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

reinking

Gold Member
Some of his Tweets really come across as being oblivious like the one of poor Phil's feelings after a bunch of people just got fired.

Phil makes an 8 figure salary and that was a few years ago so fuck Phils feelings when people are out of a job
...and Phil probably had a role in the decisions that led to the layoffs. I understand that people can still sympathize even if they had a role in it but nobody should be feeling bad for Phil's hurt feelings.
 
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Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist


I love Sarah´s answers she is such a green queen. 💚

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fallingdove

Member
Okay fine but she’s been the head of Xbox since October, half a year. I just have trouble thinking that she’s already calling the shots on big stuff like this, unless she was put in that position just to literally clean out all the things not raking in enough money.
Personally I think it’s either Phil or Matt Booty, or as I said Satya with a blow torch and an ultimatum to do something or close it all down.

Hope we aren't seeing Xbox fans try and prop up Sarah Bond in the aftermath of Phils complete and utter failures. Sarah had/has a hand in all of this. No way in hell is someone like Satya owning a decision like this one. I guarantee that it went down like:

SATYA: “We aren't making enough money back on our Xbox investments. The board needs to see some strategic movement.”

PHIL: “We can close some studios, keep the most talented individuals and fire the rest.

SARAH: “Arkane Austin failed to deliver and in spite of critical acclaim we haven't seen profit from Tango. Let's start there.”
 

Edmund

is waiting for Starfield 7
"Competition" is just another buzzword that Xbox fans throw around, kind of like "hardcore" and "casual" back in the 360 days.

You know the funny thing about this fake concern regarding Sony dominating gaming industry somehow doesn't apply to Nintendo at all.

No one bats an eyelid when Nintendo games don't drop in price. They all go "oh Nintendo games don't ever drop in price so I'll have to get it day one".


The fact that people are trained to buy Nintendo games day one at full price shows they already don't have any competition in the handheld space. But everyone's gotta be concerned when evil and arrogant Sony dominates.


Where is this same concern and energy when it comes to Nintendo who is already without competition in the handheld gaming space??



Another thing that pisses me off is whenever Xbox performs like shit, the journalists will go oh no gaming industry is declining.

Ffs. It's Xbox that's declining. Both Sony and Nintendo are thriving!
 
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Astray

Member
Kind of on topic


Is he auditioning for the job lol?

He fucked up with the Phil feelings tweet, but he's %100 saying the right thing here. Xbox needs to pick a lane, carry the risk and not be afraid of losing one subset of people to gain another.

You want to take it all exclusive and win the Klobrille console image edits war? Go for it.

You want to be Activision Blizzard Bethesda EA and win that battle? Be my guest.

Just. Pick. One.
 
You know the funny thing about this fake concern regarding Sony dominating gaming industry somehow doesn't apply to Nintendo at all.

No one bats an eyelid when Nintendo games don't drop in price. They all go "oh Nintendo games don't ever drop in price so I'll have to get it day one".


Somehow there's never any concern when Nintendo is dominating handheld gaming without any competition.

The fact that people are trained to buy Nintendo games day one at full price shows they already don't have any competition in the handheld space. But everyone's gotta be concerned when evil and arrogant Sony dominates.


Another thing that pisses me off is whenever Xbox performs like shit, the journalists will go oh no gaming industry is declining.

Ffs. It's Xbox that's declining. Both Sony and Nintendo are thriving!
Well said.
 
Imagine actually trying to gaslight people into feeling sorry for poor Microsoft, the $3 trillion market cap company
i aint trying to gaslight shit. At no point did i even say to feel bad for Microsoft.
This literal thread is about how its bad that Xbox has shut down these studios and some of the outrage about the mismanagement of people working there.
And whats your comment to this? that you cant wait for Xbox to go the way of the windows phone? What do you think that means for the employees that work there?
The only thing being gaslighted here, is you thinking you've made some morally superior point.
 

Fess

Member
I've thought about this myself. It's LOOKS like they are trying to preserve phil's legacy as fans will be back on his nuts a couple weeks after anything bad happens. This is only a test of their faith. We'll have to see down the road if the narrative is she and matrick killed xbox, while phil did everything right in between.

Not trying to kick a hornet's nest here, but there is vehement disagreement about who was at fault for sega's exit. So history isn't settled there 20 years hence. This could be the same.
It’s obviously Phil’s fault, nobody who keep track of things is going to say otherwise. Multiplat games were talked about under his time as head of Xbox, he’s the one who said games would be better or first on Xbox for Bethesda games, he’s the one who has focused on Gamepass and trained us all to not buy games (I’ve bought 1 game during this gen, BG3), and as said I doubt that Sarah came in in October and decided to close Tango.

But right now it seems like they’re trying to direct the heat at Sarah. Sorry in advance here, I’m not from the US so just don’t know how heated it all is. But they could attempt to lower the media negativity by having a woman there, and a black person. Don’t know if that’s how it works but I’m thinking it would he easier for media to downright hate on Phil than Sarah. Sometimes it’s all politics.
 

Fess

Member
Hope we aren't seeing Xbox fans try and prop up Sarah Bond in the aftermath of Phils complete and utter failures. Sarah had/has a hand in all of this. No way in hell is someone like Satya owning a decision like this one. I guarantee that it went down like:

SATYA: “We aren't making enough money back on our Xbox investments. The board needs to see some strategic movement.”

PHIL: “We can close some studios, keep the most talented individuals and fire the rest.

