Holy shit
Prey was an awesome game, so were the Evil Within games
HiFi Rush was an excellent game as well, and I remember everyone talking about the woman from Tango gameworks presenting Ghostwire Tokyo
Those are good studios, Tango was even their only japanese studio, and Microsoft only bought them like in 2021?!
Sucks, they made great games
Prey was great. I loved System Shock 2 and if I remember, Arkane did Prey as a spiritial successor of sorts to the System Shock series. Such a damn shame that these studios are getting canned.
I wish I was a billionaire so I can fund these game sequels and keep game developers going. I'll pay for a Prey sequel or the Deus Ex sequel that got canceled after 2 years of development or the System Shock 2 remake. Instead billionaires buy yachts and shit.
Say what you want about Jeff Bezos, but the only reason The Expanse was able to finish its series was because Bezos liked it enough to give it a budget despite relatively low viewership. Apple is also doing this with sci-fi in general on their streamer
Nooooo you dont get it, the billionaire needs his 5th yacth and his son needs his 3rd mansion. All of the people from those 5 studios tooootally didnt need their joooobs this the best fooooor the industry
(this shit sucks)
Ikumi Nakumura actually left Tango a while ago, and started a new studio. I think it's called Unseen.
Shinji Mikami left recently too.
But they still had Jon Johanas (director Evil Within 2 and Hi Fi Rush) and clearly a lot of other talented folks..
They take these studios who are really good at one thing, and stick them on something else, which is always some forgettable live service bullshit.
It's less an Arkane issue and more an industry-wide plague.
>I remember everyone talking about the woman from Tango gameworks presenting Ghostwire Tokyo
>However, Nakamura left the project and the company mid-development in 2019 due to her declining health. The stress of developer-publisher politics and the publisher's ultimate control over *Ghostwire: Tokyo* left her unable to sleep and struggling with daily nightmares.
Mikami left as well, in early 2023.
Especially the second departure - MS might have decided it's not worth it to keep a small, quirky, Japanese team without Mikami's name on it. They probably own the IPs anyway, so they can restructure it, keep the people they want to keep, move to US, and keep working.
Tango being shuttered is just... what? Like seriously what are you even doing? The other stuff was writing on the wall but you literally multiplatform Hi-Fi Rush just to shutter the developer because its one of your most popular and well liked games in years?
Phil and the other big wigs are fucking idiots.
1 Buy a bunch of studios for a crazy amount of money so you can have exclusives.
2 Make the games non-exclusive
3 Shut the studios down so they can't make more games.
1.5) offer games part of Netflix like package on day 1 of their release.
Can’t tell me game pass is actually making money enough to justify all their purchases
No way in hell it ever turned a profit. And even if it did, it wasn't enough. We know the gaming business, how all business is, higher profits and higher and higher, it's never enough.
"Do you want butter on your toast this morning, Phill?"
"Not today dear, I can't have spicy things this morning. But I will have a slice of lemon in my water."
"Ohhhh, big day today then?"
"No, one of my beige shirts came out of the wash slightly lighter than the other ones, and I'm scared someone will comment on it today. People might think there's trouble at home."
"Well, I'll give you half a slice so you're not too nervous looking with all that citrus in your veins."
"Good idea dear, last time I had a full slice my mind wandered so far I got trapped in thoughts of painting my office walls an off-white instead of my current white."
"You're lucky it was only the one slice, I took 2 the other week and almost hung a picture."
*Motions to windows XP desktop background picture*
He has developed an excellent "good ole' boy" character within the gaming world. I thought he would leave after Starfield, and Microsoft's decision to double down instead is terrible for Xbox.
I thought Phil was running the company really well. Wtf are these decisions??? Fuuuuuuuuuck the Activision acquisition I wish that never happened. Phil turned away Marvel when they approached him to make Spider-Man an exclusive (before they went to Sony) because he wanted to focus on IP they already have. Good move and dumb move. Why are you spending 70 billion and eyeing Nintendo when you can’t fund all your existing studios THAT YOU PURCHASED.
Phil is just another generation of corporate trash. He's the *same as Bobby Kotick, he simply has a better PR team*. Because it works. The average dude will look at Phil, say "he has a gamers core and knows what a CoD is. He's cool".
His gamerscore is some unpaid intern playing and his idea of CoD is a fish, he merely reads the texts handed him by his handlers.
Mikami has gone on record stating that he stayed at Tango for 7-8 years to make sure they'd leave the studio alone even after he's gone, with Ghostwire and Hi-Fi Rush they seemed like he did the job. Now he'll find out that Microsoft didn't care
Those IPs are literally their bargaining chips when they've got nothing left in the tank.
If they ever offer up Rare, you bet people will immediately ask for development on Banjo again to whoever buys it.
Bro, they’ve been having IP from Rare and others and done nothing with them. Phil’s been teasing Mech Assault for ten years and nothing to show for it. They’re a joke and a disgrace to gaming
Phil Spencer’s mismanagement of Xbox for the past decade is an utter disgrace.
They have spent $100bil on acqusitions only to layoff thousands of workers and shut studios down.
And in all this time they have released no must-play AAA exclusives and have killed their flagship franchises like Halo. And even if a studio releases a great game like Hi-Fi Rush they get shut down anyway.
It’s honestly shocking that they have barely managed to put out any good games after buying up half the industry. Hi fi rush is probably the highest critic ratings they’ve gotten this generation? And they shut that company down . . . What are they doing?
Yeah, most of their actually decent games they've released in the last few years were already underwork before being acquired.
The exception is the Forza games but that's such an easy formula, and IMHO, it's been very stale for three games now.
It’s not mainly because of anything external. Forza Motorsport is just a bad entry in the series. Comparing it to GT7 is fair since they are catered to the same audience, but Forza Motorsport is plain bad.
>And in all this time they have released no must-play AAA exclusives
It's almost impressive. It's like they're actively trying to make mediocre games. How do you not at least have one major success story in the last, what, 12 years? Nothing in GOTY nominations in forever. Nothing really in the gaming zeitgeist. It's kinda sad.
Xbox was my first real console and I'll always love Halo and to some extent the Xbox brand. But I've had no reason to engage with them for over a decade.
Corporate culture kills creativity. At this point, I’m certain Microsoft has corporate mandates in place that restrict what their games can be and say, leading to the sterile, boring products they routinely make. Like if I told ChatGPT to generate a game, Starfield is exactly what I’d expect.
He's cultivated a pretty stellar ''good ole' boy'' persona for the gamer community. I expected him out after Starfield, Microsoft doubling down instead bodes terribly for Xbox.
Yeah I've seen his profile on ps, like wtf? I know it's his job to play but platinum? How does he find the time? I have so many questions! And not only well known or AAA games too but smaller mostly under the radar games. So cool of him. And we don't see him very often either. He should speak more about his gaming habits.
"But he is a gamer, he is cool, he gets us"
Nah bro. Microsoft has always been a bane to this industry and I am tired of people that say the opposite just because of Halo and because they think game pass is good for the industry in the long term.
