Edit: Looks like this numbers are first week sales of these titles, don't take it serious.
View: https://twitter.com/ZANEJWICKMAN/status/1788089672922747322
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Xbox is shutting down Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Games. Roundhouse Studios absorbed by ZeniMax Online Studios.
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Edit: Looks like this numbers are first week sales of these titles, don't take it serious.
View: https://twitter.com/ZANEJWICKMAN/status/1788089672922747322
yup, thats all it was. people were happy with cheap gaming and didnt wanna hear any criticism of it. was the case all over the internet, era included.
Should we be asking this question for other studios? Tango was doing good numbers and again, Hi-Fi sales got fucked over by the release strategy. What does MS expect having these games as exclusives also? Hellblade sold over a million as well other franchises they own now like Psychonauts and Outer Worlds, which actually sold a shit ton, but those were all multiplatform. Microsoft can't have their fucking cake and eat it and when they don't get what they want, due to them self-sabotaging sales, they shut the studios down.
Fucking hate this company.
I hope so. I feel like the reason they went to Xbox in the first place was because they were in trouble. I'm not sure they'll be able to go independent again. Hope I'm wrong though.
I bought Hifi Rush an hour before the news dropped and I still can't process the stupidity of it all after sleeping on it. Good for Phil and other execs on their yearly/quarterly bonuses! I'm not spending a single dime I've earned on another Microsoft product. Rotten to the core. I pray to see the day this conglomerate is broken down either by imploding or goverment regulation.
Wasn't the first psychonauts originally meant to be published by Microsoft, but Double Fine fall out with them during development?
I'm pretty sure Schafer wouldn't work with them again without some kind of safety net.
Why Tango Gameworks?
Because they're pitching a video game sequel that'll took years away, that's why.
🙄🤷🤦
They backed out of the publishing deal but they did a lot of Kinect stuff for them after that so I don't think there was bad blood.
Getting bought was definitely a safety net thing but after all this, I don't know.
Keep thinking about this. Imagine having access to both Harvey Smith and John Johanas and not even hearing a new pitch from either.
Someone replied to me yesterday with a clip of Steve Jobs saying that Microsoft's problem is that they have no taste. I think they just don't understand what's considered quality in the gaming space and haven't for some time.
Someone replied to me yesterday with a clip of Steve Jobs saying that Microsoft's problem is that they have no taste. I think they just don't understand what's considered quality in the gaming space and haven't for some time.
A publisher buying developers for their past success making large-scale games, to bolster its business selling large-scale games, and then shuttering those devs for planning large scale games when the publisher originally tasked them with exactly that is absolutely nonsensical. If this is actually in the spirit of the thinking among their leadership, then the Xbox management team is better off shuttered. I understand the industry is in a tough spot after the COVID-19 boom, but operations like this are an active threat to its workforce. If the expense of running a game studio to produce videogames is too much for your business model, then don't make game creation your business.
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For the record, the numbers they're using here is the first week sales of these titles. If you look up these numbers, these are from first week sales reports released back when the games first released, not how much they've sold total.
Very deceptive tweet.
A publisher buying developers for their past success making large-scale games, to bolster its business selling large-scale games, and then shuttering those devs for planning large scale games when the publisher originally tasked them with exactly that is absolutely nonsensical. If this is actually in the spirit of the thinking among their leadership, then the Xbox management team is better off shuttered. I understand the industry is in a tough spot after the COVID-19 boom, but operations like this are an active threat to its workforce.
Tbh this isnt news when it comes to MS overall business practice over decades now... and I am not even talking about just gaming in specific now...
The Initiative: Not so much as a gameplay trailer and yet they're still open. Total fucking clown show.
I know, but they're still going to sell/market the games they show off there too. Hell a good showing and they might even think it's a good opportunity to deflect and lower the temperature.
We don't need to do "they should close down other studios first!!!"
But it's not a trope. They don't know what they're doing lol
Exactly what have they done for the past... I dunno, 5yrs+? that demonstrates there's any competency within Xbox management?
yes, but the showcase can sell itself. i doubt an executive would have the guts to show face in front of a live audience rn. guess we'll see.
This whole twitter thread is just people finding some reason to defend their beloved corporation.
I've never played Hi-Fi Rush but every time I see it I'm just disappointed.
The team did everything right and then they got fucked over.
I'm hoping that someone else (Capcom?) can pick up some of the team and help them regroup. Maybe make a spiritual successor or creative game they come up with next.
