I think you mean merging them into a different studio, I don’t remember any conditions about where they could be placed in the company which is what I’m referring to.
Worse case scenario create a new subsidiary called “Xbox Family Studios”.
We will have to agree to disagree 
.
Why can’t Xbox appeal to all these groups of gamers?
Families with studios like: Playful (Lucky’s Take, Playtonic (Yooka-Laylee), Wayforward (DuckTales), Good-Feel (Yoshi), Gears for Breakfast (Hat in Time) & Hazelight (It Takes Two)?
Cinematic studios like: Crystal Dynamics (Tomb Raider), Eidos (Guardians of the Galaxy), IOI (Hitman), Asobo (Plague Tale) or Remedy (Control/Alan Wake)?
Would Xbox not want to appeal to as many gamers as possible? It’s the same logic as something like Netflix, you don’t want to just offer Rom-Coms to someone who prefers Action or K-Drama.
I’m pretty sure Xbox’s acquisition policy is “if you want out or things aren’t working out, we’ll let you go”. Looks like they go independent and have to make a few games for MS. Making those games helps them get started and MS gets games, both parties can be happy. Meanwhile, Sony seemingly just shutters the studio and puts all of the employees on the street.
I know this doesn’t fit the narrative of “winning” where there are guaranteed games to help win the “console wars” but looking at the big picture MS is just creating extreme flexibility in the gaming space where MS will work out some kind of deal with developers, nothing is set in stone. MS isn’t even locking down their own long time developers.
It’s not easy to ask devs to do this or that without looking like a tyrant or forceful. We don’t know what’s happening behind the scene with ABK. Bethesda was much straightforward, but ABK is massive, absolutely massive in compare.
I know Xbox does want to capture those audience, but not only studios you named might not be on sale but it’s not easy to produce one. I know they want to make KI2 but because of devs they have don’t have experience in fighting, it’s not easy to work on.
The only reason that I question negatively is because T4B wants to work with Microsoft even after a split, so this doesn’t reek of burning bridges.
This is why I find it odd that Xbox would have not perhaps waited until they atleast released their first game (under them), perhaps accommodate them by moving them outside of Activision (if that was the issue). They are clearly a talented studio and it will be difficult to produce another studio to the same quality.
Like you say we don’t know what is happening behind the scenes but it’s all very odd to me. As they mention working with Xbox there must be more to the picture.
Give it time to see if Jason, Grubb, or Stephen learns the story.
I seriously wonder what the hell is going on at Microsoft, and also some of the fanbase. If prior to this announcement, someone on here would have sugested that MS let Toys for Bob walk away and be an indie studio, every single person here would have said that was stupid and would never happen. Microsoft then do it, and people try to convince themselves that its a great idea.
People saying "its better than closing the studio’, when there was no need or calls to close it, are just deluding themselves. Its a smaller studio, with an excellent track record of building family friendly games, which Phil himself said they need more of, that every single person thought was an excellent addition to MSs portfolio. They can do another Banjo they all cried. Microsoft is the richest corporation in the world, and who just bought ABK who was very financial, who wouldnt even blink at keeping the studio going. Add to that, that they will most likely fund their bext game in some way anyway.
I will say this, if I was a smaller MS studio like Compulsion or Double Fine, I would be looking over my shoulder.
I think it’s also a business at the end of the day, some of the games mentioned like Yooka-Laylee, Lucky’s tales haven’t done that much even after being multiplatform and going on subs. Nintendo has been pretty much the only ones to get traction in this space and they are master at it. I would pretty much have preferred Moon studios if they didn’t have the allegations of toxic work culture as I think their art and ideas are closer to what works. I’m sure Xbox looked at things before allowing this another thing is they are working with other devs like the one making the rumored Banjo and maybe to them Toys 4 Bob was not at that level.
I think people just think it’s odd and don’t understand why they’d do this, so they are making assumptions on what would have driven them to make this move.
It doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, but neither did laying off 1600 people. I don’t have the information so don’t have anything to go by. I think the folks running MS are smart though, so it is what it is I guess.
Technically, every company should be “fine” with what they have yet layoff and shut down still occurs. Hate to be that guy but do you know if there was no need for closure or anything? If you can answer, then you must be an employee or higher-up. You can’t say these with certainty. We have seen the fall of industry already; this type of news is welcoming believe it or not.
Phil says a lot of things lol.
What’s hard to understand, the leadership at Toys For Bob (and probably a lot of the people who worked there) wanted to go independent. MS decided to let them do so probably after having some discussions about what they wanted to do going forward.
Probably not a good fit to keep them if they want to go independent. MS weighed the costs of letting them be independent vs keeping them (while they want to be independent) and probably figured it was for the best. And if course, they stated they will continue to work with Xbox specifically… which leads me to believe they are definitely already working on something.
Exactly. For all we know, after the layoffs the remaining TfB staff may have gone to Xbox and given them a choice:
a) Let us leave and we’ll agree to be a partner studio, or
b) Face an exodus of a large number of us, who may end up making a new studio down the line called Toys for Bill, and who will have no particular reason to partner up
Those are just two scenarios of many possibilities.
Point is, since this is such an odd thing to do, it makes sense for there to be some kind of reasonable explanation other than “hur-dur, me Phil Spencer, me not understand why let go of Toys for Bob is bad.”
I find the people who jump to the “hur dur” conclusion to be equally odd as the people who are unequivocally optimistic. There’s no evidence for either reaction.
This kind of case can happen. If the studios no longer want the politics of a company, or become independent again because they don’t want to work on a forced license, it happens.
The group that owns the studio has 3 choices:
and don’t forget that the licenses belong to Xbox
I also think it was a matter of them wanting to be independent, not a matter of MS not being able to afford the studio thats ridiculous. Lets say they wouldnt fit in the costs structure of ABK, cant you integrate TfB under XGS, for example?
Xbox is nice because it gives devs freedom but now Xbox doesnt own a studio able to develop family-friendly games, a type of games very much needed. Yes, most of those dont move the needle, but any GP sub is valuable and as Minotti rightly says, those games have the ability to engage younger generations into a ecosystem. It was my case and that is why I still love Nintendo games to this day.
the toy for bob games will continue to fall into the gamepass don’t worry, it doesn’t change anything, it’s just that they are more free but the licenses are still with Xbox
I don’t care, I still want more Crash and Spyro.
Its a shame that it came to this, but all in all its probably best for everyone. Toys for Bob are a small (but talented) studio whose talents were being wasted supporting Call Of Duty. I’d say whatever is left of the team still has bad memories with Activision and wanted a fresh start. This is much better than them being closed down, or the remaining 50 members or so resigning had Microsoft refused their request. This way Toys For Bob get to work on the projects that they want as opposed to whatever is handed down to them from corporate, and Microsoft gain an ally in the process who are departing on good terms and having already stated they are interested in continuing their partnership. To me, this is TFB going from 1st Party to 2nd Party, Microsoft can lease out their IP’s like Crash and Spyro and can provide funding and/or resources where necessary.
We sometimes like to think in terms of the games we personally like, not only what is going to make Xbox make more money.
Also, with GP is the center, each single game is valuable because you have to have all kinds of games to try and cater for everyones tastes. Each sub counts.