At Xbox’s business update earlier this year, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tried to explain the company’s business rationale behind putting four of their first-party titles on other consoles. A key reason he gave for sharing these games with other platforms was that it would allow the company to “invest in maybe future iterations of those or sequels to those, or just other games like that in our portfolio.” One of those games was Hi-Fi Rush, the surprise 2023 hit from Japanese developer Tango Gameworks. Yesterday, the company announced internally that it would be shutting down multiple studios across Tango’s parent company Zenimax Media, and Tango is one of them.
Alongside Tango Gameworks, Microsoft is closing down Alpha Dog Games (Mighty Doom) and Arkane Austin (Redfall, Prey), and they’re folding Roundhouse Studios into ZeniMax Online Studios. In his lengthy email announcing these “tough decisions,” head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty said that these changes are happening because the company is “prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games.” It’s a move that can be described as numerous things: baffling, short-sighted, and maddening are some of the first that come to my mind, but I think disgusting is perhaps the most appropriate word to use.
While I can’t speak to Roundhouse Studios or Alpha Dog Games as I never played any of their titles, Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks were massively talented teams that produced some of the most highly acclaimed games of the past decade. I may not have clicked with the reboot of Prey, but it was lauded by many as being a stellar immersive sim experience. Their last title Redfall was undeniably a flop that was likely not going to see a revival even with the new heroes that were planned to come to it, but that shouldn’t have been the death sentence for the team. While the people that made Redfall aren’t the same people that made Prey, they still deserved a chance to make another game that wasn’t plagued with the development issues that lingered over their last one.
Of all the closures, the loss of Tango Gameworks hits the hardest. While they’re most well-known for the horror franchise The Evil Within, it’s in Hi-Fi Rush that the team landed on a bonafide hit that’s beloved by both fans and critics. In a time where creativity and new ideas in the AAA space seem like their few and far between, Hi-Fi Rush was a breath of fresh air. Not only was it one of the best games of 2023, it was also the best and most creative exclusive game that Xbox released this entire generation, and arguably of the past decade. Xbox’s Senior VP of Marketing Aaron Greenberg said that Microsoft was proud of the team and how the game was performing in 2023, which makes the decision to close the team down a year later especially baffling. I don’t know why a company would shoot themselves in the foot by closing down the team that made their best game in years instead of allowing them to continue making great games is beyond me, but clearly it’s something Xbox sees as a smart decision.
There’s also the fact that Tango Gameworks was the only Japanese studio that Microsoft owned. The company has long struggled to court Japanese gamers and companies to the platform, and it’s something that Phil Spencer has stated he’d like to fix. The problem can’t be fixed though if you close down the one Japanese team you own. Why would any Japanese team trust Microsoft and Xbox now? The company just started to try and mend bridges with Square Enix, so I have to wonder how that relationship will look in light of this news.
This all gets to the issue of trust and faith. The teams that are closing down were acquired under the guise of encouraging new ideas that couldn’t be made without their backing, enhancing the Xbox portfolio for its players, and bringing more games to more people around the world through the cloud and Xbox Game Pass. To shut them down so easily flies in the face of the message that Xbox has been touting for years now. It shows that they aren’t actually concerned with creativity and new ideas, and more importantly, that their development teams aren’t safe. If you make a bad game, you’ll be shut down with no chance at redemption. If you make an award-winning game, you’ll be shut down with no chance to make another.
Later this month, Ninja Theory will release Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, a game that’s not a system seller or a huge blockbuster. While it clearly has a bigger budget than its predecessor, Hellblade is a smaller, more intimate game with a focus on narrative and characters. It’s not a game with as much mass appeal as something like Halo, Sea of Thieves, or even Hi-Fi Rush. It looks great and I anticipate it being widely celebrated upon release, but that success might not mean anything since the studio could be the next on the chopping block. Obsidian Entertainment might be doing well now with Pentiment and Grounded, but who’s to say that they won’t be shut down or folded into Bethesda after their upcoming fantasy-RPG Avowed comes out later this year? I wouldn’t be surprised if MachineGames is shaking in their boots thinking about the money on the line with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and hoping it’s a smash hit that appeases the execs at Microsoft. How well will any of these games sell in the era of Game Pass where Xbox consumers have been trained to not buy their first-party games and just play them through their subscription?
The developers shouldn’t be worried about these things and us players shouldn’t be either. Microsoft is the most profitable company in the world right now. They went on a years-long buying spree and fought through legal battles in order to acquire ZeniMax and Activision Blizzard for a combined total of around $80 billion, so they clearly aren’t hurting for cash. I understand that games are expensive to make, but the teams producing these games shouldn’t be the ones to suffer for leadership’s poor management. The buck stops with the execs at Microsoft and Xbox, and they need to take accountability for these decisions. And I don’t mean saying that it’s hard to make these choices because that does nothing for anyone. Take a pay cut. Explore other options. But don’t seemingly jump to layoffs and closures as the solution to a problem that’s of your own creation.
As I was writing this piece (and after I published my video with my initial scattered thoughts), Bloomberg reported that Xbox is still planning more cuts, and a report from The Verge revealed that Matt Booty told employees in a town hall meeting today that the company needs “smaller games that give us prestige and awards.” It’s frustrating to read these things, but we’re likely going to be stuck in this position of anger, concern, and confusion because of the mixed messaging that’s come from Microsoft and the executive team at Xbox. There’s no clear path forward and no reason to have faith in whatever plans are put in place. The only thing that is clear is that things need to change at Xbox. What that change needs to be is anyone’s guess.
TheComfySpot 