In a year where we will see a lot of horror games, and a lot of quality ones at that, The Evil Within is setting up to be one of the most anticipated titles, especially since it's coming from one of the publishers known for highly quality games, Bethesda Softworks.
Recently, Shinji Mikami, who is the boss of The Evil Within, discussed the reasons behind why he wanted to make The Evil Within as well as why Tango Gameworks made the decision to ultimately join the ranks of Zenimax.
Eurogamer: "Xbox's Matt Booty has spoken more on the closure of Tango Gameworks earlier this year."
I call BS on this. All metrics were met apparently or was that another lie. There's something deeper happening within xbox's management
He is referring to this tweet by Greenberg which Spencer retweeted.
https://twitter.com/aarongr...
Wood is arguing that MS was either lying then when they claimed the game was a success or they are lying now by giving excuses for shutting down the studio.
What part irks you sir? My opinion that xbox has a management problem or stating xbox heads said metrics were met and the game was a success. They closed the studio that released one of xbox's most successful new ips in a very long time. There's a lie somewhere don't you think or are you the eyes wide shut type
I think we all have an inside scoop at this point. MS has lied so often that we all know what to expect from them.
I don't know that he's lying. The heads at Xbox tend to be forthcoming in painfully indirect ways.
The article notes the exit of Shinji Mikami which I also believe was a factor, but Arkane is a different situation.
Perhaps the issue with everyone's assessment is that, because they closed around the same time, everyone assumes the reasons are the same.
Occam's razor here: Tango lost its value to Microsoft with Mikami out and Arkane just dropped the ball spectacularly.
All being said, Booty is clearly lying about one thing: the notion that anything mentioned in this interview was done "out of respect for the staff" is a bold faced lie. They closed the studio while the staff were on vacation in Japan.
Miss me with that, Booty.
You said "I don't know that he's lying."
And later you said:
"All being said, Booty is clearly lying "
Are you ok?
Spare me the pedantry.
I'm very clearly talking about two different things:
When it comes to telling you about the future or actions taken broadly, they're indirect, but technically not lies. The go-to example is Rise of the Tomb Raider "coming exclusively to Xbox One in 2014." That wasn't a lie, but if you don't read between the lines, you'll think that's a lie. More recently, they tout new Xbox "hardware" which is incredibly ambiguous. It's sketchy, and intentionally vague, but calling it a lie is a bit too heavy handed. In reality, they say things in a way to get you to draw incorrect conclusions and they can blame you for misinterpreting.
I'm saying I don't know how much of what Booty is saying is truthful, intentionally vague, etc.
But on the very specific issue I cite (i.e., wanting to be respectful of staff), he's being dishonest—and it is very clearly a footnote to the broader point being made.
I shouldn't have to explain that in such explicit detail, but clear enough?
‘Best lineup in Xbox history’ advertised during holiday season -cancels Scalebound and Fable after holiday season.
Not a lie. They had a good lineup. They just flipped the scripped after holiday season sales. What they advertised isn’t what the customer receives. Bait and switch
I recall seeing interviews where Shinji Mikami said he had no involvement in the development of HiFi Rush, it was a European guy who directed the game I believe.
So even if its true that Shinji leaving was a loss, closing the studio still doesn't pass the sniff test to me. They shut a great studio who had just put out Xbox' best game in years which had no input from Mikami.
MS can't help but lie, they always have, scummy company.
The gaming media better get on board with these sort of articles as MS buying up the industry means you guys won't get review copies or exclusive news unless you push the MS narrative.
The MS narrative "it's everyone else's fault."
WARNING ⚠️ SARCASM AHEAD WARNING ⚠️ sure they have an awful management with sexual harassment and embezzlement of funds so let’s close the studio we just purchased and leave games in the table. END OF SARCASM
( insert here a comic strip of guy thrown out of window for suggesting firing the management )
The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush studio has closed its doors.
Ninja theory. Others will follow as well. The smaller studios MS owns should all be worried. Maybe MS will try and release some of their games day and date on ps5 to save some of these studios.
I can see Ninja Theory. At least Tango made a game that was reviewed well. Ninja Theory spent a lot of years to release a tech demo that didn’t do well at all.
I get it that Hellblade 2 is a boring game, but I hope they are not the next to be closed.
@repssahj
Ninja Theory is likely on the chopping block too. They released Bleeding Edge which bombed, took 4 years to release Hellbalde 2 which doesn’t seem to be doing well, and still have Project Mara in limbo. They’re high on the chopping block.
MS was likely expecting their God of War / Uncharted quality game from NT based on Heavenly Sword, Enslaved, DmC, and to an extent Hellblade 1, but NT hasn’t delivered since Hellblade 1 which was 7 years ago.
3 trillion MS is worth, yet they do this, well Phil the shit bag did. No studio needed to be let go, when you are worth this much.
Sad, but I see characters and posters of either less than average or barely average games.
Have to disagree here duder, with respect. Evil Within was a good game and the sequel was fantastic, as was HiFi Rush. I'd concede Ghostwire was pretty average but regardless, shuttering a studio which just put out MS best game in donkeys years was complete shithousery on XBox' part.
