Article has been updated with a clarifying tweet from Jason Schreier
Jason Schreier and Dana Bass have just released a news story on the recent Xbox studio shutdowns. You can find their article HERE
Mr. Schreier has put out tweets to clarify the studio closures:
Famed reporter Jason Schreier and Dana Bass have worked together to dig into the details of what is going on at Xbox after the company shut down four of its Bethesda studios. The reasons give as to why Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Studios, Arkane Austin, and Roundhouse were shuttered are:
- Executives felt stretched too thin trying to manage every team
- The studios had just released games and needed to staff up to be able to start work on new ones
- More cuts will occur at an individual level with staff offered severance packages within Bethesda proper.
On the last point Bloomberg stated: “This week, Xbox began offering voluntary severance agreements to producers, quality assurance testers and other staff at ZeniMax,“.
As far as studio shutdowns go “Booty said that the company’s studios had been spread too thin — like “peanut butter on bread” — and that leaders across the division had felt understaffed. They decided to close these studios to free up resources elsewhere, he said.“
Mr. Booty added that Redfall’s failures were not the reason as to why the studio was shut down. It was intimated that with Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog all just having put games out that it was tied to timing more than results. Tango had just put out the critically acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire: Tokyo titles. Arkane Austin put out the aforementioned Redfall, and Alpha Dog had released Mighty Doom. Roundhouse had been working as a support studio and will be absorbed into Zenimax Online to work on their projects instead of being closed.
There is a lot more information in the article proper so I highly suggest going HERE and giving it a read while the token is active. How does this new information make you feel? Sound off in the comments below about these Xbox studio shutdowns and let us know.
https://x.com/jasonschreier/status/1787835350745842153
https://x.com/jasonschreier/status/1787836112460820692
Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda - IGN
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:
Try gaming industry in general.
Corporate consolidation is fucking terrible and the more you people cheer on and wish list and fantasize who gets consumed by the corporate maw, the more this medium continues to denigrate into a meaningless product
I am incensed. I have very close friends at Arkane Austin.
Try Microsoft leadership has evidently took full control and is cutting costs whenever… even the studio which made their highest rated IP of this generation wasn’t safe.
That’s gaming in general. It’s not exclusive to anyone. That’s the real tragedy.
why not build and iterate on tango gameworks, the company that brought you .one of your best received titles in a long time
why not keep AAustin to assist with the development of the fucking MArvel game that’s being worked on in Lyon
I don’t understand
This is disgusting and embarrassing, my faith in the brand has never been so low as it has this year. Just one fuck up after the other. It’s so exhausting being an Xbox fan, we can never get good news in a vacuum, it always has to be tied to something negative immediately before or after it like witht he Januray showcase followed by the multiplat news. How embarrassing of them to sully the brand by porting an Xbox exclusive like Hi-Fi Rush to Playstation for extra sales, only to then shutter the studio a few months later anyways when it wasn’t enough.
From a pure business perspective, I understand this decision. Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks haven’t produced a commercially successful game in years.
What I don’t understand is Xbox and Phil himself have been banging the drum about improving growth in Japan and creating relationships with Japanese game developers. You literally have one in Tango Gameworks.
With the focus on sales, it was predictable that Microsoft would close some studios. This should increase in the future with XGS studies. Previously, Game Pass was the focus and objective of a lot of content. Now it’s clear that Microsoft is a sales-oriented publisher. Bethesda suffered a lot from game sales before Microsoft purchased it. My bet is on Microsoft becoming a publisher focused only on large IPs. Unfortunately, the direction Microsoft has been taking. The purchase of ABK was the worst thing that could happen to the Xbox.
https://twitter.com/aarongreenberg/status/1649431572137779203?t=--iBkeYJmqdxwe-NhDjyBg&s=19