Bethesda Softworks – Microsoft scuttles four studios in the Bethesda Softworks group

In 2020, Microsoft invested a whopping $7.5 billion to acquire the ZeniMax group and all of its subsidiaries and licenses, including Bethesda Softworks and its development studios. Four of these studios, and not the least, will be closed. This is clearly what Matt Booty (who directs Xbox Game Studios) to the employees concerned in an email obtained IGN.

• Concretely, Arkane Austin will therefore close its doors, clearly suffering the consequences of the bitter commercial failure of Redfall. On the social networks, the developer logically specifies that the game will no longer benefit from updates, but the servers will nevertheless remain open for players who own the game. Pass holders who were to unlock future updates (which will therefore not be deployed) will receive compensation. Note that Arkane Lyon continues its activities and the development of its current projects – the studio is working in particular on Marvel Blade.
• Alpha Dog Studiosto whom we owed Mighty DOOM on mobile platforms, will also be closed and the game servers will follow the same path from August 7 – the store is intended to close its doors quickly.
• Perhaps more surprisingly, the Japanese studio Tango Gameworks is also scuttled, after having signed The Evil Within or Ghostwire: Tokyobut also more recently Hi-Fi RUSH which turned out to be a very nice surprise, unanimously praised by the critics. Microsoft specifies that Hi-Fi Rush will remain playable on the platforms on which the game was distributed (however subject to a version Switch ?).
• Finally, Roundhouse Games is also closing and the development team will be transferred within ZeniMax Online Studios to contribute to the operation ofElder Scrolls Online“which means even more can be done to flesh out the world that millions of players call home.”

Microsoft continues to rationalize these acquisitions

For the record, at the start of the year, Microsoft already announced the dismissal of 1,900 employees, mainly among the group's workforce. Activision Blizzard which had just been officially purchased. Obviously, the American giant continues to “rationalize” its acquisitions in recent years and the employees affected by this new “restructuring” will be “informed during the day”.

According to Matt Booty, this “consolidation of studio teams Bethesda ” should allow “to invest more effectively” in the group's portfolio of games and new licenses, while this “difficult decision” is taken to “create the capacity to increase investments in other parts of the group's catalog and to focus on higher priority games” — including obviously the Shattered Space expansion from Starfieldthe Skyline Valley update of Fallout 76, Indiana Jones and the Great Circleas well as the Golden Road chapter of The Elder Scrolls Online. Still according to Matt Booty, Bethesda remains “one of the pillars of Xbox with its catalog of incredible games and its communities” and as such, Arkane Lyon, Bethesda Game StudiosidSoftware, MachineGames, ZeniMax Online Studios and the Bethesda publishing teams are (almost) not affected by the measure, and are thus “well positioned to design new licenses, explore new game concepts and expand their licenses. Of which act.