A new contest is allowing players to have the chance to become a Pokémon Trainer in Pokémon GO.
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
Prey was fantastic. Red fall was shit because they were forced to do shit they didn't want to make.
Atkane Lyon did death loop I believe....I hated that one.
Will be more soon, I've said it before I can't see MS keeping Bethesda. I think they'll strip it's IPs and slowly close everything, it's what they do.
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.
That's usually what happens when you don't release it at the same time as other platforms....same thing happened with tomb raider reboot sequel. MS got exclusivity for a year and then when it came to PlayStation it barely sold. Nobody cared anymore.
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.
Tango did NOT deserve to be closed down, they have not released a single bad game, and I'm sure Arkhane failed just because they were both rushed and pressured into making a GaaS game they had no experience in doing and no support to get it completed out of the gate.
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
Aces Game Studio
BigPark
Carbonated Game
Digital Anvil
Ensemble Studios
FASA Studio
Good Science Studio
Hired Gun
Microsoft Studios Japan
Microsoft Studios Victoria
Team Dakota
Xbox Entertainment Studios
Xbox Live Productions
Lift London
Access Software
Salt Lake Games Studio
Twisted Pixel Games
WingNut Interactive
And more before this, this was just their cuts during xbone era that Phil cut while he was at the head.
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" 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 stood on it's own, Microsoft spent 3 Billion 3 years ago almost 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.
And I feel fully confident that this isn't the end of studio closures from these recently purchased studios.
Ready At Dawn was never a Sony owned studio, and only made a few smaller God of War games and a Jax and Daxter spin off, and of course The Order1866.
They are currently owned by OcUlus Studios.
How many times has MS fired Bethesda staff since they purchased it? I think it's been three rounds so far
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.
Glad to see it return. QuakeCon is back once again with the BYOC (Bring-Your-Own-Computer) gathering at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, kicking off August 8 and culminating on Sunday, August 11.
Digital Foundry has new details on the PS5 Pro GPU - including its maximum boost clock and new features.
@christopher, yes will do,
Also, Can you just imagine what 1st party games will look like on this beast. The next horizon, or the next ratchet and clank, wolverine etc. it’s going to be insane graphics!!!
People on twitter are saying, this is similar to a downclocked RX7800xt. Which is £499 by its self. So expect this to be pricey.
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CPU is going to let it down though frame rate wise. Good GPU upgrade and tiny clock increase on a CPU that's been around since 2019. That's a pretty lop sided console.
That's not how it works on console... on console a lot of what is done on the CPU on PC is offloaded to the GPU on console. And even then it's rare to see games on console even when poorly optimized that are truly CPU bottlenecked.
And the whole argument is pointless because they can always lower resolution or post processing (PP is mostly be offloaded to GPU these days in well optimized games). And that's not even talking about the benefit of upscaling with PSSR and the fact that the PSSR and RT cores are independent from CU's making everything much more streamlined and efficient.
The CPU issue is the same type misinformation that was spread about PS5 like it won't have ML or be able to do FSR and won't have raytracing and all the other B.S. which unironically was all covered and spread by DF.
You are getting downvoted despite telling the facts.
Console kids are pathetic. Ready to waste 600€ on a useless Pro lol.
@TheViltsuZ useless Pro that is impossible to get better specs in a PC anywhere near the price? Alright 😂
If you care this much about specs then get a PC.
There is nothing more embarrassing than a console warrior masturbating over specs.
Yeah, cool, but what about some games for a change? Graphical prowess is all fine and dandy, but to use on what? Show me games Sony!
Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Hell Divers 2, Rise of the Ronin, Final Fantasy: Rebirth, Stellar Blade.
So far I'd say this year has been stacked, I'm looking forward to Silent Hill 2 which also seems to be right around the corner.
Not a single first party exclusive. It's an embarrassment when taking into consideration the benchmark Sony set.
@ Moe All Sony's first party hits come out in the last 3 or so years of the generation. Happened with PS3, happened with PS4 and will happen with PS5. You either have memory loss or are just acting ignorant on purpose for some stupid reason.
For Sony to have a down year, it's acceptable. Especially considering the other side has went multiple years at a time without exclusives let alone good games. Let's be real moegooner
@Moegooner.
Guy names exclusives that all released in the first 4 months of the year. They are still there even if not first party.
These guys are such haters, let me give some examples.
They talk about the Starfield 60 fps update while trying to cover their own butts after more or less telling people it couldn't happen because they were fully defending the fact that the game was locked at 30 FPS at release. (Which totally wasn't because the game was rushed out of course..) While going on and on about how revolutionary and innovative Microsoft is for having 40hz modes and unlocked framerate... Uh Miles Morales and Spider-Man Remake... pretty much every single Sony exclusive and remake this gen has had these features.... I guess they just forgot, since they didn't mention PlayStation or their games even once in that segment. But ya, we're all so glad for Microsoft innovation!
Then they talk about the PS5 Pro while avoiding talking about their previous framerate comments which haven't really aged well given how obviously misguided it was. They must have known what they were saying was questionable at best but they said it anyway...
And of course, that didn't keep them from talking down and using negative descriptors over and over when talking about the Pro. A perfect example is when they talk about how PS5 will have hardware VRS which they have constantly talked up in the past, but when they talk about it here it's all negativity, I liked when they showed a single still image of VRS they chose a game which they claimed to be the worst implementation to highlight the feature, got to make it look bad for PlayStation... Which is funny because in this video they do talk positively about VRS and how it will pair well with upscaling, but they don't talk about PSSR of course every upscaling tech but PSSR...