Yes to all this but still PHILL WHOLESOME CHUNGUS 💯😫
He gets and understands us as EPIC GAMERS™️😎
This is all sarcasm by the way. I much rather see a CEO do his actual job at delivering their promise than seeing a CEO utter “How do you do fellow kids” while pretending to be cool that everything is falling apart
It's like the video game executive version of the Russell Westbrook quote "He just running around, doing nothing".
Guy's getting paid to launch nothing, wear t-shirts, and shutter studios. Pathetic.
Phil is only there to serve as a positive face for the company at least to some gamers and gaming media that don’t know any better. He has pretty much led Xbox to ruin.
I've been exclusively a PS owner since PS1, and the only time I came close to getting an Xbox was the era when they had exclusives like Mass Effect, Jade Empire, etc. I couldn't afford to keep up with two consoles at the time though, so I didn't get it in the end.
But since Xbox One they've put out absolutely *nothing* that would have compelled me to buy their consoles. And despite people wanting to believe otherwise, consoles live and die by their exclusives, the average consumer doesn't give a shit about specs or what's under the hood.
Phil kept ostensibly saying "the games are coming" for a decade, and he should have become a meme a long time ago, instead of continually managing to sustain a dedicated following who defended every stupid thing Microsoft has done all these years, including all these acquisitions which even a layperson would have known were going to be squandered and abused like that Papa EA meme.
The brand should have had a change in leadership and philosophy years ago, but it's too late to turn the ship around now, considering the 'console war' is basically over. (and now Sony emboldened by that fact is acting really shitty on a regularly basis now)
This has happened before tho. During the 360 days MS closed many of its first party studios to the point where they sole relied on Gears, Halo and Forza as their first party line up with the occasional exclusive COD content thrown in. They have no idea what they’re doing and are just managing one self inflicted wound after another.
They're really lucky most of their markets are so entrenched that nobody really bother competing with them to be honest (and that it's heavy on B2B which pay a lot and don't like change)
Yeah, really started to question his abilities over the last few years. The notion of PlayStation not having a healthy competitor such as Xbox is worrisome to me.
Having a healthy vibrant Xbox and its ecosystem to compete with PlayStation is great for all consumers.
Yeah the gamepass gambit failed but most of us could have told you that before they even tried. Now they are shedding their Niche studios; eventually will shed hardware and are going to focus on a few GAAS and AAA going forward. Thats going to be the future of Xbox
Gamepass is the Chinese buffet of gaming, you want a little of everything and every now and again you find something delicious you eat for a little longer.
Then you don’t come back until they add new stuff to the menu.
Subscriptions in a nutshell. Their goal is you just forget about it and keep paying. Poor economy killed that dream and even irresponsible people have apps to manage their Subscriptions now.
I am genuinely stunned that Tango is being shuttered. Like what? They were one of your most impressive studios, and a small one at that too. They gave you probably your most well received game of the generation last year, and you shut them down? Make it make sense.
They don't want good games. They want to funnel all players into mainstream monolithic games as service with new bundles for sale, every few days, like CoD and fortnite. They don't want any perspective of fancy "creative gaming" to open player's eyes and raise comparing questions to the gruel they're serving. They want to bring ads into games, they want to sell subscriptions, they don't want a good game as an option, as a competitor.
I absolutely despised the literal journalists saying how this level of consolidation would enable teams to make whatever they want. Hi-Fi Rush was arguably the most loved Xbox game last year. So much for creative empowerment.
I was just thinking about how good the acquisition if Zenimax was the other day, the got Wolfenstien, HiFi rush, DOOM, Fallout, Elderscrolls, Starfield, Dishonored, Quake, Ghostwire, Deathloop, Prey, Evilwithin, etc.
They got so many studios as well, to increase their first party output, combined with how they acquired Obsidian Entertainment, InXile entertainment, Ninja Theory, so many others.
I guess arcane isn't necessarily closed, since arcane Lyon who made Deathloop & Dishonored is still fine, but Tango seems to have been a talented team. All of this for 7.3 billion which MS makes profit in like a month I think?
Nooo you don’t understand, Microsoft can save Call of Duty!
It’s not like they already own a triple A shooter that they drove into the ground or anything.
It's kinda crazy looking at the original 3 year old thread of the purchase announcement where people we're cheering about getting a new Dishonored or Fallout New Vegas 2 for Xbox and how it was going to drive Xbox sales through the roof.
And now, Redfall bombed, Starfield came and went, Microsoft just closed a studio that made one of the most well recieved game in the mix, Hi-Fi Rush, MS wants to rush a Fallout game to meet the hype of the show (which seems like a horrible idea)and Xbox sales are trailing behing a console that is getting ready to be replaced by It's successor.
Microsoft buying Zenimax for 7.5 billion didn't really seem to pan out like a lot of people thought it was.
And thats the thing. Bethesda games are already notoriously buggy at launch with year of development in the game.
Rushing a Fallout game to make money off the hype of the tv show, I wouldn't be suprised if we get one hour of playable content on release, and then months of patches to make the rest work.
Me as a Rare fan from the 90s: "first time?"
For real though, I've been saying this the whole time. I have not trusted Microsoft as a game publisher since they bought Rare and then they immediately went to crap. I don't even care that the people in charge of Xbox today are different than the ones in charge back then, it's still a pattern of just buying something that is "hot" so they can claim it as their own only to then run it into the ground.
Those cheerleaders clearly have never paid attention to other huge billion dollar mergers and acquisitions. Microsoft is going to cut all the fat possible until their game division is optimized to make the most profit. And that's by only putting out CoD, Diablo, Elder Scrolls, etc.
They really don't care about their own platform, gamers, "the industry" or any of that. It's all about money.
They won't. Xbox fans were rooting harder for Blizzard games, that they've never played, to be "Xbox exclusive", more than their own franchises to be taken care of and the studios that make them. It's like when they thought that an $80 Billion dollar loan from a trillion dollar parent company wasn't going to turn Microsoft into a third party like publisher after they see the revenue made from shit like Diablo 4, COD, Overwatch, etc. I thought the Bethesda acquisition made sense. ABK was absolutely insane.
No doubt, I loved the 360 but they ran out of games after that. I bought a series x because I couldn't get a ps5 at launch but sold it a year later. Still no games and now they do this.
Microsoft is grossly incompetent at their gaming division. This is the company that was so stupid that they fumbled HALO of all things. 4 separate times, actually. If you can’t make people excited for Halo then you shouldn’t continue making games. The management at MS is so abysmal. And the fact that they had to purchase the biggest game publisher in the world just to even have a chance of staying in the competition is so telling as to how stupid the people running this company are. Now watch them fuck up every IP they bought even further.
>This is the company that was so stupid that they fumbled HALO of all things
This is what's getting me. They're gonna kill fucking TANGO but not 343?! The nepo hires that killed off the greatest Xbox IP in history?! Complete fucking idiots.
