Yes, let's cry for The guy who's been at this for over a decade & has nothing, but shit to show for it. It's not the people being fired that need our sympathy, it's the executive that still has a job for some reason.
Xbox is shutting down Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Games. Roundhouse Studios absorbed by ZeniMax Online Studios.
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Yes, let's cry for The guy who's been at this for over a decade & has nothing, but shit to show for it. It's not the people being fired that need our sympathy, it's the executive that still has a job for some reason.
WTF?
I don't know about Alpha Dog so I can't comment about them, but closing Arkane Austin and Tango is some major bullshit. Hi-Fi Rush was so fucking good and it only came out last year, MS' decision makes no sense to me.
Microsoft can go fuck themselves with this. Way to prove the FTC right.
I don't know about Alpha Dog so I can't comment about them, but closing Arkane Austin and Tango is some major bullshit. Hi-Fi Rush was so fucking good and it only came out last year, MS' decision makes no sense to me.
Microsoft can go fuck themselves with this. Way to prove the FTC right.
Fucking terrible for those workers. Echoing the statements about why the acquisition of ABK was always leading to this, and it's celebration at that time was gross.
Really feels like Ninja Theory's time is coming as well; can't imagine Hellblade 2 (assuming it's quality like Hi-Fi) will lead to their survival barring blockbuster success which we all think is not its intent.
Console industry just seems fucked.
Really feels like Ninja Theory's time is coming as well; can't imagine Hellblade 2 (assuming it's quality like Hi-Fi) will lead to their survival barring blockbuster success which we all think is not its intent.
Console industry just seems fucked.
Same here. It was the first game on the XSX that I was legit wanting to play despite not having an Xbox console. When it came to the PS5, I bought it to support the devs and support Microsoft's decision to go multiplatform.
Didn't matter.
Didn't matter.
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Poor Tango. Doesn't make sense one bit but I guess I'm not in charge. The Games industry is in such a sad state I wish there would be just one console maker at this point. MS seems quite confused lately.
Real funny how there were some who said Microsoft buying Activision was a net good or whatever bs that was.
Especially after buying so many studios with Bethesday just a few years prior.They shouldnt have been allowed to buy another slate of studios with Activision/king/Blizzard.
Hope those who lost their jobs bounce back fast.
Especially after buying so many studios with Bethesday just a few years prior.They shouldnt have been allowed to buy another slate of studios with Activision/king/Blizzard.
Hope those who lost their jobs bounce back fast.
Lollllllll
In the very rare chance Phil or someone from Microsoft happens to see this message: You will never have me again as a customer.
Great idea, MS getting out of gaming would help the remaining 20k employees under Xbox...
I think this too sometimes in view of all the bizarre moves Microsoft has made this year but its hard to square that away with spending $70 billion on Activision. The MOST expensive acquisition Microsoft has ever made and in like the top 5 list of acquisitions ever made... in history lol.
I don't know whats going on and it really feels like nobody at Microsoft does either, feels like maybe some sort of power struggle inside, like something straight out of Succession. Every month we get news that conflicts directly with something said very recently, team A announces something that makes no sense with what team B just announced, etc.
They can always split those companies off rather than just close them. It's not like there's only one way to do this shit.
To be fair, it took like two years to close that deal, and the expenses/costs for ABK and closing the deal EXPLODED over time while the Xbox brand only continued to shrink during the whole process. I think the MS that started the deal and the MS that closed the deal are not of the same mind.
The cruel irony is that Xbox primarily devalued their own software with GamePass while Sony, Nintendo and the 3rd party devs who didn't take the Day 1 GamePass deals were generally able to hold their value. Combine that with just how often MS's big titles turned out to be disappointments at best, and you have a great roadmap to getting your company pigeonholed as a second-rate and second-class among the major platform holders, loosing so, SO much on this bet that we were moving towards a cloud streaming service-based gaming future and that their real competitors weren't Sony, Nintendo or Valve but the FAANG companies.
It's what they always do.
I would even add the recent statements regarding next gen Xbox to that list ("largest generational leap ever").
I'm still not convinced that a next gen Xbox is actually happening. She just it because it sounded good and they needed to buy some time.
Right, and adding to this its incredibly naive to think the employees at the remaining small to mid sized studios under MS are somehow incapable of making the logical connecting point in their own minds of their jobs potentially being on the chopping block after this news.
You'd think he'd at least go Appear Offline. What a piece of shit.
I feel like they saw it as an opportunity to scoop up lucrative gaming IP in a borrower's market during the pandemic years and eh, we'll make it work later. The infrastructure of the studios, the talent, that was all an after thought compared to the intellectual property.
