Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More

[DriedMangoes]

Other internal studios are probably more sadden by what happened. What I find strange is if they tried to spinoff tango instead? They could probably all just stay together, maybe join Shinji ar his new studio. But he said he left cos he wanted the younger talent to have more say and do their own thing, he was confident in them, or so I assume.

As for the second try e same thing could be said for any studio. Sony probably got rid of their most creatively talented developer with Japan studio, they took more creative risk, big and small. Then you have insomniac, letting go of a bunch of their devs and losing a lot financially in vestments that have yet to pay off and cancelation of their games like Spider-Man. I get that they spent more than some of their Spider-Man movies on marvels Spider-Man 2, but that was an investment on almoat every front wits their future marvel games….which luckily some of said tech will show up in their future marvel mp games.

Something had to be in the red for them to do such a thing. Rare had been given a huge amount of slack with sea of thieves. Players were mouthing of that they were being forced into certain games, but they’ve said time and again it was stuff they went to Xbox for the approval cos it’s what they wanted to do. When Xbox bought them most of their founding and key devs left. Now they’re working on indie games as contractors or at platonic games, which they’ve only made two games since its foundation in 2013.

Right now none of know what’s really went happened behind closed doors or conference calls. I’m sure some devs in the highest positions knew. Cos many don’t seem to be shocked. It’s strange, I saw one dev pissed, but they haven’t been working for one of said dev teams for a good while, but they’re entitled to express themselves like anyone else. Context would help tho

Saddened , uneasy, worried seems to be right. I know I would be same as with many layoffs period. I guess the best they can do is stay focused on working on their next project but this is a pretty big change for those affected. We will see how it goes.

 

[DriedMangoes]

Many hardcore Xbox ambassadors are voicing out displeasures across the board, people are waking up to the harsh reality

 

[karmakid]

Why do we care what an abusive former boss has to say? lol. I'm sure Phil isn't happy about having to do it, nobody with a heart would be but a lot of the issues that xbox has faced over the last gen and a half have been over decisions Phil made.

Not to sound like I’m just here to defend Phil, but he is one to be held accountable for, but it’s only been until recently that he’s gotten the power to present his decisions to the ceo of ms directly. He had to get the approval bey a handful of other people above him to even present it to said ceo, even though there’s maybe the three others above him still that call the shots cos they’re ms not Xbox.

 

[Nervusbreakdown]

Many hardcore Xbox ambassadors are voicing out displeasures across the board, people are waking up to the harsh reality

Please, those developers didn't really set the world on fire. I just see Microsoft cutting the fat. Some lost their jobs and some was merge to another studio.

 

[Kerosene31]

It is long past time to think of gaming companies as "cool" companies that make games. These a massive corporations not just looking to make money, but looking for massive growth. This is why our economy is so out of whack and it goes way beyond gaming.

Corporations don't want to just make money anymore, they want explosive growth every quarter. MS gaming made lots of money, but that isn't enough. They demand that there's huge growth.

If you listen to financial news, they will report the "bad" news of a company that was expected to have profits grow at 30% only hit 20% growth. People get fired over stuff like that.

Video games are worse because there have been a few massive successes that everyone has tried to get in on and mostly failed. Everyone wants to make the next hot game so they can sell $25+ skins to everyone and make billions of dollars. Of course, you have to first make a game that captures gamers.

Once gaming started to make real money in recent years, it attracted all the wrong people. They need to realize that video games are not the market they can just throw money at and make tons more easily. It is volatile and big games can easily flame out.

Video games are turning into what happened with movies/TV/streaming. Everything becomes a cookie cutter formula with zero innovation and just recycling the same proven concepts. Then they ask, "why can't Netflix add tons of subscribers every month?". The answer is simple - there's not enough good content to justify it.

They just expect these things to infinitely grow and print money.

 

[Grimmy]

Again MS manages to garner attention for the wrong thing. We're up to how many pages about this? While there's a thread specifically there where a post about a studio closing down gets 2 sad emotes.

No one knows diddly about how these things transpired, yet here everyone is acting like they know.

It's sad for the people that are out of a job. Fact.

What do people think they were doing crapping on MS when a new title got released and other business decisions? When you sour on MS, you're including every studio underneath them.

 

[timmy-boy]

Hmmm...

Playstation lay off 900 people including Insomniac staff - Cause restructuring.
Days Gone sells 10 million - Cancelled.
London and Japan studio - Closed.
Playstation will release almost nothing for 2 years - Because money.
Sony's MAUs drop - Despite being supposedly so dominate.