They also talk about NVIDIA bringing DLSS and ray tracing to older games, but have they ever mentioned the fact that PSSR is rumored to have the same feature of being able to be implemented on older games, not that I can remember and definitely not in this video...
The whole thing reminded me of their comparison videos where if they can find even a single segment of the PS5 version that drops under 60 FPS you can bet your lifesavings they are going to show that clip in the first 60 seconds of the video, even if the game holds 60 fps in the other 99% of the game.
Then getting back to framerate they took a question about the Switch 2 where a user asked if it could have 4k 60fps DLSS. Which they say is unlikely unless they lower resolution. Which apparently they didn't consider when they made their PS5 Pro video. After all, why would anyone think that the PS5 Pro would also be able to lower resolution and use things like DRS to maintain stable framerates on top of PSSR. It's not like DRS and resolutions lower than 4k have been used in basically every game for the whole generation... guess it just slipped their minds, honest oversight I'm sure.
And I like how in all the fan comments they responded too, they only took one question from a PlayStation owner which they just made look ridiculous while taking just the most fawning xbox questions for most of the other 99% of the user feedback.
I'm sure the usual people will write off or get angry at my opinion. But lots of people see them as extremely biased in their coverage, it's not just my opinion. There is a reason so few PlayStation owners support them on their Patreon... as the saying goes where there is smoke there is fire. If so many people view them as biased there must be a reason they all think that.
I truly wish we could have someone that does the kind of coverage they do but was actually neutral, heck I would be happy if they just admitted their own bias... though I'm sure the money doesn't allow them too.
I'm not angry about your opinion because your opinion makes it clear (as clear as this unstable word mess is) that:
You do not read or listen to anything you claim to pay attention to. They express concern about Starfield and how it likely won't even hold 60fps because Bethesda emphasizes VRR. They even complain that the 40hz mode comes tied to VRR displays when it shouldn't be required. They complain that Microsoft is introducing a difference between first party S and X modes. They complain about the Series S being left out because based on the X, there's image quality they could sacrifice.
Why the heck would they talk about PSSR when the topic of discussion with Nvidia was about an Nvidia exclusive software tool?
And VRS. They dont like VRS. They don't say it's been done well, that it isn't worth it, even on Xbox that does have hardware support.
This is the longest rant I've seen here, congrats on that and yet not having even one thing from the episode right.
Yeah nobody with a braincell that is functioning is taking DF seriously after they constantly downplay Playstation but praise nintendo to high heavens for having a game that boots up and runs at 15fps
Console fanboys, instead of buying this meaningless 5% stronger PS5 for 600 bucks, go and build a PC.
Yes go and buy a gaming PC that costs at least 3x more to finagle with game settings that are incomplete, DRM issues, inconsistent graphical performance, half assed gaming ports and a fragmented community.
It can run crysis tho.
None of that has been the case in over 10 years. You console children are using nonsensical outdated arguments. One day you will grow up and get a PC. It is inevitable.
You bought a 600€ console, then paid 70€ for 30fps games, and hundreds of dollars to play online, and now you are going to buy a 5% stronger console for another 600€. All of this while all the PS5 games come to PC.
Just because you are scared of completely nonexistent problems which haven't been part of PC gaming in a long time.
@KilluaX3 had my PS5 since 2020. I've played a grand total of one game at 30 fps and even that's been patched to 60 now. Where are these 30 fps games?
Even as someone with a decent PC, you are 100% correct, a good GPU will cost as much or even more than a PS5 itself. This isn't the early PS4 gen, you cannot make a higher end PC for the consoles price anymore, you just can't, GPU prices alone have become ridiculous.
You cannot build a £500 PC and get the same performance as a PS5, and it'll probably be even more extreme given the boost the Pro is gonna have, they really do offer fantastic performance relative to the cost. There is still a huge appeal of just plugging in and play, even for me.
None of that has been the case in over 10 years. You console children are using nonsensical outdated arguments. One day you will grow up and get a PC. It is inevitable..
That's true, thankfully those problems haven't been part of PC gaming in a long time.
Stop paying for online and 30fps games.
I've been playing on PC since 2020 and I've never encountered those problems. The only broken port in recent memory is Jedi Survivor which was broken on every platform. The game ran at 800p 23fps at times on PS5 performance mode according to Digital Foundry.
I would never go back to PC gaming. PC is for work and desk, sit in front of enough during the day. No point in moving PC to the lounge big TV because I don't work there, and console OS/interfaces are much better suited for controllers/quick play.
Just say that you are lazy and most likely poor, and that you don't care about worse gaming experience on consoles.
Grasping at straws to defend your toy box with nonsensical arguments just makes you look like a fool.
Yeah apparently according to TheViltsuZ, having convenience and fun is lazy. The comments have really gone downhill on this site.
Pspsa,don't forget poor. He said poor and lazy. What a real winner with that guy. Some girl is probably extremely happy
5%? Not that TF are the only way to judge but 33TF vs 10? Yeah that's not 5%. I have a gaming laptop that's stronger than my PS5. And likely as strong if not stronger than the PS5 Pro. I've booted up the same game on my PS5 and laptop together, side by side. I had to literally stop playing to point out minute differences in fidelity. The only actual proper difference is I can push it to higher framerates, which when I went over 60. The difference is barely distinguishable in the the first place. Don't make PC gaming out to be that elite. It isn't. Aside from all I just said. You're waiting years for ports, and paying more to game overall. Aside from the fact a PC to match the Pros specs would be twice as much. My Laptop was well over 1000.