Microsoft paid 8B to buy Zenimax then fired well over 1000 people from Zenimax between the time they closed the deal and they announced these shut downs.
People talk about the 1900 they fired most recently, but that was only one wave of three sets of layoffs from their gaming division so far this generation totalling around 5000 people this generation. Not counting the dozen plus studios they canned last gen including Lionhead the original Fable developers.
By every real metric HiFi was an average game. I don't see an Evil within poster in the thumb, which is a shame, because if they threw their weight behind that IP, they might have still been around.
I don't understand how you can say it was average in every metric when it garnered the reviews it did?
Hi-FI Rush sits at an 87 on Meta with an 8.8 User Score. By every real metric that matters it's better than average and it's definitely a game made by a studio that should not have been shut down.
The Xbox brand has done a lot of good over the years, but their various blunders are pretty wild to look back on in their magnitude.
Ironically number 9 can save them at this point (releasing games on multiple platforms)
By “save them” you mean make more profit for Microsoft. Xbox will still be a dying hardware platform.
You could add the naming scheme for the consoles, it just confuses customers. I know they wanted to avoid traditional numbering bc it would always be lower than their competitor, but this whole 360 then One then Series thing is confusing af. Imagine a Soccer Mom trying to figure this stuff out. I still mistakenly call the Series X the One from time to time on accident.
Don't forget about the Xbox One, Xbox One X and Xbox Series X! Good luck to Soccer moms around the world.
They did that on purpose to confuse and direct attention away from the generational numbering.
MS doesn’t like reminding people that they joined the industry after others had already been involved in gaming.
For instance, they called the xbox “360” to combat PlayStation “3” because they wanted to seem like “more” than “3”, so instead of xbox 2, they opted for xbox 360. Also this had the additional benefit of selling consoles to uninformed parents who might purchase a “360” instead of a “3” by mistake, or because they thought 360 was more than 3. Kind of a disingenuous move.
They have been continuing with their confusing naming patterns for pretty much the same reasons. Frankly, it fits with who and what they are as a brand.
I can understand their reasoning, but whoever came up with that naming scheme should be fired, bad naming schemes have killed consoles (I'm pretty sure it was the major reason for the downfall of the WiiU). They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo and Sega have had for their consoles, far less confusing for the consumer.
@FinalFantasyFanatic "They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo..."
lol, you mean:
NES, SNES
GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy Colour, GameBoy SP
DS, DSi, DSXL
3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, New 3DS XL
Wii, Wii U
Switch, Switch OLED
Phil Spencer is the worst that has happened to Xbox.
They built a respectable brand up to Xbox one. Then this guy took over and things became a joke
I didn't like either person, both people damaged their respective brands and produced worse outcomes, but Phil did save the Xbox brand from being retired by Microsoft. Although in hindsight, he should have just let it die, rather than languish in limbo like it is now.
Phil Spencer was also on the team back when 360 was around, alongside Shane Kim, Peter Moore etc. I think the damage that did the most harm was the Don Mattrick "Always Online" console (ahead of its time basically). They handed Sony and Nintendo a free-pass when that was revealed. It went downhill from there. Then the corporate machine went into full swing to try and recover. They have to a degree as a games company for the masses, and less so for the core gamer. Outside USA, the Xbox brand does not sell as well as Japanese based consoles (citation needed).
Want a decision maker. The always online and TV plans was a disaster yes, but they caught up by announcing 1st party games that gamers actually kept the hype going.. until this moron took over and introduced the PC day one release.. e all know where that ended..
I dont think they were ever a respectable brand, not since the beginning, when their goal was never to be involved and share in the gaming space. I think the OG xbox was an exception because MS as a brand was still getting its foot in and so the people behind that were people of the gaming industry.
The 360 was the brand in its prime though, everything went downhill towards the end of that generation. Its staple games like Halo, Forza and Gears are what kept the console relevant and afloat for so long.
Really good video.
I remember the days with RRoD was big news on here, N4G.
Microsoft had it turbulence number of years.
Looking at the success of Sea of Thieves despite being 6 years old, time to release Halo, Forza horizon 4 & 5 on PS5. It'll help their revenue
2 of the 4 games they did already sold really well. So it's definitely going down. Idk about halo or forza but I feel those studios they've bought in the last 5 years, their coming
I found this video painful to watch. Can someone list them out?
Top 10 for me from are:
1. 2013 reveal presentation
2. Bundling Kinect 2 with Xbox One
3. RRoD or why rushing to market with hardware is always a bad idea.
4. Buying studios only to close them.
5. Ads on the Home Screen
6. Letting Halo die.
7. Letting Geard of War die.
8. Every console name
9. Charging for Xbox Live on Xbox 360 when Sony let PS3 players play online for free.
10. Cancelling release of OG Xbox games after the Xbox 360 launched.
The father of RE on thy i trust to deliver what Capcom lost sight long ago
SSAO, I mean, So, they became Zenimax Asia.
The Evil within looks scary as ****. This is what RE should have evolved into. I'm definitely looking forward to this.
Horror has finally made it's return. First Outlast, then The Forest, and now The Evil Within. Can't wait!
I live to play this game!