Square Enix sell several studios - Cause restructuring.
Square support for more platforms increasing - Because Playstation only now results in failure.


Come on people. Stop the nonsense. The industry outside of Xbox are doing the same things for the same reasons.

You're not entirely on those Menace. Majority of the lays off at Sony were due to GAAS being cancelled. Days Gone did not sell 10m and the majority of the sales were when it was like $20 (buy your games at full price or expect stuff to be cancelled or closed). Playstation studios last release was Spider-man 2 in October 2023 if you want to be pedantic but Helldivers 2 was funded by Sony and they own the IP. If you even want to ignore that Concord will release later this year.

 

[timmy-boy]

It is long past time to think of gaming companies as "cool" companies that make games. These a massive corporations not just looking to make money, but looking for massive growth. This is why our economy is so out of whack and it goes way beyond gaming.

Corporations don't want to just make money anymore, they want explosive growth every quarter. MS gaming made lots of money, but that isn't enough. They demand that there's huge growth.

If you listen to financial news, they will report the "bad" news of a company that was expected to have profits grow at 30% only hit 20% growth. People get fired over stuff like that.

Video games are worse because there have been a few massive successes that everyone has tried to get in on and mostly failed. Everyone wants to make the next hot game so they can sell $25+ skins to everyone and make billions of dollars. Of course, you have to first make a game that captures gamers.

Once gaming started to make real money in recent years, it attracted all the wrong people. They need to realize that video games are not the market they can just throw money at and make tons more easily. It is volatile and big games can easily flame out.

Video games are turning into what happened with movies/TV/streaming. Everything becomes a cookie cutter formula with zero innovation and just recycling the same proven concepts. Then they ask, "why can't Netflix add tons of subscribers every month?". The answer is simple - there's not enough good content to justify it.

They just expect these things to infinitely grow and print money.

Let's not even get started on unfettered capitalism; it's a cancer and will kill this planet.

 

[Pureshooter]

But did it? Or did it meet MS metrics? Over 6m players.


Should Double Fine be looking for a way out? Ninja Theory? Compulsion Games? They aren't AAA and the games they make aren't ever going to be big instant blockbusters.

Hard to say, but potentially the internal cost of Tango could have been much higher than those. You have a hard time laying people off in Japan, so downsizing was probably not a real option.

 

[karmakid]

Let's not even get started on unfettered capitalism; it's a cancer and will kill this planet.

Sadly I agree, I’ve been at a company where they completely let go of art department and support to outsource them from another country cos one mana gamer just brought it up as a joke at a meeting and they took him seriously and did it the next day.

 

[Kerosene31]

The other big problem is that when a company/division fails, the punishment falls on the workers, never leadership. If leadership even gets let go (rare), they have massive golden parachutes and will land somewhere else on a big pile of money. Meanwhile, the employees are fighting over boxes to get their stuff home.

 

[menace-uk-]

You're not entirely on those Menace. Majority of the lays off at Sony were due to GAAS being cancelled. Days Gone did not sell 10m and the majority of the sales were when it was like $20 (buy your games at full price or expect stuff to be cancelled or closed). Playstation studios last release was Spider-man 2 in October 2023 if you want to be pedantic but Helldivers 2 was funded by Sony and they own the IP. If you even want to ignore that Concord will release later this year.

Look at that. Excuses. Not condemnation. Hilarious.

 

[D-V-ANT]

The other big problem is that when a company/division fails, the punishment falls on the workers, never leadership. If leadership even gets let go (rare), they have massive golden parachutes and will land somewhere else on a big pile of money. Meanwhile, the employees are fighting over boxes to get their stuff home.

Yep. Man I would love a job where the reward for failing is as good as the reward for succeeding.

 

[Grimmy]

Seeing posts about canceling Game Pass because of this. If you're canceling to "get back" at MS, just think of the other studios too. People are so reactionary these days...especially without knowing the full picture. I'm not saying what's happening is right or wrong. Just saying we don't know and we may never know. But to react in a manner and say dump your XBox or cancel your subscription doesn't help a whole lot either.

Cancel for your own reason. I just don't think canceling as a protest won't help. If you care about game studios, then support them in the best manner as possible. Be positive.

 

[Kvally]

Be positive.

 

[menace-uk-]

Seeing posts about canceling Game Pass because of this. If you're canceling to "get back" at MS, just think of the other studios too. People are so reactionary these days...especially without knowing the full picture. I'm not saying what's happening is right or wrong. Just saying we don't know and we may never know. But to react in a manner and say dump your XBox or cancel your subscription doesn't help a whole lot either.

