Xbox Shutting Down Multiple Studios

Adapt to survive? What? They're printing more money than ever. Sony doesn't closes down studios that they just acquired, especially studios that supposedly released profitable games like hifi rush. Its pretty darn clear to me that Starfield tanked extra hard, and most who've played it just rented it for a month on GP. Then we have GP itself, which is bleeding tens of millions a year.

Executive Producers are not the makers or designers of the game.

redfall barely has any players...and the studio would have been shut down by bethesda regardless, if they were independent. MS current strategy is flawed, and they know it. Most of the players aren't even on xbox..they're on PC and on playstation, and the switch. To reach that audience, they needed to go multiplat for a huge chunk of their library that isn't being supported by the limited xbox fanbase, and they needed to do it a long time ago. Sadly, there are a lot of "core xbox fans" that always get triggered when the topic of multiplat is brought up.

Honestly, I don't give a shit if MS goes multiplat with xbox...as long as MS and xbox is number 1, and very profitable, then im happy. I really hope MS reconsiders and starts going multiplat hard on a bunch of their upcoming titles. Otherwise, there will be even more shutdowns of these studios. Hi Fi rush is a quality game, I personally got a decent way through it myself and I can say its great. Its a shame the studio was shut down, but again its all about business...dollars and cents.

@hardwenzen: Back in your immigration I see.

Go on then I'd love to hear your made up version why Sony got rid of a similar percentage of workforce including a studi9 and why those the others that it cut down are not bringing out games this year.

Oh and while your at name a single acquisition that didn't lead to cuts.

What exactly is your point? An executive producer is still involved in the production of video games.

He's still very much "making" video games.

Managers don't make things, the manage human resources. That would be like giving Phil Spencer credit for the making of every game under Xbox Game Studios.

Sony doesn't get rid of their talent, that's why they're cranking GOTY titles year after year. Do you think Helldivers 2 would be what it is without them? Think again.

Microsoft hasn't been very successful in the last decade, and with those studios closing, it shows. Even a multi trillion dollars company says enough is enough. Everyone has their limit, you know?

@hardwenzen: so the 8% cut from Sony where not from talented or aquired studios.

Got you

They fired interns that were never officially working for the company. Talent is all still there. Same can't be said about MS, tho.

@hardwenzen: course they did in your world.

Need to save money let's only sack low paid interns cos everyone else is talented and performing.

Like I said ill support u in your imagination.

I guess nothing happened at bungie all is well there and the posts of developers from there and other layoffs didn't happen in your world.

Bungie is a shit company, and one that i have been pooping on since 2015. Them having been acquired by Sony or not, these lazy fucks deserve to be deleted from the industry. So again, you don't have a point.

@hardwenzen: so they are a shit company in your world.

Bet they not owned by Sony and full of interns. They must be cos Sony only has talent and high paid developers according to your story.

What i am saying is that they're not important. They have made nothing else but a Microtransaction Store called Destiny 2, and mtx stores is not why i play video games. Sony could shut them down completely, and i'd be more happy than sad.

The only thing I can see Mikami getting bent out of shape to make is if MS asked him to resume the Scalebound project which would cross a line given the issue MS had with Mikami's previous Capcom/Platinum family. Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me he had already planned to leave the moment the acquisition happened but had to wait for his options to vest. Platinum was pretty buttsore about Scalebound being canceled and no doubt out of solidarity with them Mikami wasn't going to stick around.

Have think about what you are doing. Trying to justify Sony's actions where good and Microsoft are bad.

When they are both doing it and it affects real people.

Sony acquired companies and they laid staff off, Bungie is just one off them. Its business and it sucks.

Insomniac's official statement on the layoffs. : r/PS5 (reddit.com)

Naughty dog laid off 25 developers at least

Calling them interns is just insulting to real people who lost their jobs.

If you cannot see both companies are doing it, its business, it affects real people and its shit, then you need to look yourself in the mirror.

25 devs!!! omg!!! Look at what MS is doing, literally closing down studios and their games like Perfect Dark are in the darkest days of development seen in the whole gaming industry. I think its very safe to assume that Sony has it much better than anything MS related. Look at it this way, when drama hits Sony, its outfits censoring and helldivers 2 fiasco. When its MS, they're firing everything and closing down businesses like EA. So please, give it a rest, and accept ms's failure at developing video games.

Guess you have no respect.

I do, I'm done talking about peoples jobs.

I have zero respect for a multi billion dollars corporation, no. Keep on damage controlling for them, see where it gets you in life.

I message you and no response FALSE FLAG :P

@R4gn4r0k said:

@kvallyx said:

RIP Xbox. Cow for life!

Microsoft has now touched my two favourite studios: Ensemble and Arkane.

Can't believe they were eying Valve and Nintendo as well, probably wanna close those too.

Exactly. LMFAO.

What are you actually on.

typing on this forum has nothing to do with my life, its an escape from work.

That's why when it actually comes to important stuff like peoples jobs, you should have respect.

Hope you never have to go through it.

I suspect some on here have been through it.

Xbox employees are now bracing for what’s next, as it seems unlikely that we’ve seen the last of Microsoft’s gaming layoffs and cutbacks. There are whispers among employees that core Xbox Game Studios are set for cutbacks next.

So are we at the "Xbox is completely cooked" portion of the program yet?

