Microsoft has once again began to expand its number of game studios by acquiring Twisted Pixel.As reported on The Major Nelson web site today, Microsoft has acquired Twisted Pixel, Texas-based game development team which is well-known for its smaller downloadable game titles. The company recently released its first retail game, the Kinect exclusive title “The Gunstringer”, which was published by Microsoft.The  Financial terms of the deal were kept undisclosed. Twisted Pixel joins the bandwagon of other game developer studios owned by Microsoft such as Rare (makers of the Kinect Sports games) and Lionhead (creators of the Fable RPG series).

Formed in 2006, Twisted Pixel became renowned for downloadable games such as The Maw, Comic Jumper, Splosion Man and its sequel Ms Splosion Man. All of those games were Xbox Live Arcade exclusives with the exception of The Maw which was also released for the PC. Until now there is no idea as to what sort of games will be developed by the  Twisted Pixel game team as a new Microsoft Studios game development team.

It has been a long time since Microsoft acquired a game development studio. On the contrary, in the past few years Microsoft has brought an end to a number of its internal game teams, namely, Ensemble Studios, the creators of its Age of Empires series which was shut down in 2009. Microsoft also closed its ACES Studio the very same year, which was responsible for its long running Microsoft Flight Simulator series.Hopefully,this newly acquired fir will bring in some exciting games to the fore and will continue the legacy of Microsoft’s games franchise.