Xbox announced today that it’s shutting down three studios and merging another. This includes Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and the merging of Roundhouse Games into ZeniMax Online Studios. The most upsetting closure, however, is that of Tango Gameworks, developers of The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo and 2023 surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush. It’s yet another addition to a long running list of studios closing and mass gaming industry layoffs, and I’m tired. When studios that produce successful titles still get shuttered, what’s the point in investing emotionally in AAA anymore?
Hi-Fi Rush is by all accounts a gaming industry success story – a hit with critics and players alike, a BAFTA winner, and over three million players as of August 2023. Even Aaron Greenberg, VP of Xbox Games Marketing at Microsoft, said the company “couldn’t be happier with what the team…delivered,” and described it as a “breakout hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations” in early 2023. But it still wasn’t enough to save a nearly 15-year old studio from the games industry guillotine – even as Microsoft reports a 17% increase in revenue and $21.9 billion in profits.
Apparently, the choice to close all three studios (according to an email sent by Microsoft’s Matt Booty, via Eurogamer) was “grounded in prioritising high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds.” It’s the same corporate spin we’ve heard over and over from the likes of Xbox and other major companies (I’m looking at you, Embracer Group). Essentialise the portfolio to give players what they really want. Buy studios creating games that people love, only to shut them and probably get a nifty tax write-off, killing the diversity of titles and developers actively in the industry.
I can’t bring myself to become emotionally invested in a studio or game franchise anymore. I enjoy a game and hear there’s going to be a sequel, only for them to be liquidated months later. Sometimes, as with Hi-Fi Rush, they don’t even get a chance to consider a sequel. I can only withstand the hope-to-disappointment rollercoaster so many times. I can only bet on a studio or believe in their vision, only to watch them be dismantled so many times before it becomes an exercise in futility. Games fail all the time, sure, and sometimes that does lead to further projects being cancelled – I’m not so naive I don’t know and understand that. But when a game or a studio is smashing it, and still falls victim to the games industry woodchipper that seems to never shut off, what’s the point?
That might sound defeatist of me, and maybe it is. Day in, day out, talented games industry workers lose their livelihoods at the hands of what can in many cases be described as corporate greed – a need for exponential profit growth that’s unsustainable in almost all circumstances.
So many games workers are out of a job right now, and some may never re-enter the industry as it continues to grapple with job losses and closures. All of these people who put their blood, sweat, and tears into the titles they work on just to bring players something cool, unique, or fun to play are cast aside for the sake of numbers. Numbers on a spreadsheet or shareholder report don’t even begin to quantify the passion, talent and drive of the folks who make the games we play. And as more and more go on to other industries, jaded from layoff after layoff, we lose more unique ideas and stories that could’ve made the next smash hit. If you don’t grieve for the studios or the games, at least grieve for the people – even when they get it right, they aren’t safe.
If I had to take a punt at one of the reasons Xbox closed Tango Gameworks, I’d hazard a guess that the Game Pass method of distribution isn’t paying the dividends the company hoped for. Sure, Hi-Fi Rush (and many other titles) has upwards of three million downloads, but any from Game Pass aren’t direct sales, money specifically from that title lining the pockets of shareholders. On paper, that’s not a financial success story, even if it was set up to never be one by virtue of being a part of a game subscription service. Whether major games companies also consider the cultural impact of the titles studios make is unclear. In some cases, probably. In most cases, I doubt it.
Much like a jilted lover, I’m not sure I can keep investing my heart into these studios anymore. It’s too disappointing every time they’re snapped up by a bigger company only to cease to exist regardless of whether they do well or not. I’ll cheer them on from afar, but I, and I’m sure many others, find myself becoming more and more guarded because no studio, no game, no game industry worker seems to be safe from the chopping block.
Xbox is in pretty hot water for this move, but whether the community outcry does anything to make them consider changing their tactics – and more broadly, make other companies in similar positions change their strategies – is unclear.
I just hope that next time I bet on a winning horse, and it does in fact win, it’s not taken out the back and shot.
Image: Tango Gameworks / Xbox (via Youtube) / Kotaku Australia
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