Microsoft Closing Some Beloved Studios

[Widey85]

@Dom

like I said before – go woke, go broke.

Xbox has been all in this and this is the net result. The only video game company that is true to their spirit is Nintendo now.

Think you’ll find late stage capitalism like this is the very opposite of woke…

[binarymelon]

@Knottian

On that same token then, I don’t understand how anyone looks at Sony’s recent closure of four studios and the cancellation of more than half a dozen games any differently then…?

There’s objectivity and there’s toxic hyperbole… so many seem to ascribe to the latter. It’s absolutely understandable to be upset but some of the non-existent dots being connected here and not universally just reads as all the more gross to me. Feels like a lot of negativity engagement that seems to go missing when people lose their jobs elsewhere, and functionally it’s not at all different when Sony or Embracer do so.

It’s not really the time for whataboutisms.

[Staffy]

@Joe_Sinister1

What stings the most about Tango especially is Toys For Bob got to keep existing as a third party studio. It would hurt a lot less. I don’t know the particulars of why one studio gets to persist but not the other, sucks either way.

This! Why couldn’t Tango get the same solution as Toys for Bob? That would have been great. But yeah, like you said, we know too little about these things.

[Hue]

@Searsy82

I mean, outside of the closure of a studio, which isn’t really anything more than a sign on a building, they are all still employed and working on first party properties.

Same goes for Arkane, which I will withhold full judgement till more details emerge, but from what I’ve read most of those employees are also just reassigned to other first party studios.

Microsoft and Todd Howard just said last week that they were “going to find ways to increase output” and that they want “a new fallout sooner than later”.

I feel like this is one of those monkey paw “no, not like that” moments.

Has it been confirmed the Arkane Austin team has been redeployed?

It’s good that the Roundhouse team are still in employment, the new IP the ESO team working on sounds exciting.

Hopefully it is just a case of increasing their output by prioritising specific IP’s but we will have to wait and see.

I still think Tango is inexcusable, John Johanas should be getting his own studio!

[Dom]

@Widey85

Think you’ll find late stage capitalism like this is the very opposite of woke…

continue to use shitty products based on virtue signalling because “ahhhh they hired on diversity and have pro nouns in their game” instead of hiring on performance and merit.

Same shit happened in Halo and that’s why the studio continues to trend downwards. You will continue to see Microsoft fumbling the bag until they have a complete overhaul in their leadership and studios. It’s kind of incredible to see how one of the most powerful companies in the world with unlimited cash can’t compete with Sony or Nintendo.

[j0nny5]

@Dom

continue to use shitty products based on virtue signalling because “ahhhh they hired on diversity and have pro nouns in their game” instead of hiring on performance and merit.

Same shit happened in Halo and that’s why the studio continues to trend downwards. You will continue to see Microsoft fumbling the bag until they have a complete overhaul in their leadership and studios. It’s kind of incredible to see how one of the most powerful companies in the world with unlimited cash can’t compete with Sony or Nintendo.

Must say im pretty pro nouns in most areas of life. Integral parts of most clauses in my view…

[Widey85]

@Dom

continue to use shitty products based on virtue signalling because “ahhhh they hired on diversity and have pro nouns in their game” instead of hiring on performance and merit.

Same shit happened in Halo and that’s why the studio continues to trend downwards. You will continue to see Microsoft fumbling the bag until they have a complete overhaul in their leadership and studios. It’s kind of incredible to see how one of the most powerful companies in the world with unlimited cash can’t compete with Sony or Nintendo.

You realise Microsoft outside of Xbox is much more “woke” as you’d call it, and are absolutely killing it?

If anything, Sony have been far more “woke” in recent years with their games, and they’re doing pretty well I hear

[BadNews]

@Widey85

You realise Microsoft outside of Xbox is much more “woke” as you’d call it, and are absolutely killing it?

If anything, Sony have been far more “woke” in recent years with their games, and they’re doing pretty well I hear

Please stop using woke. You’re not using it correctly

[Hue]

https://twitter.com/thatbluenumber/status/1787891082480779645?t=E769muuGsOOMxSHlFbGLhA&s=19

https://twitter.com/modorchaidhe/status/1787847302649917634?t=B-6C6AOQHiAoxAMd5AHUFw&s=19

[Dizzydan015 (Daany)]

I remember saying how much Xbox should get Crystal Dynamics due to the way Embracer is handling this but I think it’s a good thing that didn’t happen. How can you close down a studio which brought you the best game of last year? It seems like it doesn’t matter how well a game does at Microsoft unless it sells like COD. The past couple of months have been awful for xbox and I don’t think there is anything they can do that can redeem it. Hell, i’d take having all future xbox games multiplatform as long as they don’t close down these studios. But other than that there’s nothing much else to be said. I feel for those who lost their jobs today

[Widey85]

@BadNews

Please stop using woke. You’re not using it correctly

Lol that’s why it’s in quotation marks, I was taking the definition from the original poster, but apologies

[Searsy82]

@Staffy

What I just find baffling is how a what…trillion dollar company even has to do this.