Letting 343 publicly humiliate them over and over is an insane choice. They just keep getting away with it. This was the single most hyped up video game franchise in history. Nothing on earth moved more of a specific console than halo did. To piss away all of that reputation to the point where nobody really cares anymore is so embarrassing.
Fuck this. I loved hi fi rush. The one freaking good game microsoft had in a long time, (that they didn't even make, just acquired) and they freaking get rid of it!
What the heck is up with microsoft? Are they trying to just throw in the towel? I mean come on.
Redfall makes perfect sense but keep your strong stuff at the very least. Seriously!
I think it's the opposite. I think he's regretting staying in the first place.
He was planning to leave in 2020 or 2021 but decided to stay 2 more years to help the studio with the transition under Microsoft. It was also reported that Xbox was investing heavily in the studio during that time.
I can't imagine how he feels right now.
Arkane Austin had very little to nothing to do with Dishonored though.
Arkane Lyon is Dishonored, Deathloop.
Arkane Austin is Prey, Redfall.
Different studios and different devs.
It’s insane how many Xbox fans were rooting for these acqusitions for “muh free GamePass games”. Well, I hope they are happy, Bethesda has just been fucked.
Seriously, I hope they just realized Microsoft acquiring all these studios doesn't necessary guarantee *more* games for gamepass. Microsoft is now definitely in number crunching mode, they're gonna shut down all the unprofitable stuff and double down on what actually makes money; live service games like sea of thieves and grounded and very big game franchises like fallout or elder scrolls.
And if they only make a few of these a year, aren't you just better off buying them instead of constantly subbing to gamepass?
It’s absolutely crazy to try and judge studios by profitability when you literally cripple the sales of all of there games by putting them on gamepass day one
I’ve been saying this for years, and now the streaming companies are seeing it. You have to either make content to feed the beast, or license content. Both are very expensive, and are only gonna get more expensive.
Because of that, you have to have enough subscribers to offset that cost, which is why a lot of streaming services are hemorrhaging subscribers. GP is no different. It’s why you don’t see more big, third party titles on there - it’s too expensive to get them on GP.
I have to assume it's kind of a sunk cost fallacy. They've been subbed for years and can't see how Microsoft is gonna play similiar playbook to other sub services like Netflix:
Focus more on content they can self publish.
Stop cutting as many deals to get others on your service.
Cut costs on experimental/smaller stuff (like how netflix straight up doesn't renew shows if the first season doesn't perfom well)
Raise price of subscription over time
Cut tiers/promotions (like how you used to get a 1:1 conversion of XBL gold to gamepass, but now it's like 3:2)
They own Candy Crush and Call of Duty now so they don't need to worry about making good games anymore. Shutting everything else down and enjoying their easy money that will flow in nonstop for years to come.
Lol wait wait I thought Microsoft was trying to ‘build’ their brand for Japanese markets- then they acquire a talented Japanese studio that produced one of the most beloved games of the year and subsequently… shut it down.
What a bucket of absolute tools
Arkane Lyon is still around and they helped on prey, but I doubt morale is gonna be all that high. Plus the two cofounders of the studio left after prey anyway so this is probably just the writing on the wall for Lyon.
Maybe check out Weird west? The studio heads made a new studio called Wolfeye and it’s a 3d isometric immersive sim set in a fictionalized Wild West. Really solid
It's okay, they'll sit on the IP for a decade, buy Platinum to make a live-service competitive multiplayer sidequel, then shutter Platinum when it doesn't double GamePass subs. It'll be fine.
Fucking Tango Gameworks? Of all of the Bethesda studios I was salty about Microsoft owning, it was them. And despite the fact that they're responsible for one of the best received Microsoft games in years, they've seen fit to pull the plug on them. Prey was no slouch either.
Mikami knew what was up and bounced, hope he can bring over some of their talent with him.
Microsoft, the gift that keeps on giving to the industry /s
Microsoft is pivoting their plans again. The original plan wad to keep xbox as a competitor to playstation and push gamepass into every home, whether on a console, computer, phone, or TV. Now xbox is being subset slowly and focus on gamepass Increasing. The next move is to get either nintendo or sony to host gamepass on their system and just rake in money thay way.
Why would Sony or Nintendo allow a direct competitor to cannibalize sales of not just games on their system, but their subscriptions as well?
It's also painfully obvious that neither Nintendo or Sony need it.
It’s like Xbox themselves want people to buy PlayStations, their decision making is beyond idiotic at this point. Sony doesn’t even have to do anything, and Xbox is still fucking itself to death.
Utterly amazing.
This is a reminder to everyone who was championing this acquisition for new titles with Microsoft helming the studios. This is what happens when gigantic corporations buy other corporations. Things are culled to make money. I've hated the idea of these huge acquisitions from the beginning and Microsoft has done nothing but confirm my fears.
More proof that Game Pass is unsustainable. Hi Fi Rush got nothing but praise but that doesn’t mean shit if nobody’s actually buying the game.
Cannot wait to see what happens with Call of Duty this fall. I know they’ve said they’re putting in on GP but I just seriously do not think the bean counters are MS being okay with leaving that much money on the table. My bet is that there will start to be different tiers of subscriptions
No shot in hell they let folks get by with trying call of duty for like $15.
Soon as half the consumers try it, they will see it's not any good, again.
> Didn't Hifi Rush do well?
No, there was a leak a few weeks or so after launch that Microsoft was not happy with the game pass numbers for the game. Microsoft of course came out and said that was total BS, but honestly it felt really defensive to me even at the time. And I think now given that Tango is being shut down it was absolutely true.
Sales wise it was never gonna do well because it was game pass fodder.
Phil Spencer was worse than Don Mattrick.
That being said, he should get into politics because it is impressive how he had people bamboozled into thinking he was doing great for Xbox for so long.
> Phil Spencer was worse than Don Mattrick
I've been saying this shit for nearly a decade at this point. The ONLY single good thing he has ever done while in charge of Xbox is the backwards compatibility program - and even that I am not completely happy with how he handled it. Would have just preferred a generic emulator myself seeing as the vast majority of my original Xbox and 360 games didn't make the cut to become bc before they shut the program down.
"Microsoft will save every studio and give them the funding they need and a fresh spirit also they will profit from gamepass"
Aged like milk. Wait until the next COD doesn't meet expectations and MS is meddeling with the productions.
I mean, Arkane I was expecting after Redfall... it still make my heart bleed since Prey is still today a really good and underlooked game, and I'm sure that Redfall has tons of potential ruined by all those sheananigans during transitions genre.
But Tango Gameworks? What? HOW.
Well they got the golden goose with Activision. Every year they can pump out half baked cods.
These games are always in the top 5 of best selling games each and every year.
There is no incentive in Xbox’s side to create these passion projects or smaller scale games. It’s cod or bust
Now Phil can lean back, relax and watch the steady stream of money coming in while Xbox is on autopilot
Wow I'm not normally vocal about stuff like this but Prey is one of my top 5 all timers. This sucks. One crappy live service release and Microsoft puts a bullet in their head.