SARAH: “Arkane Austin failed to deliver and in spite of critical acclaim we haven't seen profit from Tango. Let's start there.”
If you’ve seen my previous post over the years I don’t think Sarah is a good person for that position. So not defending that. To me she’s a PR person, should have Greenberg’s job, it’s all fake smiles and fake enthusiasm and pointless social media posts to increase engagement. Tbh I doubt she’s a gamer at all. In this interview that all smiles facade is gone, good for her I guess, faking takes energy, but she’s not doing well answering the questions and she looks very uncomfortable.

Your example is not bad though, and I guess it’s theoretically possible that she could take these decisions from a non-gamer perspective who just don’t understand the community at all. But she’s had the job for half a year, I’m thinking she has consulted other people and I rather blame Spencer or Booty for pulling the strings here while conveniently dodging the heat.
 

FunkMiller

Member
SATYA: “We aren't making enough money back on our Xbox investments. The board needs to see some strategic movement.”

PHIL: “We can close some studios, keep the most talented individuals and fire the rest.

SARAH: “Arkane Austin failed to deliver and in spite of critical acclaim we haven't seen profit from Tango. Let's start there.”

I’s say that’s pretty damned close to what happened.

Bond isn’t a diversity hire, and Phil isn’t a good guy gamer.

People need to stop trying to remove the agency of the people in Xbox for these decisions.

You dick rode the wrong people/company. Time to own that.
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
In robot lady’s interview she said that they are going to bring more options in to access cloud gaming.

It’s long overdue. Makes no sense that if I want to access cloud games on mobile I have to pay £13 a month.

I wouldn’t subscribe regardless, but a £4.99 a month tier just for access to xCloud on 1 device would probably do very well.
 
I called this years ago. Look at what Microsoft did to Nokia and you'll understand what's happening with all these acquisitions: they have a track record of buying high performing companies, mismanaging them to an extent that seems almost purposeful, and then shutting them down.
 

Shut0wen

Banned
I’s say that’s pretty damned close to what happened.

Bond isn’t a diversity hire, and Phil isn’t a good guy gamer.

People need to stop trying to remove the agency of the people in Xbox for these decisions.

You dick rode the wrong people/company. Time to own that.
Its literally business though, i mean sony got rid of a majority of there first party vr developers, xbox has closed down arkane because anyone good at the studio has left and those that stayed cant even make an online game, while i have no idea why tango was closed while understaffed is probably the reason im guessing hiring and running a business in Tokyo isnt cheap, why is it ok for one publisher to close down a studio while the other gets a pass becaus eots vr lmao
 

FunkMiller

Member
Its literally business though, i mean sony got rid of a majority of there first party vr developers, xbox has closed down arkane because anyone good at the studio has left and those that stayed cant even make an online game, while i have no idea why tango was closed while understaffed is probably the reason im guessing hiring and running a business in Tokyo isnt cheap, why is it ok for one publisher to close down a studio while the other gets a pass becaus eots vr lmao

There was no good reason to shut down either developer, given how colossal Microsoft's profits are. If MS gave a shit about gaming, they would have funded both for future projects. Arkane could have gone back to immersive sims, and Tango could have gone for HiFi Rush Two, or Evil Within 3, or both could have gone on to new IP.

This 'it's literally just business' isn't a good excuse, because they are not engaging in good business. You invest in your staff to produce products that sell to an audience.

Microsoft are currently engaged in incredibly stupid, bad business.
 

Klayzer

Member
There was no good reason to shut down either developer, given how colossal Microsoft's profits are. If MS gave a shit about gaming, they would have funded both for future projects. Arkane could have gone back to immersive sims, and Tango could have gone for HiFi Rush Two, or Evil Within 3, or both could have gone on to new IP.

This 'it's literally just business' isn't a good excuse, because they are not engaging in good business. You invest in your staff to produce products that sell to an audience.

Microsoft are currently engaged in incredibly stupid, bad business.
Lack of vision, as always with Microsoft.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Is he auditioning for the job lol?

He fucked up with the Phil feelings tweet, but he's %100 saying the right thing here. Xbox needs to pick a lane, carry the risk and not be afraid of losing one subset of people to gain another.

You want to take it all exclusive and win the Klobrille console image edits war? Go for it.

You want to be Activision Blizzard Bethesda EA and win that battle? Be my guest.

Just. Pick. One.
Im glad he's not in charge. Guy is suggesting sub exclusives. No thanks.
 

Shut0wen

Banned
There was no good reason to shut down either developer, given how colossal Microsoft's profits are. If MS gave a shit about gaming, they would have funded both for future projects. Arkane could have gone back to immersive sims, and Tango could have gone for HiFi Rush Two, or Evil Within 3, or both could have gone on to new IP.

This 'it's literally just business' isn't a good excuse, because they are not engaging in good business. You invest in your staff to produce products that sell to an audience.

Microsoft are currently engaged in incredibly stupid, bad business.
Ms isnt a charity though, 90% of staff that made good arkane games left because they didnt want to work on redfall, im sorry but arkane died after prey, the team thats there now is the equivalent as the same team that made mass effect andromeda so nothing of value was lost though i agree with tango, rather bizarre, probably due to budget constraints or alot of members of staff left and wasnt worth hiring people but just because MS has money doesnt mean there brands have a money tree, look what sony did to there shitty game divisions, made them work on psvita and then work on vr games and shut 90% of there first party vr developers a year after psvr2, times a tough for everyone, even corporations with money trees
 

GHG

Member
Man just said he liked Xbox but despises MS. I have a soft spot for Gaz.

He started speaking the truth long before the rest of them did. While they were all still flapping around aimlessly in denial, he saw the writing on the wall and just said what needed to be said.

The guy isn't stupid, but he plays down to his audience when necessary.
 
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