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[Mr Moose]

It's very similar, Sony took action and the results were they were shut down.
Your denial of that doesn't change anything.
Not to mention the many other companies and developers who have closed companies and cut staff over the last 2 years, including Sony and Nintendo. But ok, everyone else gets a free pass!

And again ignoring MS getting a "free pass" with Arkane Austin and the other two closed. People are pissed about Tango.

 

[Sethbacca]

Some people have the ability to tell the difference between someone pissing on our face and an actual rainstorm.
It's not that difficult.

The younger kids that weren't around for 90s MS I kinda get it, but the older fans shoulda fucking known better.

 

[systemr123]

Why buy studios (heck whole publishers) and then close some of them down?

And this coming from one of the world's biggest companies no less....

Embrace, extinguish, kill all games for everyone, destroy the complete market, then use unlimited money to create a monopoly.

 

[Clear]

100% ninja theory is next.
No way hellblade 2 makes up it's 7 SEVEN (SEVEN!!!!!!!!) years of development.
It's a very niche game to begin with.
Then compulsion.

Agreed, and Tameem already bailed out... just like Mikami did...

 

[Sleepwalker]

They've been trying to get Atlus for a while as well.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda, IGN can confirm.

In an email to staff sent by Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft blamed the cuts on a “reprioritization of titles and resources”. The email, verified by IGN, is below:

"Today I’m sharing changes we are making to our Bethesda and ZeniMax teams. These changes are grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades.

To double down on these franchises and invest to build new ones requires us to look across the business to identify the opportunities that are best positioned for success. This reprioritization of titles and resources means a few teams will be realigned to others and that some of our colleagues will be leaving us.

Here are the changes going into effect:

Arkane Austin – This studio will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda. Arkane Austin has a history of making impactful and innovative games and it is a pedigree that everyone should be proud of. Redfall’s previous update will be its last as we end all development on the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy and we will provide make-good offers to players who purchased the Hero DLC.

Alpha Dog Studios – This studio will also close. We appreciate the team’s creativity in bringing Doom to new players. Mighty Doom will be sunset on August 7 and we will be turning off the ability for players to make any purchases in the game.

Tango Gameworks – Tango Gameworks will also close. We are thankful for their contributions to Bethesda and players around the world. Hi-Fi Rush will continue to be available to players on the platforms it is today.

Roundhouse Games – The team at Roundhouse Games will be joining ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS). Roundhouse has played a key role in many of our recent game launches and bringing them into ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will mean we can do even more to grow the world that millions of players call home.

With this consolidation of our Bethesda studio teams, so that we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP, a small number of roles across select Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated.
Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified today, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with respect and compassion. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted in today’s notifications and through their transitions, including severance benefits informed by local laws.

These changes are not a reflection of the creativity and skill of the talented individuals at these teams or the risks they took to try new things. I acknowledge that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams across ZeniMax and Bethesda that bring our games to market. We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games.

Bethesda remains one of the key pillars of Xbox with a strong portfolio of amazing games and thriving communities. As we look to the future, there is an impressive line-up of games on the horizon. In 2024 alone we have Starfield Shattered Space, Fallout 76 Skyline Valley, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, and The Elder Scrolls Online’s Golden Road. As we align our plans and resources to best set ourselves up for success in this complex and changing industry, our teams across Arkane Lyon, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, MachineGames, ZeniMax Online Studios and the Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will be well-positioned to build new IP, explore new game concepts, and expand on our existing franchises"

Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda - IGN

Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda, IGN can confirm.

www.ign.com

Wish both Tango and Arkane Austin survived this is horrible news. This Industry is in the shitter right now.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

That June showcase will have a spectre hovering above every fp game they show thats not cod. If a close to 90 meta game can get the studio axed, all bets are off.

Critical reception has always been meaningless. It's always been about generating money.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

Name a fucking shittier company. Acquire a ton of studios, only to mismanage them and close them. At this point, those imbeciles are doing far more harm than good to the industry. Just keep your grubby paws off developers Microsoft. You only know how to destroy them. They always brag about having a million studios that somehow produce fucking nothing.

Tango closing is some Grade-A bullshit considering that Hi-Fi Rush is their best new IP since Ori.

Insane that they closed Tango, like even just downsizing them to a small studio that produces only indie style games would have been better.

 

[mayham2199]

100% ninja theory is next.
No way hellblade 2 makes up it's 7 SEVEN (SEVEN!!!!!!!!) years of development.
It's a very niche game to begin with.
Then compulsion.

Agreed. Apparently they are also already starting another game. Unless that other game is blowing everyone away in what they see so far Ninja is gone.