It really feels like Xbox is on the fast track to becoming a third-party publisher that also releases gaming hardware rather than being a true 'platform' like Nintendo and Playstation. Each month we get news that further cements that trajectory, whether it be cross-plat releases, handheld hardware rumors, or this type of news.
I figured in January or February that there was no way that happens in the next decade. But now it seems plausible. Their business model is clearly dysfunctional. They don't have enough GP growth. They don't have games people are dying to play. They don't have a vision for what they provide to the industry (Nintendo and Sony clearly do).
I think this industry is better with a healthy Xbox to compete with Sony. I don't care too much about Xbox dying at this point besides worrying what Sony would do without any real competition in the space.
As someone who was always against big corps consolidating in gaming. And has always been told I’m wrong because “gamepass” or “Phil Everyman Spencer”.
It’s a real I told you so moment. Problem is, you can’t even revel in it because Microsoft likely own some of your favourite IP and there’s a chance they will sunset it.
As someone who has a series X and held out hope for Xbox, this is the breaking point. I loved ghostwire so so much and hi fi rush (the guy who directed that is an incredible creative force, as is the entire team). And Arkane Austin gets punished for one poor game. Excuse my French - fuck the Xbox team and their terrible management.
All Redfall needed to do was deliver on the same singleplayer sandbox exp we all love and they made a half passed vampire borderlands with no soul. Which sucks because the setting and art style were really good for the game. Everything else was just halfbaked. Should have removed the live service multi-player aspect and doubled down on what they are good at.
OK, so they lay off 1900 staff at the start of the year, shut down 3 studios 3 months later, PlayStation had layoffs a little while back, there's was the infamous turkey that was The Day Before back in December, and just how many video game layoffs and shutdowns are we up to now for the last half a year?
“Microsoft is gonna leverage all of these new gaming studios to make great new games and bring life back to unused IPs.” - Uneducated Prognosticators on the Internet.
“Microsoft is a hungry devouring behemoth that reduces once great creative talent of amazing intellectual properties to absolutely mediocre tombstones dotting the landscape.” - Actual Truth.
Does anyone else here feel this could be part of a gradual restructuring of the Xbox brand? It looks like they are focusing solely on being a subscription based service while working on only a few tentpole franchises to create “premium” titles to incentivize different subscription tiers? (CoD, Halo, Fallout, Elder Scrolls)
This is disgusting. Hi-Fi Rush was a well received game and the development team clearly deserved the acclaim, especially after seeing how much love and care went into it. The development team should have been given another chance to build off the goodwill. Microsoft is worse than EA at this point.
And people thought Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard was a good idea. They were never about supporting gamers or the developers that make the games. Hell they’ve even gave up on Xbox as a console competitor.
Holy shit Prey was an awesome game, so were the Evil Within games HiFi Rush was an excellent game as well, and I remember everyone talking about the woman from Tango gameworks presenting Ghostwire Tokyo Those are good studios, Tango was even their only japanese studio, and Microsoft only bought them like in 2021?! Sucks, they made great games
Prey was great. I loved System Shock 2 and if I remember, Arkane did Prey as a spiritial successor of sorts to the System Shock series. Such a damn shame that these studios are getting canned. I wish I was a billionaire so I can fund these game sequels and keep game developers going. I'll pay for a Prey sequel or the Deus Ex sequel that got canceled after 2 years of development or the System Shock 2 remake. Instead billionaires buy yachts and shit.
Say what you want about Jeff Bezos, but the only reason The Expanse was able to finish its series was because Bezos liked it enough to give it a budget despite relatively low viewership. Apple is also doing this with sci-fi in general on their streamer
I get an Apple TV subscription like once a year for a month and just binge the fuck out of their sci-fi shows. They are releasing some bangers.
Nooooo you dont get it, the billionaire needs his 5th yacth and his son needs his 3rd mansion. All of the people from those 5 studios tooootally didnt need their joooobs this the best fooooor the industry (this shit sucks)
Ikumi Nakumura actually left Tango a while ago, and started a new studio. I think it's called Unseen. Shinji Mikami left recently too. But they still had Jon Johanas (director Evil Within 2 and Hi Fi Rush) and clearly a lot of other talented folks..
Redfall was a disaster though. In this industry it seems that you're only as good as your last product.
Depending on turnover rates and development times, the majority of what a studio is may just be the last product.
They take these studios who are really good at one thing, and stick them on something else, which is always some forgettable live service bullshit. It's less an Arkane issue and more an industry-wide plague.
Then Tango should have been spared. Arguably the best MS game in years
And Hi Fi Rush wasn't, neither was Ghostwire TBH. Starfield was mediocre & Bethesda Softworks are still around
>I remember everyone talking about the woman from Tango gameworks presenting Ghostwire Tokyo >However, Nakamura left the project and the company mid-development in 2019 due to her declining health. The stress of developer-publisher politics and the publisher's ultimate control over *Ghostwire: Tokyo* left her unable to sleep and struggling with daily nightmares. Mikami left as well, in early 2023. Especially the second departure - MS might have decided it's not worth it to keep a small, quirky, Japanese team without Mikami's name on it. They probably own the IPs anyway, so they can restructure it, keep the people they want to keep, move to US, and keep working.
Tango being shuttered is just... what? Like seriously what are you even doing? The other stuff was writing on the wall but you literally multiplatform Hi-Fi Rush just to shutter the developer because its one of your most popular and well liked games in years? Phil and the other big wigs are fucking idiots.
1 Buy a bunch of studios for a crazy amount of money so you can have exclusives. 2 Make the games non-exclusive 3 Shut the studios down so they can't make more games.
*Microsoft looks at Embracer buying and closing down studios* I’ll have some of that!
1.5) offer games part of Netflix like package on day 1 of their release. Can’t tell me game pass is actually making money enough to justify all their purchases
No way in hell it ever turned a profit. And even if it did, it wasn't enough. We know the gaming business, how all business is, higher profits and higher and higher, it's never enough.
Todd is going next.
16x the severance
Hifi rush is such a masterfully made artistic game filled with so much love. It's absolutely devastating.
> Hifi rush is such a masterfully made artistic game filled with so much love. So Microsoft decided "we don't want any part of that".
"Do you want butter on your toast this morning, Phill?" "Not today dear, I can't have spicy things this morning. But I will have a slice of lemon in my water." "Ohhhh, big day today then?" "No, one of my beige shirts came out of the wash slightly lighter than the other ones, and I'm scared someone will comment on it today. People might think there's trouble at home." "Well, I'll give you half a slice so you're not too nervous looking with all that citrus in your veins." "Good idea dear, last time I had a full slice my mind wandered so far I got trapped in thoughts of painting my office walls an off-white instead of my current white." "You're lucky it was only the one slice, I took 2 the other week and almost hung a picture." *Motions to windows XP desktop background picture*
He has developed an excellent "good ole' boy" character within the gaming world. I thought he would leave after Starfield, and Microsoft's decision to double down instead is terrible for Xbox.
