Microsoft has snapped up exclusive publishing rights to the first game from Haunted Temple Studios, the dev established by former EA Los Angeles staffers Jake Kazdal, Ben Vance and Borut Pfeifer. Under the agreement, the trio's original strategy offering, Skulls of the Shogun (which we first previewed here), will debut on Xbox Live Arcade under the Microsoft Game Studios banner.

Haunted Temple's Kazdal, who worked on EA and Steven Spielburg's canned Project LMNO with his two studio-mates, told Gamasutra that Microsoft "totally got" Skulls of the Shogun and "have been fully behind it" since signing it. "The support we're getting out of them has been seriously as much as I could ever ask for," he added.

The game, which we've made no bones about loving so far, is due out this fall.