Xbox One

Xbox One

Microsoft is going Hollywood with a cast including comedians Sarah Silverman and Seth Green, aspiring World Cup players and eerily human robots. All are involved in shows that Microsoft’s new Xbox television studio plans to roll out globally starting in June. Helmed by former CBS Corp. honcho Nancy Tellem, who Microsoft hired 19 months ago to build a TV powerhouse from the ground up, the studio now has six series lined up — including a science-fiction thriller called “Humans” about humanoid robot workers — and more than a dozen projects in development. It’s unfamiliar ground for the world’s largest software maker, which has zero experience in original TV programming and is wading into a crowded field where Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. have generated hits such as “House of Cards.” Yet Microsoft is betting on the new studio to produce shows that will attract consumers to its Xbox game console.

Read the full story at Bloomberg.

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