Tune in on the 9th of June for the best and most anticipated game showcase of 2024.

Xbox studios 👍

And from Kotaku (yeah, I'm shocked I'm citing them too, but damn it, they did good... THIS TIME).

This is WHY I protested the merger. Buyouts like this are a cost of jobs. And with the state of the industry, with corrupt CEOs and investors running rampant, I'll repeat: NUKE THIS INDUSTRY!

So, according to MS, most of the actual "developers" aren't going anywhere. These employees were moved from their individual studios to Berhesda proper to work on "major titles".

So, if I lose Arkane Austin and Tango to get Fallout 5 three years earlier, that's a fair trade IMO.

I doesn't seem like an escape from work to you. You care about your multi trillion dollars company. Well, i don't.🤷‍♂️

That's just you coping with the situation as you always do.

@hardwenzen: that's because Sony will never be one.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/8/24151814/microsoft-xbox-layoffs-strategy-changes-arkane-tango

Xbox employees are now bracing for what’s next, as it seems unlikely that we’ve seen the last of Microsoft’s gaming layoffs and cutbacks. There are whispers among employees that core Xbox Game Studios are set for cutbacks next. Last month, Microsoft reported thatXbox hardware revenue was downby 31 percent year over year and an obvious admission that this was “driven by lower volume of consoles sold.” Last year, Microsoft reported a 30 percent drop in Xbox hardware revenue, blaming “increased console supply” from the prior year in 2022. Sony PS5 sales havealso slowed, but not like Microsoft’s.

...

Microsoft has also had internal debates about whether to put new releases of Call of Duty into Game Pass. I understand this is a debate that has been ongoing internally for quite some time, with concerns from some that the revenue that Call of Duty typically generates for Activision Blizzard will be undermined by Game Pass.

I’m told that Microsoft has also considered increasing the price of Game Pass Ultimate again. These are only considerations, so a final decision could mean we still see a future Call of Duty release appear in most versions of Game Pass. The debate internally reflects the fact Microsoft’s Xbox strategy has shifted from just delivering its games exclusively into Game Pass to considering bringing more Xbox games to multiple platforms.

Yikes

Jez out here acting spicy 😂🤣

Just look at all the tweets coming with facts today. Microsoft is so ready to exit the gaming space, and it shows.

@ghostofgolden: Jez fricking SUPPORTED the buyout of Activision! This feels like a "We're all trying to find who did this" moment.

At least Jez wasn't all hellbent on furthering supporting the acquisition to say the least. But he didn't expect these missives layoffs to happened so damn fast.

Is he having a stroke? Booty's lost his damn mind

Did you hear the stupid people saying the "If Star field and Halo was on PlayStation they would not close the developers bc they would get a lot of money" -- they are the historic best launch of any new IP or Halo game and sell more than any Bethesda game to and day one PC with more money than PlayStation game makes. Xbox make more and more money every new quarter and top of PS5 sale chart they have money do not worry 💰💰💰

But every developer fire employees after a big projects and may be they want to not hire more for the next project again it just makes sense perfectly.

Poo cow can not stop dreaming and begging for Halo and Star Field and use any reason to beg more 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

Regret buying the PS5 too bad so sad 🙂🙃🙂🙃

Xbox M.O exposed - make low budget games that wins mindshare and awards, kill off studio.

I have no new messages on my PSN.

Is this Lem Tormentos?

@thatforumuser:

In case u forgotten, Halo infinite great launch was due to its Free to Play mode.

With the huge success of fallout on amazon with 65 million watching in just 16 days and a 2nd season in the works it makes total sense for xbox studios to jump on that band wagon and use the hype it generated...i expect a Fallout 5 teaser trailer at next years showcase and a either a fallout 3 or new Vegas remaster date announced next month.

I can see why a halt to Austins plans while they worked on a new fallout but a studio closure feels a bit drastic if indeed that was the reason.

Anyhoo..i ain't gonna tell a multi trillion dollar company where the bear shits in the woods and i ain't gonna criticise them for doing what most gaming companies are doing....i'll leave that to the 'fake outraged' and the 'only come out of the woodwork for xbox bad news' cowards.

@BenjaminBanklin said:

@Chutebox said:

Is he having a stroke? Booty's lost his damn mind

What makes it worst is that Tango had plans for Hi-Fi Rush sequel but clearly MS didn't expect the first game to be this big of a hit which is why it had little marketing in the first place. This is a bad time to be a fan of the brand.

SW experts. lolol :P

Reggie figured MS out 20 years ago lol.

Remember last year when Phillip W. Spencer said Redfall would be their most supported game?

lol

Anyway all of the acquisition cheerleaders backtracking are disingenuous as f*** and knew this would happen - they just wanted to cash in. "Journalists" with stake in megacorps like this need to be required to disclose their position in the company before publishing all of that pro consolidation nonsense. It's criminal.

Well, the game wasn't a financial hit, but it WAS a critically acclaimed game for MS. But it's bizarre to go back and say these were the kinds of games you need for your service when the situation has obviously changed and gave the dev the boot. Microsoft is actively endangering every one of their devs that can't produce hits for them with this news. They're sending a message that they don't value these kinds of games for their service anymore. Which is especially a kick in the balls after touting themselves to be this great mecca of new games large and small to be played on a sub service day and date