Microsoft axes four game studios including Hi-Fi Rush developer

Microsoft axes four game studios including Hi-Fi Rush developer
AdrianH

AdrianH

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Microsoft is shutting four studios, including Tango Gameworks, the developers of Bafta award-winning Hi-Fi Rush.

The Tokyo studio is being closed alongside Texas-based Arkane Austin and Canadian developer Alpha Dog Studios.

Wisconsin-based Roundhouse Games will be absorbed into Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios.

Microsoft has not said how many jobs will be cut as a result of the closures, which are all being made at subsidiary Bethesda - which the tech giant bought for $7.5bn (then £5.85bn) in 2020.

"I just want to say that I love all the people at Arkane Austin so much," said studio head Harvey Smith in a post on X, external.

"Great times, hard times, we went through so much, together."

Head of Xbox Games Studios Matt Booty announced the news in an email to staff, seen by the BBC.

He said the move meant it was ending development on Arkane Austin game Redfall, with "some members of the team" joining other studios.

The company plans to “provide make-good offers” to players who had pre-ordered downloadable content for the game that will now never see the light of day.

“These changes are grounded in prioritising high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades,” he wrote.

He said there would also be "a small number of roles" cut across Bethesda's publishing and corporate teams.


www.bbc.co.uk

Microsoft axes four game studios including Hi-Fi Rush developer

The Bafta award-winning game's developer is being closed alongside other studios owned by Bethesda.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
I hope MS knows what they're doing. I've heard more about them firing people and closing studios this year than I've heard about upcoming games.

Need some Fable, Gears 6 and Forza Horizon 6 to kick some life into Xbox again.
 
Tango Gameworks is a shock, Hi-Fi Rush and Tokyo Ghostwire were great.

But did the studio head not leave after Hi-Fi Rush?

But there have been many people losing their jobs in the gaming industry the last couple of months.

Hopefully they get sorted soon.
 
One rumour that did the rounds was that Arkane deliberately made Redfall crap because they didn't like the direction MS wanted to take the game, and therefore they didn't want to work on it. So this could be a message MS wants to send to studios who believe their (employees) wants and needs trumps the MS's (employer).

As for Tango, that is a surprise as their games were decent enough. But at the end of the day, its a business and if its not making profit, then it gets shut down, just like most businesses would. For some reason gamers seem to have this belief that game studios are exempt from this and should be allowed to do whatever they want, at somebody else's expense.

Also, layoffs over the last 12 months have been high since the over hiring that happened during and after covid, so cutbacks have become necessary.
 
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Nyt Ryda said:
I hope MS knows what they're doing.
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They don’t. Phil is on his last legs.

I get that studios shut down and times are hard with margins super low and cost ballooning but they’ve just put out bad news after bad news.

Hi-Fi Rush could not possibly have been a failure.

Rumors going around that they will publish all their first party games on PS and basically kill off dedicated hardware. Maybe they will still do the handheld or something, I don’t know.
 
MarioAna said:
Hi-Fi Rush could not possibly have been a failure.
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The issue is always money in the end. How much money did the studio make as opposed to how much it cost to keep studio running and developing games. Tango's last two games namely Ghostwire Tokyo and HiFi Rush were decent enough games, but if they weren't on Game Pass, its unlikely I would have bought them and played them. I doubt they made Microsoft much money at the end of the day.

I suspect Microsoft only really wanted the big IP AAA from Zenimax like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Quake, Starfield, etc. The other smaller studios belonging to Zenimax that came along with the acquisition were allowed (and it showed) to finish what they were working on and probably based on the success of those games, decisions would (have) be made of the future of the studios. Microsoft are ruthless, we all know that, they have no issue making decisions that some don't understand or agree with, yet they remain on top .


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