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

Kacho

Gold Member
Hank Hill Lol GIF
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
That whole wing of ex-Capcom is cursed. Clover, Tango, Platinum is struggling. Cursed.
Thanks for the free depression lol. We are living in the worst timeline imaginable. :goog_relieved:

Just to reflect a bit, Colantonio was in Arkane Lyon.
Directing games as he used to? Or was he in some, more comfortable position?

I struggle to believe the dude who directed Arx Fatalis was in charge of Redfall or had any meaningful contribution there.
 

Woopah

Member
A large part of the industry seems unhealthy right now. The theme of the year is "survive 2024" but looks like several studios will not.

So Microsoft has bought two whole publishers, and this year they laid off 1,900 at one of them and is now laying off 100s more at the other.
 
I am genuinely moved by the passionate concern some of you are displaying for Xbox Game Studios. Truly moving. But we an hardly call this a surprise:

Arkane Austin - Mismanaged to hell and back, RedFall took 5+ years to make and ended up the way it did. Hardly a surprise.

Tango Softworks - The writing was on the wall after Shinji Mikami left, years after he actually wanted to leave, but stayed on for another five years. Their IP and probably some devs will remain with Bethesda.

Alpha Dog Studios - Yes, you'd never heard of them before either.

I hope the people who have been let go find new work soon, as I hope all of the concerned posters here find solace in typing "fuck Microsoft" :messenger_heart:🐤

And with Helldivers 2 back to back to 70% this just isn't a good week for you
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Shutting down Tango is some real bullshit. That was a quality studio that made good games. Not surprised about the redfall studio.
Yeah, this freaking sucks. They made a great game and were clearly a talented and productive group of folks. It’s freaking g ridiculous that MS shit them down.
 

Killjoy-NL

Gold Member
Nah, can't be worse than needed a PSN account on PC.
Wouldn't it be funny if the whole PSN account debacle was instigated to lessen the impact of this news?

I mean, it's not like MS didn't do something similar with the whole "12Tflops vs 9Tflops" drama.
 
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Nvzman

Member
I am waiting for this industry to burn to the ground, so we can start anew.

This is all so fucking dumb.
I honestly think at this point, this is becoming the best case scenario so we can finally stop with this GaaS , 8-year dev time, hyper sanitized, overly bloated AAA crap.
Microsoft is beyond dumb with their gaming division at this point, they'd probably see better returns with the style of management they are heading towards just selling Xbox off entirely before they torpedo the brand's value to nothing even faster.
 

lefty1117

Gold Member
It's not surprising, you make a huge acquisition like that you're gonna cut some stuff. It's a shame that some good stuff is getting cut in the process though. This industry is in a tough place right now. I blame shareholders for everything :)
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Most PS gamers don't give a fuck about Xbox games, so chances are high that this was the case.

Sea of Thieves will also likely sell somewhat decently at first and then it'll lose momentum rather quickly for the same reason.
I give MS all the blame for this shit decision. But I think it's broader than just "Xbox" games. Ghostwire was another one of the PS5 timed releases that bombed. Almost all of them have underperformed in one way or another. PS gamers didn't miss a single Tango release, just had to wait 1 year for Hi-Fi and apparently didn't buy it.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
What a fucking disgrace Xbox is.

- spend tens of billions to buy up half the gaming industry

- still have a sparse + disappointing lineup of first party games

- go third-party

- layoffs and studio closures, including the relatively small team behind one of the best games of this generation

- probably give up on the console market altogether pretty soon
 

Zheph

Member
Thanks for the free depression lol. We are living in the worst timeline imaginable. :goog_relieved:


Directing games as he used to? Or was he in some, more comfortable position?

I struggle to believe the dude who directed Arx Fatalis was in charge of Redfall or had any meaningful contribution there.
I mean there are two Arkane and Colantino was working for Arkane Lyon.
Arkane Austin is responsible for the mess that is Redfall.
 

graywolf323

Member
Arkane sucks, they have talent just got stuck on a game that didn’t fit the studio

Tango however is just fucking ridiculous, they put out possibly the best first party game Microsoft has had this gen and they’ve been a quality studio forever
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
See how you've stated an opinion, but not actually illustrated it.

Is shutting down 343 a bad decision? What would you say if the next Halo is a failure and a large percentage of the revenue has to go to Epic because it has used UE? Let's say you drop 150-200 million dollars on the game and it sells. You're going to pay 5% royalty to Epic, and then you're going to pay 20-25% royalties to Valve for Steam sales. Then you're going to eat the rest on GamePass. It's a pretty disastrous situation and the only possibility that they come out on top is that they create a better game than they have ever paid before while the Halo franchise is at the lowest its ever been before. Yeah, again, I'd close the studio rather than go down that path. I would give Halo to Infinity Ward or id Software instead.

Rare has largely been mismanaged under Microsoft. They have on success with Sea of Thieves in the last 20 years under Microsoft. Having them explore Crash Bandicoot and Spyro gives those IP a chance to live as well as gives Rare an opportunity to shine on other IP.

Again, what other IP does Microsoft have? Nothing that moves the needle.

Arkane just released a game that has a 56 on metacritic. It's going to be very difficult for that studio to come back from that. They have no more good will left over. The user reviews for what they're worth are even worse.

What is Tango without Shinji Mikami... again you're going to see a talent exodus and there's little you can do about it.


How about you try to actually counter an argument rather than the lazy shit response you gave.

- Oct 27, 2023
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Sad for all who've lost their jobs.

Sad that one bad game closes a studio

Definitely the case - doesn't even have to be a bad game though, can be an underperforming one. I know of someone who worked for a big developer who put out two decent games in a row, they didn't sell well and the publisher shut the studio. I guess it's a fairly similar situation to now, only with development times being twice as long now, studios only get one game before the plug is pulled.
 

xHunter

Member
I am genuinely moved by the passionate concern some of you are displaying for Xbox Game Studios. Truly moving. But we an hardly call this a surprise:

Arkane Austin - Mismanaged to hell and back, RedFall took 5+ years to make and ended up the way it did. Hardly a surprise.

Tango Softworks - The writing was on the wall after Shinji Mikami left, years after he actually wanted to leave, but stayed on for another five years. Their IP and probably some devs will remain with Bethesda.

Alpha Dog Studios - Yes, you'd never heard of them before either.

I hope the people who have been let go find new work soon, as I hope all of the concerned posters here find solace in typing "fuck Microsoft" :messenger_heart:🐤
Tough day at the campus, huh?
 
And didn't Microsoft bullcrap there way through court and ftc that they be safe and there be no job losses or closers? Just shows money speaks bullsh** walks
 

acidagfc

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

“No one is buying games”.

Sony & Nintendo: “hold our Yen”.

Problem is, the industry tries to gobble every single studio just to shut it down later, when unreasonable quotas aren't met.

Eh, whatever, I hope the developers will be able to form new studios (before being bought and shutdown again in another 5-10 years).
 
Why even buy the company in the first place?
They want to release more AAA games and in order to do that they need more resources/devs working on the bigger projects. It actually makes sense.

For example, they have a huge hit with the Fallout TV show. A new Fallout game should have been released with the show.

They need more games that will move things for them because Starfield bombed and they don’t have anything else expect maybe Gears 6 now.
 
Microsoft obviously trying to win the hearts of their fans... I have no idea what the fuck they are thinking anymore. HiFi Rush not being a success was all their fault, they should have marketed the game better. Stealth dropping games is not a great idea.
 
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