The majority of the Xbox community is angry today. Obviously because of the closure of Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, Tango Gameworks and Roundhouse Games, but also because of yet another contradiction from Xbox managers.
Xbox Was Pleased With Hi-Fi RUSH's 'Resounding Success', But Shuts Down Tango Gameworks
These closures are largely surprising, especially in the case of Tango Gameworks, even though Hi-Fi RUSH is adored by gamers and has just been ported to PlayStation 5. Managers have also welcomed the success of the game, including Aaron Greenberg, vice president of Xbox games marketing, who said in April 2023 that the brand was more than satisfied with the results of Hi-Fi RUSH.
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Hi-Fi RUSH has been a resounding success for us and our players in all key metrics and expectations. We couldn't be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered to us with this surprise release.
Ultimately, Xbox doesn't seem to be that happy with the studio. In May 2023, we learned that Ghostwire: Tokyo, the last major project from Tango Gameworks, had attracted 4 million players, a figure that may seem low for a former PlayStation 5 exclusive and a game that integrated Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass as soon as it is released on Microsoft machines. Note also that he had a short stint with PlayStation Plus.
Xbox separates from its only Japanese studio
In recent years, Xbox has made numerous efforts to try to attract the Japanese public. Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, even declared in September 2023 to work with Japanese studios to develop new games. As Xbox seeks to conquer this territory, it is particularly surprising that the firm is closing its only Japanese studio.
Xbox is now marking its presence at the Tokyo Game Show with a conference focused mainly on Japanese productions and last year even hired a former PlayStation veteran, now director of partnerships for Microsoft in Japan.
While its mission, since last July, has been to improve relations between Japanese studios and Microsoft, it is very likely that Japanese companies will take a dim view of the closure of Tango Gameworks. Also, nothing is official, but in 2022, Xbox would have “discussed acquisitions with major Japanese publishers”, but also with “smaller studios”.
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If Hi-Fi Rush was a success for Microsoft, it is one of the latest Xbox games best received by critics and Tango Gameworks was the brand's only Japanese studio, why did it close? It’s total incomprehension.
Redfall and Arkane Austin completely abandoned by Xbox
While absolutely nothing suggested the closure of Tango Gameworks, that of Arkane Austin is unfortunately a little less surprising. After many years of development, the latest production from the studio behind Prey has proven to be a commercial and critical success.
Despite everything, Xbox executives lied again. Just after the release of Redfall in May 2023, Phil Spencer confided that he was “disappointed” and “angry” with himself because of the development, the reception of the game and the fact that there was no no 60 FPS mode on output. He added that he was a “big supporter of Arkane Austin”. The support ultimately did not last very long.
For his part, Pete Hines, formerly responsible for publishing at Bethesda, declared last September that Redfall would follow the same path as The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76, that is to say that it should continue to be supported to make it a good game. He even declared that it would still be played in 10 years. Pete Hines is no longer in charge today, so we're not going to put him on trial, but players were still expecting more support from Redfall.
Finally, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Studios, explained last June that it was “important to support the teams so that they could “continue working, to deliver the game they had in mind”. When journalist Stephen Totilo asked him if Arkane Austin would remain open despite the difficult launch of Redfall, the president of Xbox Studios responded in the affirmative. “This is what is planned for now. They are working hard on updates and continuing Redfall content. » Suffice to say that all these declarations from the brand's leaders sound like a betrayal a few months later.
Who will still believe Xbox in this industry?
While Phil Spencer's public remarks about the fantastic work of the teams are still ringing in everyone's ears, these studio closures are once again eroding the confidence that we can have in the declarations of the various managers of the brand.
We can cite another example from the documentary on the history of Xbox published by the brand itself, where Sarah Bond, the current president of Xbox, said she had learned from the closure of the Lionhead studio and did not want to repeat the same errors.
For his part, and in the same documentary, Phil Spencer also reacted to the closure of the Lionhead studio and the mistake of having closed it. “You acquire a studio for what they're doing now, and your job is to help them and accelerate what they're doing, it's not their job to accelerate what you're doing. »
Three years after these declarations, it is clear that the pretty public declarations are in total contradiction with the decisions taken by the brand. Who at Xbox helped Arkane Austin do what they knew how to do? Who allowed Tango Gameworks to accelerate? Today there are around ten studios bought by Microsoft and which were subsequently closed.
Why spend billions to acquire talents if it is to thank them without warning afterwards? Who is responsible for such a fiasco? Who makes bad decisions? And above all, who will still have confidence in Xbox after these new closures? Which studio will agree to be bought by a giant who can fire everyone, even after having released a game with proven critical and commercial success?
It would be nice to think that the public statements are actually embodied by Xbox executives. But the result and the consequences speak for themselves, it is always the teams who suffer following poor choices by their management. Ultimately, Microsoft is just a listed company like any other that must provide maximum profitability for its shareholders. The damage is done, and it will be very difficult for Xbox leaders Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond or Matt Booty to restore confidence in the teams after such dissonance between speech and actions.