168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Microsoft has just announced it will be shutting down 𒈔Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and several other developers across 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox Game Studios in yet another round of layoffs. Months after releasing games like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hi-Fi Rush on rival platforms with excitement about helping these titles reach new audiences, the company is now killing the teams responsible for them. It's a barbaric decision that is representative of how unsustainable and broken the games in⛎dustry is, and that no matter what you make and how beloved it might be, the axe is bound to come down on your head eventually.
I’d convinced myself that I’d grown numb to news of la🔯yoffs in this industry, with the past two years defined by thousands of good people suddenly out of work thanks to executives all placing bets on ill-advised ideas or overinvesting during a pandemic. But the bubble was bound to burst eventually, and we’ve seen that unfold with countless layoffs, cancelled projects, and places like Xbox floundering around, fundamentally unsure about what it wants to be.
🤪With the closure of Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, never has that been more obvious than it is today.
Xbox Has Finally Reached Its Breaking Point
Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire Tokyo are two of the most celebrated Xbox Games Studio titles in recent memory, praised for doing something different on a platform that has built itself on the once-fresh idea🐬s of Halo and Gears of War.
At the time, there was hope that it was a sign of a brighter future, a sign that Xbox was taking its studio acquisitions seriously while developers were given the time and resources to cook up games that mattered to them. We showed up because the games were labours of love, not drenched in corporate messaging or blatantly obvious live service gimmicks that have come to define the triple-A space. But it wasn’t enough, and now Tango Gameworks and Arkane Au🍌stin are no more, and I’m furious about it.
The studio who made Prey, one of the greatest immersive sims ever made, got shut down after a single failure in Redfall, one it warned Microsoft about repeatedly shortly after it was acquired. But thanks to poor management and a desire to chase the live-service wagon, it wasn’t listened to. Phil Spencer said at the time that Xbox would improve communication with new internal studiosജ, but how do you do this once you’ve shut them all down?
Maybe it💜 was the fact that these titles were all released on Game Pass or dropped without an ounce of marketing, doomed to never get back their initial investment unless millions of players subscribed to play them. Is that why ports for PS5 and Nintendo Switch were entertained? Given those launches kicked off only a couple of months ago, was there even enough time to give them a chance?
It sure doesn’t seem like it, and after some executives looked at spreadsheets of lacking profits and cancelled projects, somewhere needed to be shuttered to make up the losses. It’s like Xbox throwing a dart at a board covered in names and picking them at r🐼andom, and now ಌhundreds more people are out of work because they had the gall to try to make something different.
When Microsoft purchased Bethesda and the studios contained therein - id Software, Tango, Arkane, etc. - there was hope from those involved that they would no longer be shackled by monetary constraints, offering untold creative freedom and fewer risks when it came toඣ any new project. Looking back on that now, it was a thinly veiled lie that so many of us foolishly bought into. It makes me worry for the first time about Double Fine, Compulsion, and Ninja Theory.
Where Does Xbox Go From Here?
Now I’m convinced that nobody under the Microsoft umbrella is safe, and caring about the medium and artistic benchmarks it wants to pursue will always be second fiddle to profit. Video games are at the whims of corporations, and so are the livelihoods of those responsible for them. You can make all the right decisions, even spend years trying to build a studio from the ground-up like Tango Gameworks, only to be acquired and shut down as a needless casualty to salvage your 🐻parent company’s bottom lin♋e. It just isn’t fair.
I’m sure that Xbox began this journey with the best of intentions. But the harsh reality of business caught up with the company as it tried to chase all the wrong victories and failed to support the dozens of studios it bought 🦂to make up for its myriad exclusive shortfalls.
Aside from a few gems, we’ve seen no returns on this, and those we have seen have had their studi𝓀os shut down or gutted by layoffs. You’d think that after📖 it cut 1,900 jobs at the start of the year, these teams would be safe, but apparently not.
Matt Booty’s message to employe🌟es this week announcing the layoffs and studio closures talks about Xbox as it plans to “build new IP, explore new ga🦩me concepts, and expand on our existing franchises.” Was this not the intention before all of this news came out, and does admitting this now mean you have failed to deliver on past promises made to both consumers and the teams you are responsible for? If Xbox continues down this path, it will be back to delivering lacklustre entries in the few major series it can lay claim to, all while surrendering its platform which is already failing to sustain itself.
A few years ago, it felt like Xbox was ushering in a new future for video games, that it was taking bold steps forwar⛦d with service ecosystems as it invested in and took risks on a laundry list of studios we wanted to see so much mo♛re from. But over time, its ambition has given way to a harsh reality, one where corporate profits will always be prioritized over every single expression of creative freedom. It sucks that companies like this are responsible for a medium which is capable of pushing the boundaries of entertainment, because the second it fails to make money, those beneath them making all of it possible are the first to suffer.
