A bad day today for many video game creators: Microsoft and Bethesda announced the closure of four studiostwo of which are well known to Xbox users: these are Tango Gameworksauthors of the appreciated Hi-Fi Rush as well as the only Japanese studio in the Xbox stable, and of Arkane Austinauthors of the unfortunate RedFall.
Apart from these, they are also closed Alpha Dog Studiosthe mobile title studio that launched last year Mighty DOOMand Roundhouse Gamesformerly known as Human Head Studios and co-authors of RedFall.
Some of these developers will be relocated to other studios, but most will have to find a new home for their professional talents. In an internal communication, the head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty makes it clear that these closures are due to the desire to focus on more profitable projects. Here are his words:
Today I’m sharing the changes we’re making to our Bethesda and ZeniMax teams. These changes are based on prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of successful games and beloved worlds that you have cultivated over many decades.
To target these franchises and invest in building new ones, we must look across the entire company to identify opportunities best positioned for success. This reprioritization of titles and resources means that some teams will be realigned with others and that some colleagues will leave us.
These changes do not reflect the creativity and skill of the talented individuals on these teams or the risks they have taken to try new things. I realize that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams at ZeniMax and Bethesda who bring our games to market. We are making these difficult decisions to create the capacity to increase investments in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority plays.
Bethesda also announced that those who had purchased the Bite Back Edition Of RedFallor who had taken the upgrade Bite Backyou will be able to receive refund credits since the contents that were promised for this edition will no longer be created. This Page will be updated later with details on how to obtain them.
It goes without saying that this is very bad news for the entire world of gaming and for those people who have invested their lives in these studies; For our part, we are particularly sorry Tango Gameworkswhich we would have liked to see produce more highly creative gems, but also for Arkane Austinhowever authors of the excellent Prey. We hope, given the 1900 layoffs made between Xbox Game Studios and Activision Blizzard at the beginning of the year, this is the last bad news of the year for the world of video games.