Cancel for your own reason. I just don't think canceling as a protest won't help. If you care about game studios, then support them in the best manner as possible. Be positive.

They aren't cancelling anything.

 

[The Wolf King]

Yeah I doubt most will actually cancel.
If you really care just buy the game. Nothings stopping you even if you still have GP.

Also maybe complete it. Rush still has a very low % for completing the game.

 

[Grimmy]

They aren't cancelling anything.

I saw a post online and wanted to comment. Seems some of the mentality is canceling GP subscription. I mean do it for your own reason. I just think if your going to cancel because you hate what MS did, then just think of what that might do for those other studios. Of course there are other ways of supporting too. At the end of the day, there's a bigger issue at hand as to why this is becoming the norm in the industry. Not sure what part we can play in it if at all.

 

[wshowers]

I've always maintained that Xbox's greatest weakness is the management of their studios and IPs. You can have all the cash in the world, but it doesn't mean a thing if you can't manage the projects( I.E. get them out on time, on budget, QA the project, etc.). Xbox fails at this routinely. At some point somebody has to say its not the devs, its the leadership. From Studio heads to division heads something at Xbox isn't right and has not been right for quite a while.

 

[DriedMangoes]

Seeing posts about canceling Game Pass because of this. If you're canceling to "get back" at MS, just think of the other studios too. People are so reactionary these days...especially without knowing the full picture. I'm not saying what's happening is right or wrong. Just saying we don't know and we may never know. But to react in a manner and say dump your XBox or cancel your subscription doesn't help a whole lot either.

Cancel for your own reason. I just don't think canceling as a protest won't help. If you care about game studios, then support them in the best manner as possible. Be positive.

Buy the game if you want to support the devs/ studio. The devs themselves have been saying this for a while now. Even the ones in subscription services.

I think the whole cancelling thing is just a way out for those people to get back at MS because look what Helldivers community did with the PSN backlash. A better idea would be to just buying the damn games.

 

[Kvally]

Buy the game if you want to support the devs/ studio. The devs themselves have been saying this for a while now. Even the ones in subscription services.

I think the whole cancelling thing is just a way out for those people to get back at MS because look what Helldivers community did with the PSN backlash. A better idea would be to just buying the damn games.

I have ZERO GP games and ZERO PS Plus games. Never even played a game on either service. I have bought 100% of my games.

 

[Grimmy]

I'll be honest; I've enjoyed the benefit of GP and feel I've gotten value. If I added the downfall of studios because I opted into the subscription then in the grand scheme of things, the model is broken. That wouldn't make sense. We've all seen some devs praise game subscriptions and comment unfavorably on it. Yes, purchasing probably ensures your are 100% supporting those developers.

 

[menace-uk-]

I have ZERO GP games and ZERO PS Plus games. Never even played a game on either service. I have bought 100% of my games.

Not buying £$70 games 90% of which release incomplete, Broken, or with s***ty live services attached.

Also, I recall you playing Lawn Mower sim from PS+ or GP.

 

[Kvally]

Not buying £$70 games 90% of which release incomplete, Broken, or with s***ty live services attached.

Also, I recall you playing Lawn Mower sim from PS+ or GP.

Yeah, I guess I meant playing as in playing through the game. I did Lawn Mower for 5 minutes and deleted it. If I had enjoyed it I would have bought it because I wasn't renewing my GP that I had for that free month.

 

[DriedMangoes]

Dono how or if even accurate but would make sense when thee head/face of a studio, usually the founder leaves a company to start a new one, it’s usually a thing when they sell their private company to another or a public entity….like when Kojima got let go or Mikami left the first time.

View attachment 12831

 

[Kvally]

PorkPoncho
@PorkPoncho


Joined June 2014
293 Following
615 Followers
Not followed by anyone you’re following

 

[Grimmy]

Who are they?

 

[Kvally]

Just read that PorkPoncho tweets. RAGING PS fanboy, and no credibility. Just a random twitter user.

 

[Kvally]

Who are they?

He was asked to provide proof for his claim, and his response was "I didn't make the claim that the staff left with Mikami". He won't provide any source himself. Just trust me bro, I have 100 followers.

This is how bad Twitter is.

 

[The Wolf King]

We all know Genki hates Xbox anyways. Pretty much tweeted it a little while back when asked why he never mentions Xbox when talking multiplatform games.