Microsoft axes four game studios including Hi-Fi Rush developer

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Microsoft is shutting four studios, including Tango Gameworks, the developers of Bafta award-winning Hi-Fi Rush.

The Tokyo studio is being closed alongside Texas-based Arkane Austin and Canadian developer Alpha Dog Studios.

Wisconsin-based Roundhouse Games will be absorbed into Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios.

Microsoft has not said how many jobs will be cut as a result of the closures, which are all being made at subsidiary Bethesda - which the tech giant bought for $7.5bn (then £5.85bn) in 2020.

"I just want to say that I love all the people at Arkane Austin so much," said studio head Harvey Smith in a post on X, external.

"Great times, hard times, we went through so much, together."

Head of Xbox Games Studios Matt Booty announced the news in an email to staff, seen by the BBC.

He said the move meant it was ending development on Arkane Austin game Redfall, with "some members of the team" joining other studios.

The company plans to “provide make-good offers” to players who had pre-ordered downloadable content for the game that will now never see the light of day.

“These changes are grounded in prioritising high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades,” he wrote.

He said there would also be "a small number of roles" cut across Bethesda's publishing and corporate teams.

'A gut stab'

Hi-Fi Rush was much admired by critics when it was released in 2023 - the game went on to win several end-of-year awards for its animation and sound design.

But alarm bells began ringing at Tango Gameworks after it was among the four games Microsoft released on rival consoles this year.

Its founder, Shinji Mikami, had already left to start his own rival studio.

The closure of Tango Gameworks means an end to the studio responsible for several popular games, including The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo.

In a short post on X, formerly Twitter, the developer thanked its fans.

"Thank you to everyone who explored the worlds we created," it said, external.

The move has been met with criticism from gamers as well as those within the company, with Dinga Bakaba, the studio head of Arkane Austin sister studio Arkane Lyon, calling the cuts "absolutely terrible".

"Permission to be human: to any executive reading this, friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry, and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them create value for you," he wrote on X.

"For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again, and it's a gut stab."

It is the latest string of cuts to come in an industry that has already seen tens of thousands of jobs lost, with Bethesda itself already facing cuts announced in January 2024.

At that point, Microsoft had around 22,000 people working in its gaming division.

BBC News
Archive [May 7 2024]
 
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tehpope said:
So the games division of Microsoft is becoming EA. Buying up studios and spitting them out after taking their games and ips.
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They were the first to be like that back during the xbox/xbox360 era. Only difference is beck then instead of actually shutting the studios down they'd just layoff nearly the entire fucking studio and replace them with people to work on kinect shovelware shit.

Also props to hi fi rush for making characters with design elements that in other games would be shitty current year elements actually well designed. West coast oligarchy can't have any ounce of Japanese development studio involvement it seems other than a useful one time only tool that then after being a hit still has them shut your studio down. Fuck you for bringing back your old tactics the second people were getting comfy with you only fucking the minecraft guys over. Between this and turning the OS into adware it's fucking godawful choices all around.
 
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Arkane Austin absolutely deserved it after how dogshit Redfall was. Zero excuses there. But Tango getting shuttered stings. Hi-Fi was a surprising launch and, even more surprisingly, actually pretty good. I hope Mikami manages to scoop up a bunch of the staff and bring them into a new studio to keep working on decent titles.
Humanhead/Roundhouse I'm not familiar with, but it looks like they released Rune 2(?) and... The Quiet Man!? Oh god. No wonder they got binned.
Alpha Dog is some mobile developer under Zenimax that made "Mighty Doom," so I'll be callous and say no real loss there.
 
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Mr.Miyagi said:
Arkane Austin absolutely deserved it after how dogshit Redfall was. Zero excuses there. But Tango getting shuttered stings. Hi-Fi was a surprising launch and, even more surprisingly, actually pretty good. I hope Mikami manages to scoop up a bunch of the staff and bring them into a new studio to keep working on decent titles.
Humanhead/Roundhouse I'm not familiar with, but it looks like they released Rune 2(?) and... The Quiet Man!? Oh god. No wonder they got binned.
Alpha Dog is some mobile developer under Zenimax that made "Mighty Doom," so I'll be callous and say no real loss there.
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Arkanes issues have been confirmed to be the result of executives etc ignoring the makers and studio saying that the game would do poorly and forcing them to crank it out double time. So another case of those who work at the top having zero clue as to how stuff actually works or what would actually sell well etc.
Tango hurts the most for me, I loved the Evil Within series and always hoped there would be a third game. Guess that's off the table now. Ghostwire Tokyo was also fun, sad won't get to see the planned sequel.
 
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WonderWino said:
I wonder how long it'll be before bethesda ends up on the chopping block
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I genuinely hope they do, Bethesda have never been a good studio and fucked up every IP they acquired, and doggedly stocked to their in house engine long after it was showing its age.

The Lawgiver said:
They were the first to be like that back during the xbox/xbox360 era. Only difference is beck then instead of actually shutting the studios down they'd just layoff nearly the entire fucking studio and replace them with people to work on kinect shovelware shit.
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longer than that in the late 90’s they bought some IP’s from Indy developers threw money at them got them close to release and then just sat on them, there was a MMORPG they had the rights to around Y2K that would have been massive like would have beaten Ultima Online and had a client for self hosted realms that was touted as coming soon then the .com bubble started to wobble before the pop and they just cancelled it, the game had gone to cd master and a few thousand had been made when they pulled the plug, because they thought the internet bubble had burst.

Rumours at the time is that’s why the original Xbox didn’t have a dedicated out the box network function they just didn’t see it as profitable and mostly a wasted effort, an when they realised they were wrong touted it hard with the 360.
 
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