Hi-Fi Rush being canned fucking hurts. #Fuck this
I thought Phil was running the company really well. Wtf are these decisions??? Fuuuuuuuuuck the Activision acquisition I wish that never happened. Phil turned away Marvel when they approached him to make Spider-Man an exclusive (before they went to Sony) because he wanted to focus on IP they already have. Good move and dumb move. Why are you spending 70 billion and eyeing Nintendo when you can’t fund all your existing studios THAT YOU PURCHASED.
Phil is just another generation of corporate trash. He's the *same as Bobby Kotick, he simply has a better PR team*. Because it works. The average dude will look at Phil, say "he has a gamers core and knows what a CoD is. He's cool". His gamerscore is some unpaid intern playing and his idea of CoD is a fish, he merely reads the texts handed him by his handlers.
Correction. Marvel approached them to make a marvel game. Not a Spiderman game.
To be fair none of Tango’s releases were a financial success, the writing was on the wall with Shinji Mikami leaving
Mikami has gone on record stating that he stayed at Tango for 7-8 years to make sure they'd leave the studio alone even after he's gone, with Ghostwire and Hi-Fi Rush they seemed like he did the job. Now he'll find out that Microsoft didn't care
So the big MS plan is to buy all the IPs and sit on them because they sacked all the developers? Sony aren't saints but this lot are a dumpster fire.
Remember that they have all the IPs from Rare that they do nothing with.
Those IPs are literally their bargaining chips when they've got nothing left in the tank. If they ever offer up Rare, you bet people will immediately ask for development on Banjo again to whoever buys it.
A proper Perfect Dark sequel/reboot would also be good
I absolutely despise companies that sit on their IPs forever. I’d rather they sell it to another company who actually wants to do something with them.
Konami entered in the chat...
Bro, they’ve been having IP from Rare and others and done nothing with them. Phil’s been teasing Mech Assault for ten years and nothing to show for it. They’re a joke and a disgrace to gaming
Sounds like Sony could launch a new small Tokyo studio, hire the Tango staff, and start making some good games.
Sony had some of the best Japanese studios and they killed them all. I doubt anyone is going to bother working under them anymore.
Sony had small Japan studio with decent games and closed it few years ago
It would be a very good idea, but Sony seenmto have completely given up on any area that's not America.
Phil Spencer’s mismanagement of Xbox for the past decade is an utter disgrace. They have spent $100bil on acqusitions only to layoff thousands of workers and shut studios down. And in all this time they have released no must-play AAA exclusives and have killed their flagship franchises like Halo. And even if a studio releases a great game like Hi-Fi Rush they get shut down anyway.
It’s honestly shocking that they have barely managed to put out any good games after buying up half the industry. Hi fi rush is probably the highest critic ratings they’ve gotten this generation? And they shut that company down . . . What are they doing?
Yeah, most of their actually decent games they've released in the last few years were already underwork before being acquired. The exception is the Forza games but that's such an easy formula, and IMHO, it's been very stale for three games now.
Even Forza isn’t a sure thing. The newest Forza Motorsport is a disgrace on the series. Forza Horizon is holding strong though.
[удалено]
It’s not mainly because of anything external. Forza Motorsport is just a bad entry in the series. Comparing it to GT7 is fair since they are catered to the same audience, but Forza Motorsport is plain bad.
>And in all this time they have released no must-play AAA exclusives It's almost impressive. It's like they're actively trying to make mediocre games. How do you not at least have one major success story in the last, what, 12 years? Nothing in GOTY nominations in forever. Nothing really in the gaming zeitgeist. It's kinda sad. Xbox was my first real console and I'll always love Halo and to some extent the Xbox brand. But I've had no reason to engage with them for over a decade.
Corporate culture kills creativity. At this point, I’m certain Microsoft has corporate mandates in place that restrict what their games can be and say, leading to the sterile, boring products they routinely make. Like if I told ChatGPT to generate a game, Starfield is exactly what I’d expect.
He's cultivated a pretty stellar ''good ole' boy'' persona for the gamer community. I expected him out after Starfield, Microsoft doubling down instead bodes terribly for Xbox.
This speaks to a personal reason be has the job and not on merit. Not an uncommon problem in today's corporate America.
The fact that he's had a defence force all these years is truly insane.
Phil Spencer, great at PR. Atrocious at managing a portfolio of game development studios.
You don't understand he's a gamer! He's like us and wants what we want!
Have you seen his blue jeans? Truly a man of the people!
He's the reason I game in jeans and a blazer
Mark Cerny is a proper gamer. He platinums ridiculously difficult games
Yeah I've seen his profile on ps, like wtf? I know it's his job to play but platinum? How does he find the time? I have so many questions! And not only well known or AAA games too but smaller mostly under the radar games. So cool of him. And we don't see him very often either. He should speak more about his gaming habits.
Sounds like a good leader. We don't need to see him the devs do.
Someone like Mark Cerny does not get enough praise for everything he does, he's great at his job and loves what he does too
And he said ok to a halo infinite demo
It’s cause he looks like your average greasy gamer bro who will play Halo split screen with you. Edit: “Gaming”
He looks like the bug villain from Men in Black lol
That's how cult works
SkillUp every single week: "BuT UnClE PhIl!!!!!!"
“hE’S oNe of US!!!!” The dude is as corporate as it comes and works for Microsoft. Way too many people forget who the parent company of Xbox is.
The GamerBro PR is working very well.
looking forward to Kinda Funny host yet another Phil Spencer apology tour
Yeah im surprised that guy is still there.
"But he is a gamer, he is cool, he gets us" Nah bro. Microsoft has always been a bane to this industry and I am tired of people that say the opposite just because of Halo and because they think game pass is good for the industry in the long term.
Yes to all this but still PHILL WHOLESOME CHUNGUS 💯😫 He gets and understands us as EPIC GAMERS™️😎 This is all sarcasm by the way. I much rather see a CEO do his actual job at delivering their promise than seeing a CEO utter “How do you do fellow kids” while pretending to be cool that everything is falling apart
It's like the video game executive version of the Russell Westbrook quote "He just running around, doing nothing". Guy's getting paid to launch nothing, wear t-shirts, and shutter studios. Pathetic.
Yes but he wore a cool gamer shirt so it’s ok/s
And has a Switch in his background
Phil is only there to serve as a positive face for the company at least to some gamers and gaming media that don’t know any better. He has pretty much led Xbox to ruin.
Phil Spencer's incompetence has gone too far. He needs to go.
To be honest, even prior to aquisitions and whatnot, they barely released anything noteworthy.