 

[Negotiator101]

It's not profitable enough to survive long term. We know that nothing is moving the needle, not even Starfield. We know that the current install base is not where they projected it to be.

The next Call of Duty will be the real test. If it's on Game Pass day one, it's their final rally to try and get the numbers up, and we'll see how that goes. Anything else is them admitting that they know they're going to eat shit on sales.

7 years in and still we hear the nonsense! It's sustainable, its profitable, like I said don't buy in to the Gaf bullshit and look at the facts.

 

[T-Cake]

The Initiative... how many years since they were formed with absolute zero output so far?

 

[Danjin44]

Critical reception has always been meaningless. It's always been about generating money.

I’m glad you are not in charge, you would shutdown talented devs like Vanillaware because they don’t make enough money for you.

 

[jshackles]

The Initiative... how many years since they were formed with absolute zero output so far?

Gotta let them finish pumping out Perfect Dark before quietly pushing the pillow over their mouth

 

[{insert code here}]

I'm going to miss Tango. I really enjoyed Evil Within and have the sequel in my backlog. Losing Arkane sucks because even though Redfall was a disaster they made Prey and Dishonored which are two of my favorite modern gaming franchises. I guess MS are just going to turn Bethesda into a Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Doom factory and milk those franchises to Oblivion.

 

[solidus12]

The shills have been exposed

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I’m glad you are not in charge, you would shutdown talented devs like Vanillaware because they don’t make enough money for you.

No, Vanillaware can float on their own. They're obviously not a sinking ship.

Some ships get scuttled.

 

[LordCBH]

I’m glad you are not in charge, you would shutdown talented devs like Vanillaware because they don’t make enough money for you.

Saying critical reception is meaningless when games that review poorly almost always bomb worse than stuff like Hi Fi.

 

[Snowdonhoffen]

Damn, now I'm really afraid for Ninja Theory.
Bleeding Edge flopped critically and commercially.
Hellblade 2 will be well received of that I'm sure, but I don't really see the game selling that well. It will be released in less platforms and with less potential customers than the first game and day 1 on a subscription service... I guess we can only hope for the best

 

[TintoConCasera]

Losing Arkane sucks because even though Redfall was a disaster they made Prey and Dishonored which are two of my favorite modern gaming franchises.

Arkane still has it's other office, no?

 

[Fredrik]

Look a little closer to home.

Too late to be about the PC version, and 97% user rating shouldn’t end with a closure, and Xbox is dead and Tango can’t be blamed for low sales there and Switch version didn’t even arrive. The timing makes it seem like it’s about the PS version not selling as well as they thought, like it was the last chance, and now they’re just giving up on the studio and IP.

 

[Nydius]

Late to the thread (long night of watching severe storms) but I see Microsoft’s Merde Touch is still in full effect. The only rich history Microsoft has in the gaming industry is the amount of studios they’ve mismanaged into the ground and shut down or lost. There is a literal 20 year graveyard of them, some of them having been highly respected with very desirable IP (FASA, for example).

Microsoft is a virus in the gaming industry. All they know how to do is infect (buy) a host and then destroy it from within. Guaranteed all they’re going to do now that they have ABK is shit out hastily made COD, Diablo, and Bethesda RPGs, with the occasional tease of Halo, Gears, and Forza. If they had the competence to grow development teams internally and create blockbuster new IP, they would have done it a few decades ago.

Edit: Forgot to add: Ghostwire Tokyo wasn’t amazing but it did well, and I could have swore Xbox was singing its “engagement numbers” from the hills when it dropped on Game Pass. Same with their boasting about Hi-Fi Rush’s engagement numbers. But, of course, therein lies their problem. “Engagement numbers” don’t pay the bills, and they’ve conditioned their fans to not buy games and use loopholes to subscribe as cheaply as possible.

 

[Solidus_T]

I'm still shook over this. MS was really like "People are mad at Sony, let's fix that!"

 

[digoutyoursoul]

The Initiative... how many years since they were formed with absolute zero output so far?

2018

 

[Woopah]

Microsoft having issues with their studios =! the whole industry should burn for a fix.

“No one is buying games”.

Sony & Nintendo: “hold our Yen”.

The difference in news today between Nintendo and Microsoft is pretty striking.

What baffles me is how Rare has survived for so long if this is all it takes for them to close studios.
Rare, up until Sea of Thives, did absolutely jack shit aside from some Kinect things, Right? (possibly forgetting something, I admit) especially when compared to their 90s output.

I know times have changed but that's like nearly two decades of doing nothing and managing to still exist.
The big OGs of Rare left years ago so was it just stubbon pride and the namesake that was keeping it alive?
Good to see they seemed to have turned a leaf recently though.

The Viva Pinata and Kinect games sold very well I believe.

