Two employees of Microsoft created a company of their own to create this product. Initially, they started two teams, one codenamed as a reference to something in (1) and the second codenamed as the guy highlighted in (2). The first team was supposed to create something frightening while the second was supposed to be dark and moody and literary.

The second didn’t really take off. All employees of the company were eventually merged into the first. Strong influences of the second can still be noticed in the final product, though the product eventually had nothing to do with either (1) or (2) save for a few references here and there.

Identify the codenames and the final product.

Once again, sorry for the delay. Question stays up for longer :)

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udupendra, Advaith, Mo, Dibyo, Rogi, Logik, shenoyvarun86, akhi, Raghuvansh, varuns88 and madhur