Industry Reacts to Sad Closure of Tango Gameworks and Other Bethesda Studios

by

Incomprehension reigns

The first cry of the heart comes to us from Dinga Bakaba, creative director at Arkane Lyon, who deplores the dismissals of his colleagues. In a long message posted on X (Twitter), he points out the obvious to executives who must support the artists who make companies successful:

“ It's absolutely terrible. Permission to be human: To any executive reading this, a friendly reminder that video games are a cultural entertainment industry, and that your job as a company is to take care of your artists in order to help them create value for you […] don't use us as straw men for your miscalculations. You say we make you proud when we make a good play. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we've seen it before. »

He also specifies that Arkane Lyon's team is a priori out of danger, which does not prevent him from deploring the situation for his American colleagues:

Advertisement

“ Right now, great teams are disappearing before our eyes again, and it's a fucking stab in the gut. The Lyon team is not in danger, but be careful and discerning about all this, respect the voices of those involved and give them the space to be heard, it is their story to tell, their feelings to express. »

As for the late Tango Gameworks, we will note the only speech from John Johanas, creative director on Hi-Fi Rushwho has no words to face this situation:

“ So, this is how it ends… Unfortunately, I don't quite have the words… But at least thank you to everyone who supported us. »

Shinji Mikami, who founded the studio before leaving it a few months ago, also expressed in a few words the sadness around this closure:

“ Tango has closed. Sad. »

Elsewhere in the industry, other studios have shown their support for the fired teams. Like Arrowhead (Helldiverse II), with its CEO Johan Pilestedt who does not understand why the resale of these studios was not chosen in the hope of retaining a few more jobs:

“ I don't understand the closure of Tango Gameworks, I mean… Why close instead of reselling? The team surely could have easily found a new home elsewhere. »

And in fact, some studios want to let licensed artists know that they are recruiting and that their doors are open, like Remedy with the director ofAlan Wake 2 which greets the Tango Gameworks teams while inviting them to apply within the studio :

Advertisement

“ We took a lot of inspiration from The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2 when developing Alan Wake 2. They are both excellent horror games and I'm very sad that we won't be able to see a sequel from Tango Gameworks . We have open positions at Remedyso, do not hesitate to contact us ! »

Different empathy in some

On the other hand, Mike Ybarra probably should have thought twice before talking about this matter too. The ex-president of Blizzard is not his first controversial opinion, but he undoubtedly reaps the prize for indecency here by first defending Phil Spencer against attacks on him. Although he fortunately addresses his thoughts to those left behind, he wants to show that his former boss is not a heartless technocrat:

“I see a lot of criticism thrown at Phil in today's Xbox announcements. I understand. But knowing him as a human, I know this hurts him as much as anyone else. I can't speak for all the leaders, but I know him and I know what he's probably going through. I'm not trying to defend the decisions. I think we all find ourselves in difficult and unexpected situations (we certainly do). It’s part of the job, as is responsibility for results. But he's a good human and cares deeply about the creative process and the developers. »

Whether or not Spencer deserves the industry's wrath shouldn't be the first topic to speak out on, however. For the moment, the person concerned keeps his job and finds himself in a situation that could not be described as deplorable, unlike artists who find themselves unemployed, notably through his fault (he is in any case one of the responsible).

Other executives at Xbox have not yet spoken

The most deafening thing in this situation remains the silence from Xbox. The layoffs were announced yesterday via an email from Matt Booty retrieved by IGN and the company has made no public statement since. Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and the others have not yet spoken out about these closureswhile they are generally quite present and vocal on social networks.

The speech must undoubtedly be in full preparation behind the scenes, and Spencer must act quickly since he will be forced to communicate publicly on the subject during the events which are happening soon at Xbox. First of all, the exit of Hellblade II which will take place in a very special context this June 21after that the Xbox Games Showcase which will take place in a month. Furthermore, Ryan McCaffrey from the IGN site managed to land a live interview which will take place just after the showcase and the journalist will inevitably address the question. We will therefore follow this closely.

Advertisement