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Sarah Bond talks Xbox Closing Down Studios

Copy/paste from the other thread:



That is absolutely embarrassing. "Let me answer your questions by answering none of your questions by speaking as ambiguously as possible"





Question: Why did you close Tango?


Answer:

"You know, one of the things I really love about the games industry is it's a creative art form, and it means that the situation and what success is for each game and studio is also really unique, there is no one size fits all to it, for us, umm, and so, we look at each studio and each game team and we look at a whole variety of factors when we're faced with sorta making decisions and tradeoffs like that, uhhh, but it all comes back to our long term commitment to the games we create, the devices we build, the services, and insuring that we're setting ourselves up to to be able to deliver on those promises. " - Sarah Bond, President of XBOX.


Not really sure what to think of the current state of XBOX, but it's very contradictory of the leadership team to spout all the pro-gamer stuff that they have been, proclaim things to be great successes, but then turn around and DOOK all over it. XBOX is cooked.

They could at least divest in the studios/IP. We're well on our way to getting nothing but COD, and other live services games from XBOX. Sarah literally was grasping for words in her response, because she herself knows that there is absolutely no defense or valid reason as to why they closed Tango, or Arkane, especially with the leaderships promise of supporting AA games, and even Redfall post launch. Consolidation FTW.
 
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Elbereth

Member
Minnesota Vikings Football GIF
 

AmuroChan

Member
Not really sure what to think of the current state of XBOX, but it's very contradictory of the leadership team to spout all the pro-gamer stuff that they have been, proclaim things to be great successes, but then turn around and DOOK all over it. XBOX is cooked.

Because it's all bullshit. Corporations are pro-profits first and foremost. Sometimes being pro-customer will align with that goal and corporations will play along until those two paths diverge again, at which point the corporations go back to being just pro-profits and the customers can go F themselves.
 

feynoob

Member
This is my response to the situation.
I wanted to take a moment to address the recent decision regarding the closure of Tango. We understand that this news may come as a surprise and we want to provide clarity on the rationale behind this decision.

At Xbox, we are deeply committed to fostering creativity and innovation within the games industry. We recognize that each studio and game team is unique, and as such, we carefully evaluate various factors when making strategic decisions.

The decision to close Tango was not taken lightly. It was made with the long-term vision of ensuring that we can deliver on our promises to our players, creators, and community. While this decision may be difficult, it is a necessary step in aligning our resources and efforts to best serve our audience.

We are immensely proud of the work that the Tango team has contributed over the years. Their dedication and passion have been instrumental in shaping the gaming landscape. We are grateful for their contributions and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Moving forward, we remain steadfast in our commitment to delivering exceptional gaming experiences across our platforms. We will continue to invest in talent, technology, and content to push the boundaries of what is possible in gaming.

Thank you for your continued support and understanding.
 

reinking

Gold Member
Nailed it.

Gold star on the use of Philisms to avoid answering the question. ⭐

Fail for the fluttering eye lid thing. Sarah has a tell.
 
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Astray

Member
She's smart enough to be nervous, but she is just literally not saying anything. Gotta do better to get to even 30% of Phil's PR ability. Gotta just say more shit directly. The BS doesnt work, especially now. Compare this to the Phil Redfall interview. She's not got it yet, at all.
The Phil Redfall interview was basically him having a nervous breakdown on air, that interview was disasterous imo and contributed to the Xbox brand damage imo.
 
This looks like more evidence that Nadella and the board are at odds with Xbox management. Coming off Spencer's depressing statements in the past year, this is more corporate "not really sure what to tell you, this wasn't my call" without actually saying that and being ran out of town. This entire PR campaign sounds disorganized and low-effort, I don't accept it as simple incompetence.
 

Astray

Member
I liked it. Thats meeting the moment and understanding the type of communication needed. People wanted answers.
I get that you want more transparency (it was certainly more entertaining than whatever Sarah Bond said), but he let slip a lot of things that made Microsoft look worse, not better.

- He went on a tirade about Starfield not helping them even if it was 11/10.
- He told us that internal reviews had Redfall scoring higher by double digits (meaning their QA and oversight was basically confirmed to be bad, rather than it remaining speculated on).

Phil is not someone who's uncharismatic, but I still think he went into that interview in a very hot-headed state and made things worse.
 

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
Gone back to look at the leadership reorg from last year.
  • Phil is CEO, okay. Fine.
  • Sara is President of Xbox. When it was announced, her responsibilities were defined as "Sarah Bond will lead this team as President of Xbox — bringing together Devices, Player & Creator Experiences, Platform Engineering, Strategy, Business Planning, Data & Analytics and Business Development."
    • So what the fuck does Phil do again?
  • Also, It should be Matt Booty, who got promoted to "President of Game Content and Studios, with new oversight for ZeniMax and Bethesda." out there putting on a dumb face and regurgitating rehearsed PR bullshit to simple questions.
This is a woman set up to be the fall guy.

Girl wanted to play in the big league, there you have it.
Yeah. You're right. She accepted the job knowing she would have to one day do this.

I know I'm going to get absolutely fucking roasted here for this but, this seems like a textbook example of this phenomenon
 

Daneel Elijah

Gold Member
I liked it. Thats meeting the moment and understanding the type of communication needed. People wanted answers.
Phil got help from the people that had been asking him questions. He was there for making his mea culpa and found himself in what I would say was a AA reunion, and was met with so much love and understanding that he had to force his excuses out of nowhere.
Here we are in public, and by a generalist media who don't really care about that. So there is no help, no desire to understand. Just basic questions: what happened? Why? Why tango in particular?
Phil would have probably been better. But his position would have made the questions even harder to answer, because unlike Sarah he can't say bullshit and have the newbie protection if you see what I mean by that.
 
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