I think that will only make it worst sadly. Lot of the first party for both MS and Sony existed because a portfolio of big and small games is important to make your platform stick out (Nintendo absolutely mastered this). The mid sized studios get harder to justify for them when they aren't that interested in competing there anymore. Just throw some money at a 3rd party every now and then (those who survive the current we ain't funding shit mandate by all the publishers at the moment) and fill in some release gaps with that.
The studios are too poorly managed for him to play a game they developed under him and Xbox.
I'm baffled by this, as I am by similar stuff across the industry. But for some reason this seems especially callous. I just don't see what Xbox's strategy is. I'm assuming there is major politics behind the scenes but still - hate seeing people like Ybarra worry about Spencer's feelings.
Microsoft is obviously shifting radically strategies. Gamepass never hit their goal by far, we see the end of the AA titles to fill that service and we'll probably see a consolidation around major tent pole franchises and AAAA titles, just like Ubi is doing. And they don't need hardware to do so.
All of this has made me reassess Square Enix's handling of its Western studios like IO Interactive and Eidos. Square got (often rightly) mocked for never being happy with the sales numbers and revenue from titles like Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex etc. But when push came to shove they figured out a way to divest from these studios without shuttering them down and without hoarding their IP. If nothing else we at least got an excellent Hitman Trilogy out of it, something that likely will never happen now with IPs like HiFi Rush, Evil Within and Prey.
I think it is strategically important to keep your product portfolio diverse enough that you should swallow some cost to keep some studios even if they aren't that much profitable (or even in red). This should overall affect the whole brand perception and be net positive in the end..
But I'm not business expert and Microsoft should know better, so..
But I'm not business expert and Microsoft should know better, so..
Going to need to save this for later use, as this is killing my sides.
But I wonder if any of the top managers at Microsoft or Bethesda received consequences for this the way hundreds of people faced consequences for today, losing their jobs in situations entirely out of their control.
For Arkane, they had a strong track record and were forced to make a game with pieces they had to get together. For Tango, they did everything right, they made a game that shadowdropped and did gamepass numbers.
Where's the executive accountability? The executives who pushed Arkane to make a product that wouldn't work. The executives who put Tango to work to achieve certain metrics, that then their bosses were apparently not happy enough with. The industry is littered with developers paying for the mistakes of business people.
Something a journalist like jschreier will need to dig up, because it'll never come up on an investor memo or interview. But you'd think for their own sake Microsoft should want to get the word out executives need to work just as hard and smart as the studios they manage. But yeah, knowing this industry, that's a pipe dream.
For Arkane, they had a strong track record and were forced to make a game with pieces they had to get together. For Tango, they did everything right, they made a game that shadowdropped and did gamepass numbers.
Where's the executive accountability? The executives who pushed Arkane to make a product that wouldn't work. The executives who put Tango to work to achieve certain metrics, that then their bosses were apparently not happy enough with. The industry is littered with developers paying for the mistakes of business people.
Something a journalist like jschreier will need to dig up, because it'll never come up on an investor memo or interview. But you'd think for their own sake Microsoft should want to get the word out executives need to work just as hard and smart as the studios they manage. But yeah, knowing this industry, that's a pipe dream.
I think they've been pretty clearly setting themselves up to be nothing more than a third party publisher for a while now. They're shoring up large AAA titles, and ditching the smaller titles that a platform holder would typically want to widen their portfolio.
The new xbox sounds like its going for more niche appeal too if the rumoured power (and resulting price) turn out to be right. I wouldn't be surprised if it was an actual pc console hybrid type device like steam deck, rather than a traditional xbox console.
That's what I'm thinking, basically SteamBox but a PC instead of Linux.
But it's also... is that something that MS actually wants to support? Maybe they wanna get it to a place where they can spin it off?
Studios are still closing like what's the point. I'm not a fan of the wars
The executives were the rank and file employees who survived the decades long hunger games.
At some point, alot of these folks laid off will live long enough to become the bad guy.
How does this have so many likes? Why would you post something like this? What the fuck? Hurting as much as the people who now have to scramble to put food on the table for themselves and their families? Like if these execs got the boot they would be just fine for the rest of their lives... or not. I'm sure some of them probably spend crazy amounts of money on stuff.
No not all executives were rank and file employees that just survived.
It takes like what a year or 2 and few million to get few shows
It takes ten times that and like 2-6 years for games
It was a huge risk
Plus you can watch Netflix or plus or whatever on whatever device that has a screen
Need shell out hundreds for xbox
Microsoft after closing enough studios they're back to where they were and trying to buy another publisher "We can't possibly compete! Let us buy more IP rich publishers FTC or you hate competition!"
I swear it's like they're determined to suck and to keep their market share low until they have all the popular IP then BAM they can start dominating
I swear it's like they're determined to suck and to keep their market share low until they have all the popular IP then BAM they can start dominating