Blizzard Entertainment reveals its World of Warcraft donation pet ahead of schedule so that players can donate to ongoing disaster relief efforts
Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda, IGN can confirm.
Hi-Fi Rush studio??? Seriously?? Goes to show quality matters lil to MS.
Worst gen ever. All big 3 battling are for who sucks the most. They just keep one upping one another.
This does feel like a “quick Sony is getting shit on for Helldivers, let’s announce it now to minimise impact”
That is silly. Let's say there is some weird conspiracy. This announcement would effectively take ALL the attention away from the HD2 situation, especially since there is no longer an HD2 situation. I don't think anything will minimize this impact.
... so they announce it on a Tuesday? 36 hours after Sony cleared up everything?
You people care more about the next conspiracy than anything else.
Nevermind that Sony followed the golden rule of minimizing impact by announcing horrible news on a Friday.
The constant weekly weird Sony drama is part of the industry's problem. Everyone else feels they can get away with murder. Also, what is the point of spending all that money if you just start shutting studios down. And... Redfall wasn't Arkane's fought. Microsoft new the shape the game was in but needed something for GamePass after a whole year of no releases into the service. Them taking it out on Arkane seems really disingenuous and distasteful. And WTF did Tango do? Didn't Todd just release a statement saying how he would never retire. Fire his ass.
10/10 deflection, the ol' Sony too deflect...
Let's not discuss the fact that PlayStations struggles have largely been caused by the fact that game pass has reshaped how consumers spend causing them to spend less as they play what is on subscriptions and don't buy games as much because they either have become subscription gamers or they fear the game will come to a subscription so they don't buy things.
And it's not just PlayStation, the whole industry has been effected, many big studios are struggling across the board to match sales targets from pre-game pass releases which is especially apparent in things like sequels.
Heck the best example was Microsoft's own Starfield which should have easily blasted past 10m sales by the end of 2023 going by sales of similar Bethesda games yet was only able to achieve 3m which of course was almost entirely on Steam.
Or maybe it's because Sony hasn't released multiple worthwhile SP games like they normally do each gen and the ones they did released actually sold well.
Layoffs aren't because studios are struggling, but because major publishers want to maximise profit gains.
Absolutely it's a service that's changed the way we view and consume games overall for the worse games have little value when they are part of a sub and become disposable doubly so if they are a day 1 freebie often it's the kiss of death for a game to be day 1 on gamepass as PlayStation players look at it like why do I have to pay 60 dollars for back 4 blood, payday 3 or outriders it'll be on PS plus soon enough and funny enough those games always fail to meet expectations sales are poor and longevity is poor.
When I see a game get a day 1 tag outside of first party my first thought is always something is wrong with it and it can't stand on its own feet so the publisher has made a deal to recoup development cost.
Even first party games have dropped in quality noticeably so since gamepass with gears 5 being the only good release I can think of since gamepass started
This is what people online want. They just don't know or understand it. So many have warned about consolidation, and exactly what they have fear has been happening
This isn't the end, expect more bought out studios to be closed in the next few years
Well xbox fans you got what you asked for... and honestly deserved...
It was so easily predictable that game pass was never going to be able to support all these studios.
If Microsoft can't win they are going to burn it all to the ground...
Countdown to Phil Spencer telling us "it's better for the gamers this way" yet again.
This is beyond wrong. Like wtf!? Especially Tango Gameworks with Hi-Fi Rush. I've heard nothing but good things about that game. Just because Arkane Austin screwed up one game release doesn't mean you need to close them. It sounds like they were forced to do a multiplayer game when they're a single player studio. They could have made a Prey 2 or some other game next.
Just wow awful news.
"Xbox says Hi-Fi Rush was a success "in all key measurements" amid rumors of poor sales. Following rumors that Tango Gameworks' Hi-Fish Rush didn't meet sales expectations, Xbox marketing VP Aaron Greenburg is defending the "break out hit" as a success by all metrics."
According to Aaron Greenburg it was a success so they shouldn't have even needed PlayStation owners to buy it. That being said, I bought it and really enjoyed it, it's a great game. Shame MS closed them down.
@Romulus23
All lies by the Green Bug, that just means that a lot of people fired bullets or whatever in the game, that's the key measurements they care to share.
Tango did NOT deserve to be closed down, they have not released a single bad game.
I can only imagine the little amount of revenue both games generated, sent straight to gamepass and excluded from the largest current gen console userbase. Not to say both games would have done well if they were on PS5 too, but you heavily damage to a games revenue when you put it on a stagnating sub service for a poorly selling console, can't really see people going out in droves to sub to GP to play this.
Yea Austin made one of the most creative game of last gen with Prey and were forced to take risk with Redfall and now the whole studio is being closed.
Yes, that Tango gameworks/ Hi-Fi closure was an eye opener for me as well. Neither played it nor was interested in it myself but all I heard was everyone acting like it was the second coming of guitar hero or something.
I don't know what else to say other than modern gaming is an overwhelming sea of mediocrity and there's not enough voices of reason speaking up and saying that most games made these days are just not very good.
Can't wait to see the usual try spin and play this down. So much for the heroic MS and Phil saving these studios eh.
By the end of the day IGN will be talking about how this is right for the industry. Don't worry, Microsoft's PR is making the call now.
