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Post by baihu1983 on May 7, 2024 14:49:59 GMT
Ninja Theory got to be a bit worried just weeks before Hellblade 2 releases.
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Post by paulyboy81 on May 7, 2024 14:54:28 GMT
They're going to take some serious heat for the Tango Gameworks closure in particular.
Lord knows what the criteria was for earmarking closure this go around, I'd hope it's a little more nuanced than simply releasing one shit or under selling (or is that engaging now...) game.
As said above various rumours pointed towards an awful lot of Arkane Austin staff jumping ship some time ago, plus you've got Mikami having already left Tango etc, etc.
Hard to know what sort of state these studios were in to be fair, not that it matters mind you. I know business is business, but when the most valuable company in the world is shuttering studios like this (particularly after an acquisition) it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Cynical of me I know, but I feel like news of this magnitude from a company like Microsoft often acts as a nice heat shield for others thinking of trimming the fat. Hope I'm wrong obviously but I wouldn't be surprised to see few more of these over the coming weeks. Not that the industry needs an excuse, been an absolute bloodbath the last 18 months.
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Post by Whizzo on May 7, 2024 15:02:17 GMT
Spencer : I feel Xbox needs to do better in Japan.
Times passes...
Xbox closes their only Japanese studio.
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Post by baihu1983 on May 7, 2024 15:03:39 GMT
Maybe Spencer is one of Xbox biggest problems.
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Post by Fake_Blood on May 7, 2024 15:07:46 GMT
So basically, industry wide, we’re going to get fewer but bigger titles that don’t take any chances so they can predict exactly how many copies they’ll sell. And they’ll need 10 million copies sold to break even. Kind of feels like things are imploding tbh.
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Cappy
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Post by Cappy on May 7, 2024 15:13:01 GMT
I guess endless studio closures make more sense for massive corporations, EA have been doing it for years without any long term harm to EA itself.
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Post by Jambowayoh on May 7, 2024 15:14:08 GMT
So basically, industry wide, we’re going to get fewer but bigger titles that don’t take any chances so they can predict exactly how many copies they’ll sell. And they’ll need 10 million copies sold to break even. Kind of feels like things are imploding tbh. Pretty much. The stuff that's exploding on Steam and things like Early Access are telling these big publishers what they should be doing but they really do seem to be stuck in this archaic mindset. |
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on May 7, 2024 15:16:57 GMT
I'm guessing Indiana Jones has thus far saved MachineGames from the chopping block - after all, if Redfall proved to be the beginning of the end for Arkane Austin, it's hard to see how MachineGames would've survived Youngblood but for having a popular IP at their disposal.
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Post by baihu1983 on May 7, 2024 15:17:55 GMT
Maybe chop Game Pass so gamers actually have to buy games again.
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Post by Jambowayoh on May 7, 2024 15:19:34 GMT
Maybe chop Game Pass so gamers actually have to buy games again. Seeing as that's where most of their actual engagement comes from and not actual hardware, I doubt that's going to happen. I don't think something like Hifi Rush wouldn't have had the exposure it had without being on Gamepass if we're being totally honest. |
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Post by mikew1985 on May 7, 2024 15:20:45 GMT
Ninja Theory got to be a bit worried just weeks before Hellblade 2 releases. This was exactly my thinking when reading this. Next on the chopping block after they drop Hellblade 2. Whoever bought them and decided Hellblade 2 was the way to go though is another matter. |
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Post by rhaegyr on May 7, 2024 15:21:20 GMT
Gamepass is one of the only good things MS have going for them at the moment.
Hell, it's the only reason I bought an Xbox.
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apollo
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Post by apollo on May 7, 2024 15:28:18 GMT
Real shitty about Tango GW, that seems a fucking stupid thing to do as there only japanese studio and Hi-rush was decent and evil within 2 was great survival horror type game. I know someone at NT, really good guy, hope that studio is safe.
These shitty publishers buying all these studios then shutting them down ( i can understand about redfall team)
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Post by Fake_Blood on May 7, 2024 15:31:16 GMT
Maybe chop Game Pass so gamers actually have to buy games again. Seeing as that's where most of their actual engagement comes from and not actual hardware, I doubt that's going to happen. I don't think something like Hifi Rush wouldn't have had the exposure it had without being on Gamepass if we're being totally honest. But similarly, the metric they are using is how many people subscribed to GP for hi-fi rush and how many stayed subscribed. And in hi-fi’s case that number apparently wasn’t high enough. |
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on May 7, 2024 15:33:41 GMT
Doesn't do studios any good though, clearly. Can't see a future where smaller indie titles come out on game pass. What must Obsidian be thinking if sales of Avowed don't do Skyrim numbers in a month? Or Ninja Theory with Hellblade 2? If the sole Japanese dev studio that Xbox had can make an award winning game, with promises of Xbox investing more into Japanese development and still get canned, what chance do the rest of you have?
