Microsoft Games - Closes multiple Studios

[HiddenX]

The Gamer Social Club reports that Microsoft is going to close several studios and Redfall will be cancelled:

Xbox Closes Multiple Studios, Including Hi-Fi Rush & Redfall Teams

More horrible cuts hit the industry, as Microsoft shutters multiple studios.

Developing story:

In an email sent to Xbox employees by Xbox Executive Matt Booty which IGN has obtained, Microsoft is closing multiple studios within Bethesda including Arkane Austin and Tango Softworks.

The email:

Today I'm sharing changes we are making to our Bethesda and ZeniMax teams. These changes are grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda's portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades.

To double down on these franchises and invest to build new ones requires us to look across the business to identify the opportunities that are best positioned for success. This reprioritization of titles and resources means a few teams will be realigned to others and that some of our colleagues will be leaving us.

Here are the changes going into effect:

Arkane Austin - This studio will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda. Arkane Austin has a history of making impactful and innovative games and it is a pedigree that everyone should be proud of. Redfall's previous update will be its last as we end all development on the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy and we will provide make-good offers to players who purchased the Hero DLC.

[...]

Thanks Dannoomen!

More information.

 

[Couchpotato]

Like I said before it all comes down to cost ratio. Those studios have unperformed on games, and that Activision-Blizzard deal and lower XBox sales are the main factor.

Good news is Bethesda is being expanded to help with better earning IP's.

 

[JDR13]

You mean further support for Redfall is being cancelled not the game itself.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Reworking a line from the song "Carpet Crawlers" by Genesis :
"We've got to be bought to get shut down ..."

 

[Zloth]

Microsoft seems to be getting back in to the 'catch & kill' thing. I wish they had taken Arkane, figured out why the frak such great games weren't selling, then fixed it. Or, if nobody could figure it out, just get them to make the same sort of games with smaller budgets so they could turn a profit with lower sales. But no... they have them make a pretty different sort of game, then close them when it does the Ric Flair flop. Grrrrrrr.

 

[Farflame]

You mean further support for Redfall is being cancelled not the game itself.

Redfall was basically "cancelled" by first wave of reviews. Now they just stopped beating the dead horse.

Good news is Bethesda is being expanded to help with better earning IP's.

Who will help who? Are devs from canceled studios coming to Bethesda? Or Bethesda will help other studios with finishing their work?

 

[Stingray]

Redfall was basically "cancelled" by first wave of reviews. Now they just stopped beating the dead horse.

17 people playing it right now during US primetime (on Steam). Pretty amazing for an always-online, multiplayer-focused AAA game that came out 1 year ago.

 

[Shagnak]

17 people playing it right now during US primetime (on Steam). Pretty amazing for an always-online, multiplayer-focused AAA game that came out 1 year ago.

A mate and I finished it a few months ago. It was okay, we had fun, but the 25 or so hours that it took us to finish the whole campaign was enough. No wonder it hasn't really retained an audience, the looter shooter aspect really isn't that compelling. Somewhere in there would be a semi-decent single player game if they improved the plot and jettisoned the online and looter shooter aspects. The town detail and vampire design was pretty good.
Also, it was still rife with bugs. Every session one of us would go into "T pose" or spend a few minutes jiggling around partially submerged in the scenario.

 

[Andrew23]

Im not expecting any positive influence on studios acquired by MS. Bethesda itself can probably survive for quite some time, but smaller, underperforming studios will be shot where they stand. Good luck InXile and Obsidian. Especially the latter is known to shoot itself in foot on regular basis, lets see how long they survive in MS corporate structure. And how many great RPGs we will get, now, as they have access to all that money from MS (just for record: this is irony).

 

[Redglyph]

I'm not even sure those studios would have been in a better position had they been independent. Maybe they would have taken fewer risks? Hard to tell.

 

[Stingray]

I'd guess that inXile was probably in bad shape and didn't have much choice but to sell out. 2 of their games were massive flops commercially (Torment and BT4) and Kickstarter/Fig were drying up.

 

[bjon045]

I'd guess that inXile was probably in bad shape and didn't have much choice but to sell out. 2 of their games were massive flops commercially (Torment and BT4) and Kickstarter/Fig were drying up.

Where are you getting massive flops from? They both made a modest profit. They weren't as successful as they would of wanted but to call a game that makes a profit a "massive flop" is a bit of a stretch.

 

[Stingray]

On vginsights, they're estimating well under 100K units sold for Bard's Tale IV, and that's 6 years after release with probably tons of sales and giveaways. I would be very surprised if it was actually profitable, do you have a source for that? I stand by "massive flop" for this one, don't really see how it could be considered otherwise.

As for Torment, I don't know, it could have been slightly profitable but it was absolutely a major flop compared to expectations. It was supposed to be the spiritual sequel to one of the greatest RPGs of all time.

Here's vginsights' numbers for units sold on Steam:
Wasteland 2: 673K
Wasteland 3: 581K
Torment: 308K
Bard's Tale IV: 58K on the original release, 38K on Director's Cut (not sure how the overlap works)

BTW: I quite liked Torment myself (so I'm not pushing an agenda there), but BT4 was terrible.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Motherfucker, and it's really not much of an exageration.
If you take 200 people (let's just say, for both studios) x $200k (even though most are probably payed a lot less then 200k per year) x 10 years = $400 million.
Fucking CEOs.

 

[Redglyph]

I doubt there are so many devs, and 200k is more than double the likely annual salary, so I think the maths there is all over the place. The comparison itself doesn't make any sense in the first place.

I agree that scum only deserved to be evicted without any ceremony, though. But it's something else entirely.

 

[Couchpotato]

I doubt there are so many devs, and 200k is more than double the likely annual salary, so I think the maths there is all over the place. The comparison itself doesn't make any sense in the first place.

I agree that scum only deserved to be evicted without any ceremony, though. But it's something else entirely.

Nah my friend it's easier to blame the corporate boogeyman then look at the facts of why the studios chosen were shut down. I understand why Arkane Austin was closed though.

The other two studios didn't make games I was ever interested in so I don't really care.

 

[Couchpotato]

Who will help who? Are devs from canceled studios coming to Bethesda? Or Bethesda will help other studios with finishing their work?

There was a report about Bethesda possibly being enlarged to work on more then one game at a time, or more developers being handed their IPs to increase more revenue.

As we all know Beth loves to only make one game at a time for 6-8 years.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Nah my friend it's easier to blame the corporate boogeyman then look at the facts of why the studios chosen were shut down. I understand why Arkane Austin was closed though.

I guess you also understand why 343 Industries is still alive and well after shipping 3 shitty, underwhelming and under-performing Halo games, right?
It's the captains of industry leading this whole shit of an industry. And they keep failing upwards, and they get rewarded in the hundreds of millions.

In other news, thank god Andrew "the android" Wilson is here to tell us how great of a live service the next Battlefield will be.
Don't worry, he has been playing it.

 

[Couchpotato]

I guess you also understand why 343 Industries is still alive and well after shipping 3 shitty, underwhelming and under-performing Halo games, right?

343 has been in trouble all year as well. It has been re-structured and a few higher ups have been fired as well. Don't know why MS hasn't closed them down yet though.

Also I don't get emotional as I have no personal feeling about any of this business.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

343 has been in trouble all year as well. It has been re-structured and a few higher ups have been fired as well. Don't know why MS hasn't closed them down yet though.

I'm sure it's the wisdom of our captains of industry. They see potential where we mere mortals don't.