A member of the development team behind Sony Santa Monica's 2018 reboot of God of War has jumped ship to work with The Initiative, a secretive Southern California development studio working on new projects as part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios division.

Erik Jakobsen, whose work includes environmental design on God of War: Ascension and the series' PS4 debut during his time at Sony Santa Monica, joined the team at The Initiative this month. Microsoft has kept mum on the studio's specific plans, but describes the upstart developer as an ambitious team creating high-quality gaming experiences. Some of the other team members at The Initiative include alumni from Tomb Raider, Red Dead Redemption, The Witcher 3 and Anthem, in addition to other former members of the God of War team.

RELATED: Microsoft's Next-Gen Console Name is Actually Just Xbox

Microsoft hasn't been shy about expanding the operations of Xbox Game Studios recently in preparation for the upcoming launch of the Xbox Series X. In addition to starting up The Initiative and the Age of Empires-focused studio World's Edge, seven independent studios have joined the Xbox division since 2018, including Forza Horizon creators Playground Games, The Outer Worlds studio Obsidian Entertainment, and prolific indie developer Double Fine.

With 15 development studios making games for the fourth-generation Xbox platform and Windows PCs, the gaming division at Microsoft appears to be intent on preventing a repeat of a critical mistake of the current generation: a lack of compelling console exclusives on the Xbox One. One of the many reasons players gravitated toward Sony's PlayStation 4 was the promise of unique experiences like Insomniac's Spider-Man, Death Stranding and God of War itself. The middling reception to Halo 5 and the launch version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection slowed the momentum of the Xbox's biggest franchise, and even with a number of improvements in the years since its launch, the Xbox One remained tainted by its early struggles.

The newest Xbox was revealed to the world earlier in December at the Game Awards, where the Xbox Series X hardware was revealed alongside the first trailer for Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 from Ninja Theory.

MORE: The Xbox Series X Has Had a Much Better Start than the Xbox One