Not a big deal only hi fi rush was good
Sony has closed
Manchester studio
Japan studio
Pixel opus
London studio
Ready At Dawn ...
The difference being Sony has a large group of other studios that have done something positive. Microsoft just closed the studio to the only good game they released in the past year (Hi-Fi Rush).
They all suck as well of course. But MS spent 10s of billions on these publishers for mass consolidation, every made a song and dance about how MS would save them, using their endless Windows, 365 and Azure money to keep them open forever and how Phil was some hero.
Nothing is safe unless it makes money, even for MS.
It is a big deal.
Microsoft has closed
Fasa Studios
Digital Anvil
Ensemble
Lionhead Studios
Press Play
Arkane Austin
Tango Gameworks
Wow how far back do you want to go back.
Lionhead Studios -- Fable -- Closed
Aces Game Studio — Microsoft Flight Simulator series — Closed
BigPark — Kinect Joy Ride, Kinect Sports: Season Two, Joy Ride Turbo — Consolidated
Carbonated Games — Closed
Digital Anvil — Brute Force, Freelancer — Consolidated[114]
Ensemble Studios — Age of Empires series, Age of Mythology series, Halo Wars — Closed
FASA Studio — MechWarrior series, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies series — Closed
Good Science Studio — Kinect Adventures, Kinect Fun Labs, Kinect Star Wars — Consolidated
Hired Gun — Halo 2 PC port — Consolidated[115]
Lionhead Studios — Fable series, Black & White series — Closed
Microsoft Studios Japan — Phantom Dust — Closed
Microsoft Studios Victoria — Closed
Press Play — Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Kalimba — Closed
Team Dakota — Project Spark — Consolidated
Xbox Entertainment Studios — Closed
Xbox Live Productions — Consolidated
Lift London — Removed from Microsoft's games business
Access Software/Salt Lake Games Studio/Indie Games
Twisted Pixel Games
WingNut Interactive
And some of those PlayStation studios were merged not closed, most of the UK studios were folded into each other.
Japan Studio was renamed to Asobi not closed, aAsobi was an internal team of Japan Studio the "closure" and the press misinformed people about was more or less a name change, the studio is in the same building and when the change happened less than 5 people mostly leadership positions chose to leave the studio to form Bokeh Studio, which still works closely with Sony.
And even if your deflection cstood on it's own, Micrsoft spent 3 Billion 3 years ago also to the date to buy Zenimax and has already closed 2 of it's biggest studios and decimated Zenimax's support studio structure.
It's no wonder Todd Howard was talking about "more frequent releases" and letting other studios make their IP's games. The days of big budget huge Bethesda games is over...
In fact sadly Microsoft has ushered in the end of big budget gaming as we know it with their obviously unsustainable subscription industry change.
Phil needs to step down. What kind of usual spin do you want?
More and more people lose jobs but the people at the top stay the same. Hardware sales tank despite billions and billions spent. The math is plain and simple.
The iconic stealth-action Syphon Filter series is nowhere to be seen, while Sony's busy planning more ridiculous live services.
Sometimes bringing back an old IP is like digging up a corpse and peeing on it, just look at Duke Nukem Forever, be careful what you wish for.
You are essentially asking Sony to make a better game than MGSV. That is risky given were stealth action games are right now.
If Sony can make a multiplayer component to go with a story mode like the great PSP games I think people would like this alot.
I've always wanted a reboot of Syphon Filter 1 at the quality level of Uncharted 2 or better. But the game has been abandoned like many previous Sony games that made other generations memorable.
The music, the voices, the story, the weapons and the amazing Taser were awesome for the time. The boss battles cool. But Bend and Sony don't care about bringing it back. About as bad as many other properties from Sega, Capcom, Namco, Konami, etc that we'd love but won't be getting.
Yup. Seems like Sony is dialing back on the live service plans but not completely. I wish they’d just can them in general. Maybe just let Bungie do Marathon and pivot everyone else.
A reckless buying spree only to jeopardize it all, Embracer Group's heinous practices have done a lot of damage; it had the downfall coming.
THEY. It's a collective of investors that give no f-s unless the monkey dances for money and delivers. downfall? Urm.. dude... do you understand this is a rinse and repeat process? They won and bailed before plane crashed, the working industry did not. People saw investment money and sold themselves and the industry out like hot real estate, and now look at it. Honestly, you should be more upset with the studios that jumped on board for the carrots rather than those that were handing them out.
Seen it coming. When a fool spends money with out a plan and purchases every thing they see. Those they have purchased feel the ramifications. Now Embracer has to sell off studios to make up for their stupidity. I am just glad Gearbox went to Take Two and not to someone like say Tencent. What Embracer did was stupid and because of their stupidity bottom feeders like Tencent will be circling around picking at the scraps. Next time if there is a next time fully plan something out before whipping out the cheque book. Figure out how you can utilize the company, figure out how they can fit in, figure out how you can work with them and how their games can fit in nicely with the purchase. Being a dumbass with out a plan and a big cheque book does bite you and those around you in the ass.
Disgraceful publisher. I had some hope in them when they saved the THQ properties but now they are a stain on the industry.
It's splitting up, the people who caused this shite show will still be around. Who knows how much more damage they will cause. Or where most will move onto in the future. Industry gotta be careful, you sign yourselves away thinking you'll have funding and security only to be bought up to be fed into a grinder.
