With everything going on in the industry, without the acquisition the studio maybe would’ve just been shut down, not go independent
Like seriously just look around. I understand it sucks to have that studio and then let it go, but if they plan on working together, that’s what’s important.
The blog says they’re looking to keep working closely with them. Game Pass deals are all they need for family games, they’ve gotten a ton of them into the service already.
While I’m a little sad to see they didn’t want to remain first party for whatever reason (might still be some bad managers left in ABK atm?), at least it seems they’ll still be published by Xbox / Activision for now so we get the benefits of their output and they get to be happy.
I’ve got friends on both sides of the “console wars” so often can overreact to news around Xbox as I get it in the neck, but in this situation if that’s what Toys for Bob wanted I’m happy for them and glad it’s likely to still be on Game Pass and Xbox
Double Fine is fine enough. Yeah, I said it. T4B has shrunk a lot thanks ABK who in turn to MS. Plus, this set precedent that Xbox doesn’t kill studios but give them a chance to go elsewhere. Let’s face it, it would die if Bobby was still in charge. To me, I find this nice.
Yes, Xbox still owns Spyro and Crash. ABK purchase is franchise purchase.
I imagine after years of being pushed into being a Call of Duty support studio they saw their chance and went for it, and given Xbox’s push to give studios a relatively high amount of creative freedom - it makes sense that they wouldn’t hold on to a studio that didn’t want to be there. Or perhaps there was the risk of studio closure with all the recent cuts and this was their only option to survive.
Either way I am sad to see them go, I had hoped they would be something truly special under Xbox - but I am glad they will continue to work with Xbox moving forward.
Phil said for many years that they need more family friendly content for Game Pass and now they finally have a great studio for that and they let it go indie instead of making it bigger…like wat?
I hope Xbox make everyone realize or rather remember that CoD has 5+ studios being worked every year and when you separate them to give them a chance, there’s a lot to feed the whole market.
On first glance it might suck, but maybe for the better for the studio to be removed from the Activision structure, noting that they’re still planning on working together… though I wonder why wasn’t that step taken before the layoffs…
Honestly, as an Xbox fan I can see why it is bad news… But in reality it can’t be bad news as the studio wanted to do it, and if MS is still the publisher and giving them support outside of the Microsoft Gaming team, then more power to them.
So next few games Microsoft / Activision published, create a popular live service game then when it starts to reach its end (maybe after a sequel) get acquired by Sony for silly money but stay multi-platform.
The Bungie route
In seriousness though, sad to see they didn’t want to remain first party for whatever reason (might still be some bad managers left in ABK atm?) but at least it seems they’ll still be published by Xbox / Activision for now so we get the benefits of their output and they get to be happy