I've been exclusively a PS owner since PS1, and the only time I came close to getting an Xbox was the era when they had exclusives like Mass Effect, Jade Empire, etc. I couldn't afford to keep up with two consoles at the time though, so I didn't get it in the end. But since Xbox One they've put out absolutely *nothing* that would have compelled me to buy their consoles. And despite people wanting to believe otherwise, consoles live and die by their exclusives, the average consumer doesn't give a shit about specs or what's under the hood. Phil kept ostensibly saying "the games are coming" for a decade, and he should have become a meme a long time ago, instead of continually managing to sustain a dedicated following who defended every stupid thing Microsoft has done all these years, including all these acquisitions which even a layperson would have known were going to be squandered and abused like that Papa EA meme. The brand should have had a change in leadership and philosophy years ago, but it's too late to turn the ship around now, considering the 'console war' is basically over. (and now Sony emboldened by that fact is acting really shitty on a regularly basis now)
Best analogy I heard is Microsoft is buying used cars to race Sony in an F1 car they built from the ground up.
This has happened before tho. During the 360 days MS closed many of its first party studios to the point where they sole relied on Gears, Halo and Forza as their first party line up with the occasional exclusive COD content thrown in. They have no idea what they’re doing and are just managing one self inflicted wound after another.
I mean.. in a way Microsoft does this with their pc products too.
They're really lucky most of their markets are so entrenched that nobody really bother competing with them to be honest (and that it's heavy on B2B which pay a lot and don't like change)
At this point he's pretty much responsible for everything about where Xbox is right now. Don Mattrick has what? 10% of the blame?
He'd rather just take away the other kid's toys at the playground than make his own.
Yeah, really started to question his abilities over the last few years. The notion of PlayStation not having a healthy competitor such as Xbox is worrisome to me. Having a healthy vibrant Xbox and its ecosystem to compete with PlayStation is great for all consumers.
Embracer: Buys, mismanages, and shuts down multiple studios in short order, to the dismay of the whole gaming community Phil Spencer: "Hold my beer.."
At least Embracer actually put out some cool AA games and did some remasters of cult classic games lol. Microsoft failed to even reach their level.
I'd argue the *idea* behind Embracer was good. Too bad the people in charge of it were incompetent.
Nice Microsoft! Way to go, closing a dev studio that brought you the closest to a GOTY with Hi-Fi Rush
But it didn't sell gamepass to every home so it is a spectacular failure!
Yeah the gamepass gambit failed but most of us could have told you that before they even tried. Now they are shedding their Niche studios; eventually will shed hardware and are going to focus on a few GAAS and AAA going forward. Thats going to be the future of Xbox
Gamepass is the Chinese buffet of gaming, you want a little of everything and every now and again you find something delicious you eat for a little longer. Then you don’t come back until they add new stuff to the menu.
Subscriptions in a nutshell. Their goal is you just forget about it and keep paying. Poor economy killed that dream and even irresponsible people have apps to manage their Subscriptions now.
I am genuinely stunned that Tango is being shuttered. Like what? They were one of your most impressive studios, and a small one at that too. They gave you probably your most well received game of the generation last year, and you shut them down? Make it make sense.
They don't want good games. They want to funnel all players into mainstream monolithic games as service with new bundles for sale, every few days, like CoD and fortnite. They don't want any perspective of fancy "creative gaming" to open player's eyes and raise comparing questions to the gruel they're serving. They want to bring ads into games, they want to sell subscriptions, they don't want a good game as an option, as a competitor.
I absolutely despised the literal journalists saying how this level of consolidation would enable teams to make whatever they want. Hi-Fi Rush was arguably the most loved Xbox game last year. So much for creative empowerment.
I was just thinking about how good the acquisition if Zenimax was the other day, the got Wolfenstien, HiFi rush, DOOM, Fallout, Elderscrolls, Starfield, Dishonored, Quake, Ghostwire, Deathloop, Prey, Evilwithin, etc. They got so many studios as well, to increase their first party output, combined with how they acquired Obsidian Entertainment, InXile entertainment, Ninja Theory, so many others. I guess arcane isn't necessarily closed, since arcane Lyon who made Deathloop & Dishonored is still fine, but Tango seems to have been a talented team. All of this for 7.3 billion which MS makes profit in like a month I think?
When are the acquisition cheerleaders going to admit they are fucking idiots and Microsoft are destroying this industry?
I don't think people who clap like lobotomised seals for consolidation of the industry have "introspection" on their list of strong suits.
Accept my wordsmith of the day award.
Lol, thank you. I usually do my best writing while sitting in the pooper at work.
OK several studios shut down, thousands of people lost their job. It's bad, but how important is it compared to me getting Diablo on Gamrpass? /s
Nooo you don’t understand, Microsoft can save Call of Duty! It’s not like they already own a triple A shooter that they drove into the ground or anything.
they are too busy trying to convince each other about what a great value gamepass is.
“But it’s the best value in gaming!!!”
It's kinda crazy looking at the original 3 year old thread of the purchase announcement where people we're cheering about getting a new Dishonored or Fallout New Vegas 2 for Xbox and how it was going to drive Xbox sales through the roof. And now, Redfall bombed, Starfield came and went, Microsoft just closed a studio that made one of the most well recieved game in the mix, Hi-Fi Rush, MS wants to rush a Fallout game to meet the hype of the show (which seems like a horrible idea)and Xbox sales are trailing behing a console that is getting ready to be replaced by It's successor. Microsoft buying Zenimax for 7.5 billion didn't really seem to pan out like a lot of people thought it was.
Starfield was meh. Fallout 76 was dumpster on release. If Xbone rushes Fallout, its gonna be the worst game of the decade.
And thats the thing. Bethesda games are already notoriously buggy at launch with year of development in the game. Rushing a Fallout game to make money off the hype of the tv show, I wouldn't be suprised if we get one hour of playable content on release, and then months of patches to make the rest work.
I can't believe people forgot the trainwreck 76 was at launch.
Me as a Rare fan from the 90s: "first time?" For real though, I've been saying this the whole time. I have not trusted Microsoft as a game publisher since they bought Rare and then they immediately went to crap. I don't even care that the people in charge of Xbox today are different than the ones in charge back then, it's still a pattern of just buying something that is "hot" so they can claim it as their own only to then run it into the ground.
Those cheerleaders clearly have never paid attention to other huge billion dollar mergers and acquisitions. Microsoft is going to cut all the fat possible until their game division is optimized to make the most profit. And that's by only putting out CoD, Diablo, Elder Scrolls, etc. They really don't care about their own platform, gamers, "the industry" or any of that. It's all about money.
They won't. Xbox fans were rooting harder for Blizzard games, that they've never played, to be "Xbox exclusive", more than their own franchises to be taken care of and the studios that make them. It's like when they thought that an $80 Billion dollar loan from a trillion dollar parent company wasn't going to turn Microsoft into a third party like publisher after they see the revenue made from shit like Diablo 4, COD, Overwatch, etc. I thought the Bethesda acquisition made sense. ABK was absolutely insane.
One of the best decisions many of us made was to make the switch from the 360 to the PS4 last gen.
No doubt, I loved the 360 but they ran out of games after that. I bought a series x because I couldn't get a ps5 at launch but sold it a year later. Still no games and now they do this.
Shutting down Tango is fucking bullshit. Don’t blame the studio when your service influences people to not buy your games.
