Gaming IndustryMaking good, profitable games ‘will no longer keep you safe’: industry expresses fury and heartbreak over closure of Hi-Fi Rush and Prey studiosWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Gaming IndustryMaking good, profitable games ‘will no longer keep you safe’: industry expresses fury and heartbreak over closure of Hi-Fi Rush and Prey studiosWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Tango Gameworks)
Afterlaying off thousandsof employees over the past couple years, games industry executives appear to be adopting a more efficient method of what they euphemistically call “reprioritization”: closing entire studios. Take-Twoaxed two studiosjust last week, and now Microsoft hasbulldozed four more, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, which it acquired when it bought Bethesda in 2021.
The dissolution of these talented, well-respected teams has reinforced the feeling among gamers and developers that nothing is good enough to earn security under big publishers today. In onepopular tweet, indie developer Maisie Ó Dorchaidhe listed 11 things “that will no longer keep you safe in this industry,” including “a good game,” “a profitable game,” and “long hours and sacrifice.”
(Image credit: Maisie Ó Dorchaidhe)
“Extremely cool and not devastating at all how even studios and devs who make award winning or best selling games aren’t safe from ✨restructuring✨ and ✨divesting resources elsewhere✨,“wroteFiraxis writer Emma Kidwell.
“I don’t understand the closure of Tango Gameworks,“wroteHelldivers 2 studio CEO Johan Pilestedt. “I mean… Why close instead of divest [sell]? Surely the team would easily have been able to find a new home.”
“I cannot imagine hearing you’re being let go because of prioritisation of another developer is especially good for morale,“saidLarian publishing director Michael Douse, “especially if you’re in another regional office of a shuttered sister office 🤦♂️- imaging reading that and working in Obsidian, or something. Wild.”
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(Image credit: Kyle Rowley)
“I just want to say that I love all the people at Arkane Austin so much,“wroteits former studio director, Harvey Smith. “Great times, hard times, we went through so much, together. Of course, today’s news is terrible, for all of us. Your talent will lift you up, and I will do anything I can to help.”
In January, Microsoft also canceled a survival game in production at Blizzard, which it acquired withActivisionfor $68.7 billion last year, and laid off its development team aspart of 1,900 job cutsacross Xbox.
TOPICSXbox
TOPICS
PRODUCTSPrey (2017)Hi-Fi Rush
PRODUCTS
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