Oh look: a smaller game that give Xbox prestige and awards (Xbox Game Studios)
A Microsoft exec has apparently said, ‘We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards’ despite closing down a studio that did exactly that.
If you’ve been reading about the events at Xbox this week with an increasing sense of incredulity then you haven’t heard anything yet, if reports about what Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, has said to employees behind closed doors.
Supposedly, he was talking during a ‘town hall’ meeting when he stated that Xbox should make smaller games ‘that give us prestige and awards.’ Even though that’s exactly what Hi-Fi Rush maker Tango Gameworks did before Microsoft recently announced it was to close.
Arakne Austin and mobile developer Alpha Dog Games weren’t exactly making $300 million blockbusters either and they were also shut down on Wednesday, while Roundhouse Studios, who are also not a triple-A studio, were folded into The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios.
The report comes from The Verge and assuming it’s accurate it’s hard to credit Wednesday’s actions as part of credible or consistent company plan.
Hundreds of people are thought to have lost their jobs as a result of the closures and while Arkane Austin’s Redfall was a critical and commerical failure, Hi-Fi Rush was hailed as one of the best games of 2023 and appeared on many best of the year lists (including our own) and won a Game Award, a BAFTA, and a Game Developers Choice award.
It was clearly low budget too and while Microsoft never reveals sales figures, Tange Gameworks were last year celebrating 3 million players – although a large proportion of those would’ve been via Game Pass.
It’s also reported that Tango Gameworks, who were previously best known for survival horror series The Evil Within, were pitching ideas for Hi-Fi Rush 2 when they were closed. Indeed, it’s suggested that their request to hire more staff for the sequel is what led to Microsoft closing them down.
None of the closures seemed to make any sense even before these new revelations, with earlier reports suggesting that Booty had said he felt Xbox’s various development studios were spread too thin and that many were understaffed. According to him, closing down studios will ‘free up resources elsewhere’.
Tango Gameworks’ closure is especially disappointing as it was the only Japanese developer that Microsoft owned, even though it came as a job lot with Bethesda and Microsoft clearly had no particular interest in owning it.
Nothing about this week’s events seem to make any sense and Microsoft has offered no public explanation, with the various execs not commenting on the closures via social media – except for Xbox president Sarah Bond who quickly deleted an insensitive tweet about having ‘passion for developers.’
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All this is playing out only a month before the Xbox Game Showcase, when Microsoft is expected to unveil a number of new games and release dates, as well as a revamped Xbox Series X console.
Whether Xbox will mention these closures is unclear but multiple reports suggest that the job cuts at the company are not finished and that the situation could be even worse by then.
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