Then I would suggest some formal business training. You don’t become a muti-trillion dollar enterprise by consistently subsidizing failure (financially speaking). You do fail at times, you make bets that don’t pan out, but you don’t willingly do it for extended periods unless there is a bigger win to be had. That is ignoring the fact that valuation is based on the company’s ability to make money. It basically a measure of confidence in the corporation’s ability to make money. Not a free pass to piss away what money they actually do have for operations (which isn’t anywhere close to a trillion dollars, let alone the market cap of three trillion). When you lose money, your valuation can decrease precipitously. Phil Specer has mentioned recently that he essentially has a mandate to run Xbox as a profitable business.

Arkane, as much as I love them, had two unsuccessful games in a row. Prey is one of my favorite games of all time, but review scores don’t pay salaries. We are all keenly aware at the increasing cost of making games. At a certain point you have to cut bait.

Tango, great games, the last two (maybe three, not sure how Evil Within 2 did) didn’t sell, despite their quality. Is the suggestion that you spend tens of millions, possibly more, a go and make Hi-Fi Rush 2 with the expectation that someone magically everyone decides to buy it, after no one bought the first one?

You have to be able to separate your love/appreciation for something from the realities of conducting business.

EDIT: and to clarify, this is just about the business aspect. There is a reason why most normal people can’t be CEO types. It takes a certain type of vacant soulless husk to make these types of choices.

[Jeans]

@Dom

continue to use shitty products based on virtue signalling because “ahhhh they hired on diversity and have pro nouns in their game” instead of hiring on performance and merit.

Same shit happened in Halo and that’s why the studio continues to trend downwards. You will continue to see Microsoft fumbling the bag until they have a complete overhaul in their leadership and studios. It’s kind of incredible to see how one of the most powerful companies in the world with unlimited cash can’t compete with Sony or Nintendo.

Lot of speculations and wrong accusations on your part.

[Searsy82]

@Hue

Has it been confirmed the Arkane Austin team has been redeployed?

It’s good that the Roundhouse team are still in employment, the new IP the ESO team working on sounds exciting.

Hopefully it is just a case of increasing their output by prioritising specific IP’s but we will have to wait and see.

I still think Tango is inexcusable, John Johanas should be getting his own studio!

It was alluded to that at least some have been in Matt Booty’s memo/email.

[Hue]

Ah yes sorry I missed that.

@system

Arkane Austin – This studio will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda

[Joe_Sinister1 (Joe_Sinister)]

@Dom

continue to use shitty products based on virtue signalling because “ahhhh they hired on diversity and have pro nouns in their game” instead of hiring on performance and merit.

Same shit happened in Halo and that’s why the studio continues to trend downwards. You will continue to see Microsoft fumbling the bag until they have a complete overhaul in their leadership and studios. It’s kind of incredible to see how one of the most powerful companies in the world with unlimited cash can’t compete with Sony or Nintendo.

I’m just waiting for your ran’t about "DEI"s at this point.

[Hue]

@Searsy82

Then I would suggest some formal business training. You don’t become a muti-trillion dollar enterprise by consistently subsidizing failure (financially speaking). You do fail at times, you make bets that don’t pan out, but you don’t willingly do it for extended periods unless there is a bigger win to be had.

This is where I think Tango could have been treated as a loss leader (assuming it wasn’t profitable which it may have been).

It was a very small studio (60ish employees) and their games offered something many of their other studios don’t.

Hi-Fi Rush must have attracted some new GP customers for sure or maybe I’m just out of touch.

[Knottian (Daniel)]

Reminder: we welcome everyone here and racist dog whistles will not be tolerated.

[KirthGersen]

Microsoft making it harder to be an Xbox fan by the day…

[Jeans]

@Hue

This is where I think Tango could have been treated as a loss leader (assuming it wasn’t profitable which it may have been).

It was a very small studio (60ish employees) and their games offered something many of their other studios don’t.

Hi-Fi Rush must have attracted some new GP customers for sure or maybe I’m just out of touch.

Their only japanese studio nonetheless…

And I don’t want MS to buy Sega anymore… that deal would destroy them.