The team did everything right and then they got fucked over.
I'm hoping that someone else (Capcom?) can pick up some of the team and help them regroup. Maybe make a spiritual successor or creative game they come up with next.
If Microsoft hasn't put out a statement giving better details on possibilities like staff retention in light of the shutdowns, I'm going to just assume the worst. Leadership can rot here. If communication would help people parse the situation better, they have every capacity to do that, and aren't.
LOL when this happened in game, the coffee part, it was so funny
Why should anyone trust another two-faced "statement" out of Microsoft about ANYTHING at this point? They literally told us, verbatim, they were investing in both Arkane Austin and Tango last year and looking forward to their next games and they still killed them.
There is nothing Phil Spencer can say that will make this better short of "I, along with the entire Microsoft Gaming senior leadership team, resign effective immediately".
Everything they say - everything - is another empty-headed lie designed to give Xbox fans the warm and tinglies without actually addressing or changing any of their plans or policies.
They're currently working on a new game, the closed down studios weren't. That's all it is to them: numbers. They decided the "need" to trim and so they destroyed the two studios currently not really doing anything in terms of new game space.
Shuttering a currently working studio means that they also lose all the progress made on the game(s) they were producing. Closing a studio that's not working means they just lose the studio. Pure numbers.
Do they still think these small games take a year or less to make?
the "pitching games that were years away from release" thing is so insane to me. like yes, that's how long it takes to make games now! partially because of your demands to make huge technological leaps forward every generation!! we are no longer in the atari era!!!
Damn, nailed it
A publisher buying developers for their past success making large-scale games, to bolster its business selling large-scale games, and then shuttering those devs for planning large scale games when the publisher originally tasked them with exactly that is absolutely nonsensical. If this is actually in the spirit of the thinking among their leadership, then the Xbox management team is better off shuttered. I understand the industry is in a tough spot after the COVID-19 boom, but operations like this are an active threat to its workforce. If the expense of running a game studio to produce videogames is too much for your business model, then don't make game creation your business.
Why Tango Gameworks?
Because they're pitching a video game sequel that'll took years away, that's why.
🙄🤷🤦
So Microsoft wants magical fairies at their game studios that can shit out a concept-to-store game in like 6 months?
Saw this on LinkedIn.
Senior Public Relations Manager for Microsoft.
Damn, this is some callous shit
A publisher buying developers for their past success making large-scale games, to bolster its business selling large-scale games, and then shuttering those devs for planning large scale games when the publisher originally tasked them with exactly that is absolutely nonsensical. If this is actually in the spirit of the thinking among their leadership, then the Xbox management team is better off shuttered. I understand the industry is in a tough spot after the COVID-19 boom, but operations like this are an active threat to its workforce. If the expense of running a game studio to produce videogames is too much for your business model, then don't make game creation your business.
"So this game will take a few years to make."
"wtf give game now or ur all fired"
You know you're a terrible liar when your lie makes you look more incompetent than the truth.
The entire dev industry needs to organize, protest, participate in a universal work stoppage, and unionize. That's one of the few ways they'll get the protections and security they deserve in this current climate. Otherwise they'll collectively continue to be overworked and disposed of at the whim of short-sighted executives and financial models.
Balatro dude made that game alone, in a cave, with a box of scraps /s
Ugh, I thought MS of all corps would have money to maintain their studios and they won't die the way studios under Embracer do, I was wrong.
They've shut down two of the most talented studios they had, even if Redfall was mediocre it still came from people who made Prey and, in case of Harvey Smith, original Deus Ex. Now I'm afraid for Obsidian, Inxile and Arkane Lyon, without those teams Microsoft's gaming division might as well not exist.
I also think we can forget about old IPs ever getting out of the vault.
They've shut down two of the most talented studios they had, even if Redfall was mediocre it still came from people who made Prey and, in case of Harvey Smith, original Deus Ex. Now I'm afraid for Obsidian, Inxile and Arkane Lyon, without those teams Microsoft's gaming division might as well not exist.
I also think we can forget about old IPs ever getting out of the vault.
At least Embracer had the decency to post massive losses while they were dumping studios. Microsoft had net income of like 21 billion last quarter
What happens when a studio shuts down, do all the employees get laid off and go their separate ways? Arkane Austin made Prey! so they have some killer people there. Is there any chance they can try to find a...buyer? but stay together? I mean they are owned by Microsoft but they are "shut down".