Barely anything is selling in Japan. And all of Tango's games are on PS, so that obviously isn't the reason.

There are things selling in Japan, just not on Xbox.

Oh, please. Every corporation, (yes, including Playstation and Nintendo), all exist solely to increase shareholder value and increase profits YoY. They do not care about anything you care about, they just want you to buy their stuff, and to make money off of you.

Stop the gaslighting and cherry-picking. Micrsoft isn't any worse than any other giant international conglomerate run by a Board of Directors.

The difference in studio closures between Microsoft and Nintendo is pretty big.

Yeah, and how many first-party games has Sony launched so far this calendar year?

5 so far. At least 1 more to come.

The problem is it's selling poorly on Playstation and Switch, and it hasn't made Microsoft any direct sales as it was on Gamepass day one. Andy you'll probably find the amount of people who bought gamepass and Hi-Fi Rush was the first game they downloaded was pretty low, meaning it didn't contribute that much towards new subscribers either

Its not even out on Switch yet, and maybe it never will.

 

[GHG]

Too late to be about the PC version, and 97% user rating shouldn’t end with a closure, and Xbox is dead and Tango can’t be blamed for low sales there and Switch version didn’t even arrive. The timing makes it seem like it’s about the PS version not selling as well as they thought, like it was the last chance, and now they’re just giving up on the studio and IP.

It just appeared on this month's humble monthly where games are negotiated up to 6 months in advance.

That should give you an idea of where they were at with it and how long this decision has been in the making.

 

[Oppoi]

Too late to be about the PC version, and 97% user rating shouldn’t end with a closure, and Xbox is dead and Tango can’t be blamed for low sales there and Switch version didn’t even arrive. The timing makes it seem like it’s about the PS version not selling as well as they thought, like it was the last chance, and now they’re just giving up on the studio and IP.

You're not getting doubts about Game Pass and the future of Xbox are you?

 

[Mr Moose]

Too late to be about the PC version, and 97% user rating shouldn’t end with a closure, and Xbox is dead and Tango can’t be blamed for low sales there and Switch version didn’t even arrive. The timing makes it seem like it’s about the PS version not selling as well as they thought, like it was the last chance, and now they’re just giving up on the studio and IP.

 

[FunkMiller]

I'm still shook over this. MS was really like "People are mad at Sony, let's fix that!"

Sony just likes to fuck up things that are successful.

That never happens on Xbox.

 

[Klayzer]

Wasn't these smaller studios bought just to foster creativity, and keep budgets reasonable?

It's ironic Microsoft fought so hard to acquire Actvision, only to realize the Xbox platform alone cannot keep them profitable.

 

[Null Persp]

 

[Senua]

Games aren't that good though.

Which games?

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Some saying Ninja Theory might be on the chopping block soon?

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Some saying Ninja Theory might be on the chopping block soon?

Right after the PS5 port

 

[Yoboman]

Told you fuckers

 

[Robochobo]

"We are looking to invest in Japan." - Phil Spencer for the last 10 years
"No, not like that." - Presumably, also Phil Spencer

 

[solidus12]

The shills have been exposed

Is Helldivers 2 still coming to Xbox ?

 

[Banjo64]

Lmao - any thicko could see this coming a mile away after the ABK leaks.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The Initiative... how many years since they were formed with absolute zero output so far?

You're missing a few important variables that goes into that equation.

 

[Varteras]

is this real? ... I'm sleppy still

they are fucking themselves hentai style.

Just woke up. Bruh. Were we or were we not just talking about them closing, consolidating, and focusing on big franchises?

 

[THE DUCK]

And again ignoring MS getting a "free pass" with Arkane Austin and the other two closed. People are pissed about Tango.

So people are pissed about Tango, but wouldn't ms have kept the around if they made money for them?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Just woke up. Bruh. Were we or were we not just talking about them closing, consolidating, and focusing on big franchises?

exaclty

 

[Topher]

Seriously. Going to watch him next month and I'll be thinking "I can't trust a word this man says".

Time for Phil Spencer to go. Period.

 

[Mr Moose]

So people are pissed about Tango, but wouldn't ms have kept the around if they made money for them?

Lets ask Greenberg.

 

[graywolf323]

 

[LordCBH]

Weird looking game guide

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Some saying Ninja Theory might be on the chopping block soon?

They are Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Which games?

The games that connect with the topic.

 

[feynoob]

Lets ask Greenberg.

I wish I had a job like that. Do nothing and get paid alot of money.

 

[SirTerry-T]

What the fuck you doing Microsoft.
FFS.

 

[THE DUCK]

Lets ask Greenberg.

PR vs rubber hitting the road. Obviously it didn't make what they had hoped.