Sounds like the news has gone down like a lead balloon with a lot of people. Even Arkane's creative director is coming out and openly criticising it:
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Post by baihu1983 on May 7, 2024 15:33:43 GMT
Yep.
By MS own words Rush met all the metrics required and yet here we are.
I know it appears the game failed to find an audience on PS but I could see the switch version doing better.
So if they are also looking into sales then GP is a big blocker.
Several members from studios under MS are being pretty critical of this.
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Post by gibroon on May 7, 2024 15:36:31 GMT
You wonder how elder scrolls 6(?) will fair and Bethesda in two or three years.
If they haven't updated their dead eye engine, menu system, gameplay loop to something resembling next/this gen, I fear for them as well.
Probably too big a franchise to fail though.
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Derblington
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Post by Derblington on May 7, 2024 15:39:20 GMT
The reason given for these closures is literally to further support ES6 et al.
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apollo
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Post by apollo on May 7, 2024 15:41:43 GMT
ES6 could be released broken and people will play it on gamepass or buy it anway
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Post by Whizzo on May 7, 2024 15:42:25 GMT
This aged well.
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Post by baihu1983 on May 7, 2024 15:43:49 GMT
MS giving Embracer a run for it's money.  |
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Post by Fake_Blood on May 7, 2024 15:45:16 GMT
Maybe one of the axed studios can work on nothing but the dead eyes? On the one hand this sucks man, but on the other, I've just stopped looking forward to big games anyway. I'm mainly playing games that seem to have popped up out of nowhere. Granted, that's mostly on pc.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on May 7, 2024 15:50:55 GMT
Microsoft has more money than some small countries btw. Gonna be so embarrasing to learn that this talent would be moved to help Fallout 5 and it's still a rushed, buggy mess on launch, years after the show has ended.
Also, I don't wanna hear Phil Spencer talk about how he loves games so much from this point on
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Post by baihu1983 on May 7, 2024 16:03:07 GMT
And to think, he really wanted to buy Nintendo.
Think it would be more than a polite no from them now days.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on May 7, 2024 16:11:37 GMT
I know it appears the game failed to find an audience on PS but I could see the switch version doing better.
I get what you're saying, but the game came out on PlayStation less than two months ago.
It had no physical version; it was supported by no marketing campaign whatsoever; and it launched three days before the double whammy of Rise of the Ronin and Dragon's Dogma II.
In addition, Microsoft did themselves no favours by releasing Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush on PlayStation in such swift succession - all four games dropped within the space of about 10 weeks, at a busy time in the gaming calendar, putting them in direct competition with everything from FF7 Rebirth to Stellar Blade.
Lastly, the narrative surrounding these releases wasn't, "Hey, PlayStation owners - check out these awesome Xbox games!", so much as, "OMG, some lesser-known Xbox games have come to PlayStation - maybe Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 will follow suit someday!"
These four titles seemed more like a test balloon than anything else, which did them (and their developers) a major disservice.
TL;DR If Phil Spencer and co. are using Hi-Fi Rush's (alleged) poor sales on PS as part of their justification for shuttering Tango Gameworks, that's some straight-up bullshit right there.
( baihu1983 None of this ire is directed at you, by the way! I hope that's clear.) |
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Post by Fake_Blood on May 7, 2024 16:21:28 GMT
I still have it in the back of my head that Phil is stepping down at the end of this fiscal year.
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on May 7, 2024 16:27:46 GMT
Redfall DLC was still being worked on as of 5 hrs leading up to the announcement. Plus the announcement comes at 10pm in Japan time when Tango was done for the day. Plus in the internal email they got the studio name of Alpha Dog Games wrong, calling it Alpha Dog Studios. Just callous management, what are they doing?
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Post by theguy on May 7, 2024 16:45:38 GMT
What an absolute shitshow.
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Post by baihu1983 on May 7, 2024 16:52:01 GMT
All clear. And I agree, feels like the Activision deal has lead to a lot of dumb decisions. Almost like someone high up in MS expected them to over take Sony within a month and is now angry/panicking that it hasn't happened and wants decisions made to get the money back. Issue is that these guys only ever have 1 answer which is to sack the talent. Xbox would be wise to remove any actual bits they have filmed for next months showcase and just have a show that's simply trailers. Sadly I doubt anyone given interviews will really challenge them on all of this. |
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on May 7, 2024 17:07:46 GMT
IGN received an email that was sent to staff by Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios, which attributes the shutdowns to “reprioritization of titles and resources” to focus on “high-impact” games. This is weird though. AAA games (I guess "high impact" is corporate speak for AAA) take a long time and lots of money to develop. I thought Microsoft's strategy, assuming they even had one, was to have a larger stream of many smaller and cheaper games instead, in order to encourage people to stay subscribed without losing too much in the progress of building an audience. I wonder if the Game Pass audience apparently plateau'ing in the last couple years has anything to do with this. With Series consoles not selling much, and Sony and Nintendo not on board, it was never going to be easy. Maybe a change of strategy is not too far off? |
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