Microsoft shutting down Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Studios

[the-pi-guy]

Roundhouse is getting folded into Zenimax Online.

The other shuttered subsidiaries are Alpha Dog Studios and Roundhouse Games (which will merge with Zenimax Online Studios).

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) May 7, 2024

[the-pi-guy]

This year:
- the game pass model has failed.
- MS's war chest has come to an end


I want to be clear here though. It's not just a MS issue. These are the result of industry wide trends. But it puts an end to the narrative that MS was above all that.

It's becoming clear to me that as Game Pass growth has slowed, Xbox is increasingly looking to take an IP first approach to its consumer facing business.

That's not to say service and platform aren't still important, but that it seems like Xbox wants its games to be profitable… https://t.co/jjzMHgR3WW

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 7, 2024

[kitler53]

boom goes the dynamite.  

was soo f'ing obvious from the start that committing all 1st party games to release day-1 on gamepass would severely restrict their ability to create profits.    sony's service is doing fine without that commitment and leaves room to sell their biggest and best games for $70 to the whales and get low budget gamers to invest in the platform.    

[kitler53]

reading the era thread now.   "what the fudge" is like 80% of the posts on the first few pages.   xD

[kitler53]

not surprising in the least to see redfall development canceled.

Signup here https://t.co/wb1R4m4emj to receive details on how eligible players can receive this credit. pic.twitter.com/69Os17kpQ8

— Arkane Studios (@ArkaneStudios) May 7, 2024

[the-pi-guy]

The more I think about it, the more baffled I am. MS -FINALLY- had a great Japanese development studio after failing miserably over there for decades. They HAD IT. They produced an award winning, amazing game - now they're being closed down.

— John Linneman @dark1x.bsky.social (@dark1x) May 7, 2024

[kitler53]

MS needs to bite the most important bullet of all.    renege on the promise of day-1 gamepass releases.   get the industry's whales buying software again.   i swear MS/gamepass is like most of the industry's problem right now.   

...and MS needs to do it before CoD ships this fall.

[Legend]

Jeez that sucks. At least redfall sucked so Prey can't be blamed for killing the studio.

Also so strange that Tango Gameworks was included with this. Hi Fi Rush didn't do great numbers but it was popular and they just ported it to ps5. Did the port flop?

[nnodley]

HiFi rush might have been popular but we pretty much didn't hear a thing about it after the first week and I doubt it made any money for MS

Even if this is happening industry wide. I can see MS possibly having even more coming soon. Their gamepass model has tanked them it seems to the point of basically going towards being a 3rd party publisher

[kitler53]

Well,.. it won't be just MS.  I expect more closures industry wide including at sony. 

[the-pi-guy]

It's Time To Stop Giving Xbox Boss Phil Spencer A Pass (Kotaku)

Since the era of Xbox One, Spencer has been the face of Xbox, consistently saying things that make his devout Xbox fans praise him and avoiding as much negative press as possible. He'll tout the merits of emulation and game preservation, while acknowledging that Xbox could do more (but has no plans to.) In November 2021, when Activision found itself in hot water following a Wall Street Journal report claiming then-CEO Bobby Kotick allegedly had knowledge of the toxic behavior at his company, Spencer was one of the biggest voices in the video game industry speaking out against the Call of Duty publisher. "This type of behavior has no place in our industry," Spencer claimed in an email. An SEC filing revealed in 2022 that a few days after the WSJ's story was published, Spencer called Kotick and started working on the deal to buy Activision.
Of course, this is pretty common behavior for a powerful and rich executive who is part of a massive global corporation. But Spencer has been able to (mostly) avoid criticism sharing stories of how he believes gaming should be for everyone while making decisions that directly contradict this claim.

[kitler53]

[kitler53]

Xbox has shut down more studios than released games this year.

Let that sink in.

— SloMoDaMus (@SloMoBackSlap) May 7, 2024

[kitler53]

maybe i'm just in a sour mood but i feel like gaming is nearing the end for me.  

this whole gen hasn't been great.   a few bright spots for sure but soo much has gone wrong.   

- games have gotten too big and too long to develop
- as a result games or moving away from "games" and towards "platforms for selling mtx"
- embracer came and bought up a huge amount of developers only to shut half of them down.
- MS seems to be basically following in embracers shoes right now.   ...and killing off xbox in the process.
- sony isn't in a great position either...
    - sony's GaaS initiative blew up.
    - ND's MP game was canceled and we probably won't hear from them for another 3 years
    - studio japan closed.   i am excited for asobi but they are massively slimmed down from what studio japan used to do.  
    - MM is probably next in line to get shut down thanks to dreams
    - bungie seems to be heading towards self destruction as well
    
    - and to top it off sony's top leadership make shaming comments that (imo) makes it feel like they will leadership their brand to death just like xbox

...and it's not like things can't change but:
1. game take so long to develop that a change for the better will take 5+ years to make it to market
2. i'm getting pretty old already.  i'm mid 40's already.



i dunno.  if the future of gaming is anything like the current state of gaming on mobile i think i'm out.   i don't want my choices in gaming to be down to a handful of GaaS games:
1. CoD
2. fortnight
3. GTA online
4. Genshen impact
5. ...

[the-pi-guy]

This makes it look even worse.