Terrible news. And makes you wonder what are the expectations for the other studios MS owns who haven’t even released a game in the last 4 years and don’t have ongoing games that make a profit.
(Of course this applies to Sony and other corps in the industry as well)
I just remembered that Alpha Dog Games was “local” (Atlantic Canadian) studio. They were a small studio, but it was nice knowing an Xbox studio was nearby. Hopefully everyone lands on their feet.
And why make the decision now, Hi-Fi Rush was supposed to launch on Switch 2, correct.
I find that it sucks but to me it doesn’t really tarnish the brand in any way. While I hate seeing people lose their jobs and all of the stress that goes with it, I’m guessing this is a long time coming and that they must have had some kind of analysis done and that they didn’t just make this decision lightly.
Seems to me like they might be stopping on their “let studios do what they want” attitude and are now more taking charge and directing them. I’m not in their heads, but if that’s how they see it and if that’s what it takes then I guess go for it. Streamline and make sure to keep afloat what you still have.
Sheesh, Microsoft’s decisions have been so disjointed regarding xbox. Really feels like they have zero idea what they are doing anymore.
Xbox is really starting to feel like it is loosing it’s identity.
Also I wish the Activision deal got blocked everything has gone to shit with Xbox since they got acquired
We will go from not wanting them to release games on other consoles to wanting them to do so to try to guarantee the future of the people at those studios, and even then, that will not guarantee anything.
Where I am at. Go full third party at this point.
I’m starting to think that. What rand was saying when he was on the pod really made sense. (If it were a comment he would have been shadow banned in seconds) but he is right. Red fall was a disaster. Starfield didn’t live up to expectations. They just seem to keep falling short. We really needed a A+ or atleast A- gameplay game.
They just need a game that makes a lot of money. Starfield did that, but what was the profit? We don’t know. Reviews are nice, fun, feel good, but companies only care about them if they help drive revenue.
My heart goes out to all the folks impacted. I look back on my last decade of gaming and see how silly it was to advocate and attach myself to a platform and corporate brand. I think it impacted my overall gaming experience for the worse and it was ultimately for nothing.
I’m glad that I’ve detached myself from brand loyalty for some time now. Xbox today is not my Xbox. They’ve lost their way, and the promise of what could have been has never really come to fruition. I don’t know if it ever will.
Candidly, and I don’t say this to be vitriolic, but I think Phil Spencer has been somewhat of a false shepherd. I don’t have faith in the current Xbox leadership team. The ActiBliz acquisition was a mistake as now Xbox is in the limelight within Microsoft.
This news hurts, but it’s indicative of larger issues at Xbox as well. I don’t see this regime navigating these turbulent industry waters effectively nor thoughtfully. I don’t think they know what they’re doing anymore. My opinion is now, very much, that mass consolidation is bad.
I’d rather they do that to be honest. I hate seeing this. I hope everyone lands on their feet somehow.
Great games drive revenue. They haven’t really quite managed that. Or capturing an audience. That hasn’t happened. I know people said including yourself during the dim stars ep. People would buy a console for starfield. Unfortunately it hasn’t happened.
Going full third party wouldn’t stop layoffs or studio closures looking at the industry overall.
You’re absolutely right, but it would hopefully alleviate the pressure of needing to succeed on just xbox and PC.
Tango’s last two games weren’t just on Xbox and PC.
They have high revenue, and “great” is entirely subjective in how people discuss it online.
I can name 1000 great games that didn’t set sales charts on fire so that’s an easily disprovable talking point.
People want to pretend things like this are due to one factor, and never want to admit the nuance, and in some cases their own complicity, in things like this.