discreetly and stay out of the spotlight. The new game is now in full development.

Hadjas mentions that it is a third-person narrative-driven title, and as a result is unlikely to launch on Xbox Game Preview because of its structure. We Happy Few went through the game preview process because it was a rogue-like survival title and the developers sought feedback regarding its mechanics and balance.

"We Happy Few has evolved a lot. At the beginning, it was rogue-like and then we added a story because people loved the world, and the characters," said Hadjas. "So we said, 'OK, we're going to make a real game with an end and a story.' The next game is a story, we know where we're going."

We Happy Few was developed with Unreal Engine 4 but Hadjas wouldn't divulge what engine Compulsion's next game would be using. However, colleagues over at The Coalition have confirmed earlier this year that the Gears studio has two projects underway utilizing Unreal Engine 5.

This is Compulsion's first game under Xbox Games Studios since it was acquired by Microsoft back in 2018. Hadjas said, "I think we give ourselves a little time to learn. It's our first game with Microsoft and we're learning a lot. We have doubled the workforce and we are adapting to it."

When asked whether the new game could possibly be revealed by the end of the year, she laughed, "I have no idea." Despite the lack of information so far, the game will presumably be exclusive to Microsoft's ecosystem, including PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.