Man, that is ridiculous. Hi-Fi Rush is so good. Apparently, you can make a great game these days and still have the studio shut down.
Microsoft is grossly incompetent at their gaming division. This is the company that was so stupid that they fumbled HALO of all things. 4 separate times, actually. If you can’t make people excited for Halo then you shouldn’t continue making games. The management at MS is so abysmal. And the fact that they had to purchase the biggest game publisher in the world just to even have a chance of staying in the competition is so telling as to how stupid the people running this company are. Now watch them fuck up every IP they bought even further.
>This is the company that was so stupid that they fumbled HALO of all things This is what's getting me. They're gonna kill fucking TANGO but not 343?! The nepo hires that killed off the greatest Xbox IP in history?! Complete fucking idiots.
Letting 343 publicly humiliate them over and over is an insane choice. They just keep getting away with it. This was the single most hyped up video game franchise in history. Nothing on earth moved more of a specific console than halo did. To piss away all of that reputation to the point where nobody really cares anymore is so embarrassing.
Fuck this. I loved hi fi rush. The one freaking good game microsoft had in a long time, (that they didn't even make, just acquired) and they freaking get rid of it! What the heck is up with microsoft? Are they trying to just throw in the towel? I mean come on. Redfall makes perfect sense but keep your strong stuff at the very least. Seriously!
Yeah Mikami knew this was coming so he left.
I think it's the opposite. I think he's regretting staying in the first place. He was planning to leave in 2020 or 2021 but decided to stay 2 more years to help the studio with the transition under Microsoft. It was also reported that Xbox was investing heavily in the studio during that time. I can't imagine how he feels right now.
Makes a lot more sense now
Microsoft buying half the industry is good, though, right? Crazy how Arkane was one bad game away from closure. Prey is a top 10 game for me.
Prey is legendary, but also Dishonoured series. Arkane was one of the last studios keeping immersive sim genre alive.
Arkane Austin had very little to nothing to do with Dishonored though. Arkane Lyon is Dishonored, Deathloop. Arkane Austin is Prey, Redfall. Different studios and different devs.
It’s insane how many Xbox fans were rooting for these acqusitions for “muh free GamePass games”. Well, I hope they are happy, Bethesda has just been fucked.
Seriously, I hope they just realized Microsoft acquiring all these studios doesn't necessary guarantee *more* games for gamepass. Microsoft is now definitely in number crunching mode, they're gonna shut down all the unprofitable stuff and double down on what actually makes money; live service games like sea of thieves and grounded and very big game franchises like fallout or elder scrolls. And if they only make a few of these a year, aren't you just better off buying them instead of constantly subbing to gamepass?
It’s absolutely crazy to try and judge studios by profitability when you literally cripple the sales of all of there games by putting them on gamepass day one
people are *still* defending Game Pass so sadly there'll always be delusional and gullible people
Game Pass is bad for studios, it devalues games. But gamers don't care cause they get to play on the cheap
I’ve been saying this for years, and now the streaming companies are seeing it. You have to either make content to feed the beast, or license content. Both are very expensive, and are only gonna get more expensive. Because of that, you have to have enough subscribers to offset that cost, which is why a lot of streaming services are hemorrhaging subscribers. GP is no different. It’s why you don’t see more big, third party titles on there - it’s too expensive to get them on GP.
I have to assume it's kind of a sunk cost fallacy. They've been subbed for years and can't see how Microsoft is gonna play similiar playbook to other sub services like Netflix: Focus more on content they can self publish. Stop cutting as many deals to get others on your service. Cut costs on experimental/smaller stuff (like how netflix straight up doesn't renew shows if the first season doesn't perfom well) Raise price of subscription over time Cut tiers/promotions (like how you used to get a 1:1 conversion of XBL gold to gamepass, but now it's like 3:2)
subscription services do not belong in the games industry. for all consoles.
A large section of that fanbase just cares about being able to one up internet folks lmao
They own Candy Crush and Call of Duty now so they don't need to worry about making good games anymore. Shutting everything else down and enjoying their easy money that will flow in nonstop for years to come.
Lol wait wait I thought Microsoft was trying to ‘build’ their brand for Japanese markets- then they acquire a talented Japanese studio that produced one of the most beloved games of the year and subsequently… shut it down. What a bucket of absolute tools
Fuck, I guess we’re never getting The Evil Within 3 or Ghostwire Tokyo 2 💔
Or another Prey. :(
Arkane Lyon is still around and they helped on prey, but I doubt morale is gonna be all that high. Plus the two cofounders of the studio left after prey anyway so this is probably just the writing on the wall for Lyon. Maybe check out Weird west? The studio heads made a new studio called Wolfeye and it’s a 3d isometric immersive sim set in a fictionalized Wild West. Really solid
Ghostwire Tokyo 2 was never happening anyway, but another Hi-Fi Rush seemed like a no brainer.
It's okay, they'll sit on the IP for a decade, buy Platinum to make a live-service competitive multiplayer sidequel, then shutter Platinum when it doesn't double GamePass subs. It'll be fine.
Fucking Tango Gameworks? Of all of the Bethesda studios I was salty about Microsoft owning, it was them. And despite the fact that they're responsible for one of the best received Microsoft games in years, they've seen fit to pull the plug on them. Prey was no slouch either. Mikami knew what was up and bounced, hope he can bring over some of their talent with him. Microsoft, the gift that keeps on giving to the industry /s
It's absolutely crazy how incompetent Xbox leadership is...just wow. I'm not huge on Hifi Rush but that was easily their best game in the last decade.
Microsoft is pivoting their plans again. The original plan wad to keep xbox as a competitor to playstation and push gamepass into every home, whether on a console, computer, phone, or TV. Now xbox is being subset slowly and focus on gamepass Increasing. The next move is to get either nintendo or sony to host gamepass on their system and just rake in money thay way.
Why would Sony or Nintendo allow a direct competitor to cannibalize sales of not just games on their system, but their subscriptions as well? It's also painfully obvious that neither Nintendo or Sony need it.
I feel like their next move is to offering their games on ps and Nintendo for full price in order to offset the cost of gamepass.
Phil Spencer is my hero. He has personally made sure I will never go near an Xbox ever again.
It’s like Xbox themselves want people to buy PlayStations, their decision making is beyond idiotic at this point. Sony doesn’t even have to do anything, and Xbox is still fucking itself to death. Utterly amazing.
“Hi Fi Rush” was one of Microsoft’s few highlights since the launch of Xbox Series S/X.
More like since the 360 days… Xbox one was a rough generation for us.
I had only recently played hifi rush and fell in love with it, this news sucks :(
This is a reminder to everyone who was championing this acquisition for new titles with Microsoft helming the studios. This is what happens when gigantic corporations buy other corporations. Things are culled to make money. I've hated the idea of these huge acquisitions from the beginning and Microsoft has done nothing but confirm my fears.
the gamepass effect
More proof that Game Pass is unsustainable. Hi Fi Rush got nothing but praise but that doesn’t mean shit if nobody’s actually buying the game. Cannot wait to see what happens with Call of Duty this fall. I know they’ve said they’re putting in on GP but I just seriously do not think the bean counters are MS being okay with leaving that much money on the table. My bet is that there will start to be different tiers of subscriptions
No shot in hell they let folks get by with trying call of duty for like $15. Soon as half the consumers try it, they will see it's not any good, again.
