One of the worst years for Cancellations, curtailments and closures in the history of the video game industry has just claimed its next victims, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. Developers and fans alike are in disbelief. “Great teams are disappearing before our eyes again, and it’s a damn gut punch,” wrote Dinga Bakaba, director of Arkane Austin’s sister studio, Arkane Lyon.
Founded in 2006, Arkane Austin helped develop 2012’s acclaimed immersive whale oil punk sim Dishonoredbefore leading development on the immersive 2017 sci-fi shooter prey. Tango Gameworks was founded in 2010 and is best known for producing The evil within Series of survival horror Games before he brought a breath of fresh air to the video game industry last year with the colorful rhythm hack-and-slash platformer HiFi Rush. Microsoft closed both studios todayas well as other Bethesda subsidiaries Roundhouse Games and Alpha Dog Games, citing the need Focus on “high-impact” “priority” games..”
“This is absolutely terrible” tweeted Bakaba, co-creative director of the remaining Arkane studio, followed the news. “Permission to be human: I would like to kindly remind any manager reading this that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry and your business as a company is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them To create added value for you.”
The Death loop Co-director in Microsoft’s own studio continuation:
Don’t rush us into gold fever gambling, don’t use us as front men for miscalculations/blind spots, don’t make our work environment a Darwinian jungle. They say we’ll make you proud when we play a good game. Make us proud when times are difficult. We know you can, we’ve seen it before.
Great teams are disappearing before our eyes again at the moment, and that’s a bloody stab in the gut. Lyon is safe, but please be tactful and critical in all of this and respect the voice of those affected and give them space to be heard, it is their story to tell, their feelings to express.
Insider baseball, but when I read “Immersive Sim Curse” from the community, especially from a developer friend, I swear to God… Please, let’s talk about the *real* challenges instead of the irrational fears of the past yet to warm up once. Even more so in baseball, but with a very, very long reach, as a wise and sorely missed man said, “Please stop.”
Harvey Smith, co-director at Redfall at Arkane Austin, today called the new guy “terrible” and added that the team there had been through a lot together. Bloomberg previously reported that the vampire shooter’s troubled development resulted from top Bethesda leadership’s push to develop a live service game, a decision that ultimately led to huge turnover and multiple delays. “Your talent will take you further, and I will do everything I can to help.” tweeted Blacksmith. John Johanas, game director at Tango Gameworks, was also at a loss. “So this is how it ends…” he said wrote. “Unfortunately I’m at a loss for words… But at least thank you to everyone who supported us.”
Back when Microsoft acquired Bethesda in 2021It seemed like the burgeoning Game Pass model might be a good fit for Arkane Studios, whose creatively ambitious projects didn’t always seem to find the audience they deserved. If Bethesda would never give the green light Prey 2, perhaps a deep-pocketed tech giant would see this as a worthwhile addition to its Netflix-like subscription gaming library. At least the newly acquired teams wouldn’t be short of additional holes to fill in Xbox’s difficult first-party lineup.
Adam Boyes, co-CEO of Iron Galaxy Studios, contrasted today’s carnage with Microsoft’s bottom line a tweet screencapping The company’s recently announced quarterly profit was around $20 billion. “It hurts, dude… it hurts.” wrote back Rich Lambert, Head of ZeniMax Online Studios. “Angry. Frustrated. Shocked. Angry. Speechless. Speechless. Confused,” wrote Alistair Hatch, another longtime Bethesda veteran. “I love the affected studios so much. The people who formed these teams were incredible, hardworking, dedicated and talented.”
People from other Microsoft-owned studios and outside the company were also shocked by the news. “We were very inspired by both of them The evil within And The evil in 2 in development Alan Wake 2,, tweeted Kyle Rowley, game director at Remedy Entertainment. “Both are excellent horror games and I’m very sad that we won’t see a sequel to the series from Tango Gameworks. “Why am I still doing this?” tweeted Mikey Dowling, communications director for Obsidian Entertainment.
“Arkane has a solid body of work and a highly talented and motivated workforce,” said Mike Wikan, the former Retro Studios developer who led the design Metroid Prime, wrote on LinkedIn. “Companies need to understand that burning down their creative production studios is NOT the path to profitability.”
