A bit of Bad News...

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  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    Hello Legion Gamers!

    It's the middle of the week, and it seems that it's time for some bad news to share: Microsoft closed down several of their Bethesda studios. Among those that closed down were Tango Gameworks (made the acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush, The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo)

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    And Arkane Austin (they made Dishonored, Prey and Redfall)

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    @j7schultz I think you tried Redfall some time ago? With this one, it is doubly sad: while the game was not that well received, Arkane Austin was working on an update with an offline gaming option and had Hero Pass in the works for Halloween. Now these plans will not come to pass. A sad day indeed...

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    I for one will miss them both. Dishonored and Prey were great, and Ghostwire: Tokyo was very decent as well. I wonder what is the reason behind this decision. @GoLLuM13, do you know anything?
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  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @j7schultz At least they did not shut down the game servers. Yet. Still, makes me worried about just how volatile the industry is right now.
  • GoLLuM13's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch astonishing how they buy developers and publishers for billions and close their studios a few time ago, just like EA (among others) used to do. But with MS it's even worse, because it's one of the richest companies in the world (they have way more means than Nintendo and Sony both united), and their gaming branch Xbox relies on services rather than consoles, they sell more games and services like the game pass and not that much Xbox consoles.

    If I learn anything about the reasons I'll come back to post here 👀
    Tag me to be sure I see the answer and reply to you / Taguez moi pour être sûr que je vois la réponse et vous réponde en retour
    Most of my writings in no particular order (mostly in French) / La plupart de mes écrits sans ordre particulier
    >> HERE/ ICI <<

  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @GoLLuM13 Indeed, in the wake of all this, Adam Boyes remembered that just 2 weeks ago MS reported that they actually made quite a bit of money, more than expected, even:

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    So yeah, curiouser and curiouser, as one rabbit hole spelunker used to say...
  • GoLLuM13's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch the official version from Matt Booty (Head of Xbox Game Studio) the reason for the closures was due to a “reprioritization of titles and resources.” Some staff at the affected studios will be relocated while other studios will completely shut down.
    Tag me to be sure I see the answer and reply to you / Taguez moi pour être sûr que je vois la réponse et vous réponde en retour
    Most of my writings in no particular order (mostly in French) / La plupart de mes écrits sans ordre particulier
    >> HERE/ ICI <<

  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @GoLLuM13 “reprioritization of titles and resources.” is a business jargon that can mean pretty much anything, though... Still, even so, while there are behemoth personas in the gaming industry whose name alone can make the game, it is more often that studio collective clicks together in all the right ways to make a good game. Writers, artists, designers, all finding that one common goal. I am glad, of course, that some staff will be relocated, but still, how likely are unlikely to see more games with that special Arkane spark like Prey or Dishonored again?

    That is not to say some other, and maybe even better games may come along from those people as they work in other studios, Alexander Ponomarev/Talking Drums case and point. Here is to hope.
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @GoLLuM13 Sarah Bond was asked about this at the end of last week:


    The comments are rather...yeah...