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Microsoft closes Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin and others (www.gamingonlinux.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Arkane Austin was hemorrhaging talent before and during Redfalls development. In the end, there wasn't much left of the studio that had developed the Prey reboot. Hi Fi Rush and Evil Within are critical darlings, but the former only got its player base thanks to Game Pass and both didn't sell enough to keep a studio of more than 130 people alive (for perspective, that's about as many people as worked on Skyrim).

I get how sad it is to see these studios disappear and it's of course devastating for individual employees (at least in the short term), but it isn't all that surprising. Also keep in mind that the talent doesn't evaporate into thin air. We as players should pay far more attention to game credits and individual developers than the studios these people are working for. Talented developers are very likely to reappear elsewhere and continue making great games.

I think the blame for the demise of these studios is at least equally shared between Zenimax, Microsoft and the studios themselves. Blaming it all on Microsoft is a bit simplistic.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Idk id argue it is surprising. Say what you want about the performance of these games financially, but these studios were bought by one of the wealthiest companies in the world. Sure maybe the games weren't a huge hit, but like.... So? You have money. One flop and they're axed? Xbox said they want to be bigger in the Japanese market, yet they closed their only Japanese studio. A studio with a bunch of talent and training that is gone now. Xbox has a huge problem bringing studios up and getting good output. Their best exclusive (at the time) of 2023 is now without a developer. Why not eat that cost? Yes I get a lot of studios are closing right now but that shouldn't be happening at a company like Microsoft. But line must always be going up I guess

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

One flop and they’re axed?

I think this comes from the mindset that if someone isn't generating immediate success. It's time to fire them. We see this a lot in sports. Team off to a terrible start with a new coach? Fire the coach and start trading players.

It really highlights how organizations see people as disposable. If people don't make line go brrr, out the door they go.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah, lot of em moved on to make Weird West, as Wolf-Eye Studios.

It's a good game if an out-there im-sim is what you want.