Headlines for May 9th, 2024 | Show Rundown

We’re doing something new! Every day after Headlines airs I’ll give a text-based rundown of the show with links to each of our sources used. For those who prefer to read and to give thanks to all the hard work people around the industry are doing. Here are the video game headlines for May 9th, 2024.

• Schreier & Warren put out Xbox reports More Jason Context
• Fallout 4 makes top 6 in MAUs on Xbox for April
• AC Red Gameplay in June / AC Infinity may have a subscription as part of it
• Xbox PC app compact mode gets update
• Activision owes 23.4 million after losing lawsuit for patent infringement
• Nintendo Confirms It Will Announce Switch Successor Console ‘Within This Fiscal Year’ / NINTENDO SAYS NEW SWITCH CONSOLE ISN’T A BRAND NEW PLATFORM
• Marvels Rivals Roster datamined from closed alpha
• Destiny 2 makes all expansions free until June 3rd

It was another day dominated by discussion over Xbox’s decision to close four of Bethesda’s studios. The biggest news of the day was an article by Jason Schreier of Bloomberg who revealed new details on Xbox studio shutdowns

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.

Those are the Headlines for May 9th. What do you think of Xbox’s drastic move? Cutting beloved studios for short-term gains never feels like the smart play, agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments below.