The bad news in the gaming industry just won't stop. In the past few months we have repeatedly received news of closed or sold studios, mass layoffs and canceled projects.
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Let's rip off the band-aid straight away: Microsoft is closing several Bethesda studios. To be precise, these are the following four game companies:
- Arcane Austin (Redfall, Prey)
- Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Hi-Fi Rush, Ghostwire Tokyo)
- Alpha Dog Studios (Mighty DOOM, Wraithborne)
- Roundhouse Studios (Redfall)
An email from Matt Booty, Head of Xbox Game Studios, to staff also explains the reason for the closures: “Reprioritization of titles and resources.” In other words, it's fair to say that Microsoft is short of money. Whether the recent billion-dollar purchase of Activision-Blizzard is responsible for this can only be speculated. But the massive failure of Redfall also seems to be a reason.
In any case, something is not going well in Microsoft's gaming division. It wasn't until January 2024 that the company announced that it would be laying off a whopping 1,900 people. And now this step.
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In his email, Booty also explains what will happen next with the studios. Arkane Austin is definitely closing down, but some of the employees will find a new home in other Bethesda projects. The Redfall servers will remain online for the time being and compensation is being considered for buyers of the Hero DLC. It is currently unknown what the situation is with Arkane Lyon.
Tango Gameworks is also closing its doors. Hi-Fi Rush should continue to be available on the previous release platforms for the time being. The email does not say what will happen next for the employees.
Alpha Dog Studios will also be canceled without replacement. The mobile offshoot Mighty DOOM is scheduled to remain online until August 7, 2024, and players will soon no longer be able to spend money on the title.
Things are looking a little better for the employees at Roundhouse Games. These are to be integrated into the ZeniMax Online Studios. Here, for example, they work on The Elder Scrolls Online, which the Xbox management would like to see more stable server growth.
In general, Matt Booty is very vague in his email about what is happening to employees. According to him, some people are transferred to other teams, while others unfortunately have to leave the company.
The email simply states that fired people can expect help within the framework of the legal regulations. The transition should be made as easy as possible and these drastic steps are necessary in order to continue bringing creative products onto the market. You don't want to trash the great work of the people behind the closed studios, but you have to look forward.