Didn't Hifi Rush do well? People seemed to love it so why on earth shut them down? Microsoft is such a total mess. What the hell are they doing?!
> Didn't Hifi Rush do well? No, there was a leak a few weeks or so after launch that Microsoft was not happy with the game pass numbers for the game. Microsoft of course came out and said that was total BS, but honestly it felt really defensive to me even at the time. And I think now given that Tango is being shut down it was absolutely true. Sales wise it was never gonna do well because it was game pass fodder.
Phil Spencer is about to turn every Xbox consumer into Kendrick Lamar.
RIP Tango. Guess Evil Within 3 ain't happening.
Gotta love companies buying up mass amounts of development studios and then shutting them down. Fuck Microsoft, what an absolute waste…
Prey is a FANTASTIC game I didnt play it, but Hi-Fi rush had critical acclaim. I hate Microsoft, theyre bad for the industry
Tragic day for Arkane. Redfall sucked but Prey is one of the best immersive sims of all time.
I don’t want to see any Phil Spencer support in any sub. Man has absolutely fucked Xbox more than Mattrick ever did
Fuck Microsoft and fuck Bethesda for selling to Microsoft. Horrific news.
but but the game pass...
This is shooting yourself in the foot with a fucking 50cal.
Being bought by Microsoft is basically a death sentence for developers. They just have too much money and too little sense.
Phil Spencer was worse than Don Mattrick. That being said, he should get into politics because it is impressive how he had people bamboozled into thinking he was doing great for Xbox for so long.
> Phil Spencer was worse than Don Mattrick I've been saying this shit for nearly a decade at this point. The ONLY single good thing he has ever done while in charge of Xbox is the backwards compatibility program - and even that I am not completely happy with how he handled it. Would have just preferred a generic emulator myself seeing as the vast majority of my original Xbox and 360 games didn't make the cut to become bc before they shut the program down.
"Microsoft will save every studio and give them the funding they need and a fresh spirit also they will profit from gamepass" Aged like milk. Wait until the next COD doesn't meet expectations and MS is meddeling with the productions.
I mean, Arkane I was expecting after Redfall... it still make my heart bleed since Prey is still today a really good and underlooked game, and I'm sure that Redfall has tons of potential ruined by all those sheananigans during transitions genre. But Tango Gameworks? What? HOW.
Well they got the golden goose with Activision. Every year they can pump out half baked cods. These games are always in the top 5 of best selling games each and every year. There is no incentive in Xbox’s side to create these passion projects or smaller scale games. It’s cod or bust Now Phil can lean back, relax and watch the steady stream of money coming in while Xbox is on autopilot
Microsoft deals are the kiss of death for the industry.
I'm really sad for Tango Gameworks. I guess we won't get that Ghostwire tokyo sequel :(
Wow I'm not normally vocal about stuff like this but Prey is one of my top 5 all timers. This sucks. One crappy live service release and Microsoft puts a bullet in their head.
It really feels like Xbox is on the fast track to becoming a third-party publisher that also releases gaming hardware rather than being a true 'platform' like Nintendo and Playstation. Each month we get news that further cements that trajectory, whether it be cross-plat releases, handheld hardware rumors, or this type of news. I figured in January or February that there was no way that happens in the next decade. But now it seems plausible. Their business model is clearly dysfunctional. They don't have enough GP growth. They don't have games people are dying to play. They don't have a vision for what they provide to the industry (Nintendo and Sony clearly do). I think this industry is better with a healthy Xbox to compete with Sony. I don't care too much about Xbox dying at this point besides worrying what Sony would do without any real competition in the space.
Kudos to everyone who thought these acquisitions were a good idea
As someone who was always against big corps consolidating in gaming. And has always been told I’m wrong because “gamepass” or “Phil Everyman Spencer”. It’s a real I told you so moment. Problem is, you can’t even revel in it because Microsoft likely own some of your favourite IP and there’s a chance they will sunset it.
Classic microsoft buying companies and wasting them.
Can’t believe they are going to fire all those devs, they aren’t even shifting them to new studios. They are now all jobless. Can’t believe this.
As someone who has a series X and held out hope for Xbox, this is the breaking point. I loved ghostwire so so much and hi fi rush (the guy who directed that is an incredible creative force, as is the entire team). And Arkane Austin gets punished for one poor game. Excuse my French - fuck the Xbox team and their terrible management.
Phil Spencer is a stain on this industry
Nokia moment
Goddammit, now we'll never get a Prey 2... But much more crappy live support stuff, i suppose...
Those acquisitions have sure been good for gaming!
Redfall killed the studio this is worse than the haze situation💀
Wow so Redfall pretty much killed them. Another reason to hate this horribly game.
Microsoft has honestly become cancer in this industry. It’s really about time consumers start boycotting their Xbox products for these practices
This is EA all over again
All Redfall needed to do was deliver on the same singleplayer sandbox exp we all love and they made a half passed vampire borderlands with no soul. Which sucks because the setting and art style were really good for the game. Everything else was just halfbaked. Should have removed the live service multi-player aspect and doubled down on what they are good at.
OK, so they lay off 1900 staff at the start of the year, shut down 3 studios 3 months later, PlayStation had layoffs a little while back, there's was the infamous turkey that was The Day Before back in December, and just how many video game layoffs and shutdowns are we up to now for the last half a year?
If the evidence for xbox games to come to multiplatform isn't there now, I'm not sure what else there is. Jesus christ they killed Arkane
“Microsoft is gonna leverage all of these new gaming studios to make great new games and bring life back to unused IPs.” - Uneducated Prognosticators on the Internet. “Microsoft is a hungry devouring behemoth that reduces once great creative talent of amazing intellectual properties to absolutely mediocre tombstones dotting the landscape.” - Actual Truth.
Does anyone else here feel this could be part of a gradual restructuring of the Xbox brand? It looks like they are focusing solely on being a subscription based service while working on only a few tentpole franchises to create “premium” titles to incentivize different subscription tiers? (CoD, Halo, Fallout, Elder Scrolls)
This is disgusting. Hi-Fi Rush was a well received game and the development team clearly deserved the acclaim, especially after seeing how much love and care went into it. The development team should have been given another chance to build off the goodwill. Microsoft is worse than EA at this point.
And people thought Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard was a good idea. They were never about supporting gamers or the developers that make the games. Hell they’ve even gave up on Xbox as a console competitor.
Think this is the first time the UK government were correct about something in a while
This is why corporate mergers and company buy-outs suck.
You mean releasing all your small games on a service platform for a fee didn’t generate enough income to justify keeping them open? Color me shocked.
I've always said Microsoft is where game studios go to die. It's like taking the family dog to the farm.