Honestly wild they would close Tango, of all developers, after they delivered maybe Xbox’s only coveted exclusive (though it has since gone multi-platform). Redfall and Starfield were both duds, and I’m not sure if Xbox has had any other exclusives at all (coveted or otherwise).
Having said that, it’s pretty bad that Xbox is closing these studios regardless of if they have put out a hit recently or not. As Arkane Lyon chief Dinga Bakaba points out:
You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before.
Microsoft certainly has the money that they don’t need to be making these cuts. This is clearly the result of Line-Go-Up syndrome, and will only hurt them in the long run.
PlayStation is already eating Xbox’s lunch since Xbox has no console selling exclusives. How are they going to make any good exclusives after cutting so much of their staff? (Also as a side note, I find it wild how much Microsoft spent on Bethesda just to cut so many of those studios.)
Overall, a cruel and short-sighted move from Microsoft.
Faydaikin@beehaw.org 6 months ago
That depends on who and how many they decide to merge into other developer teams and who is let go.
I mean, I doubt most MS higher-ups would know talent if you threw it at them. But whenever there’s big acquisitions, there’s gonna be some house cleaning. So who gets to stay (if they want to) is likely down to last things they have produced.
Redfalls team is done for sure. But Tango Works I don’t know… I can imagine overseas based companies are a more tricky beast to handle. So that’s probably down to some cost/benefit analysis if they go or stay.
slurpyslop@kbin.social 6 months ago
which is wild, because there's clearly a lot of talent there that was just spunked up the wall trying to create a game that any idiot could see right from the outset was conceptually awful
Faydaikin@beehaw.org 6 months ago
Agreed. It’s sadly often the demands of the higher-ups reflects poorly on the guys who has to implement it.
I don’t know any of the Creative Directors on Redfall (or who else might have poked their head in with bright ideas).
chloyster@beehaw.org 6 months ago
There’s a statement on this ign article that says arkane auston will have devs go to other studios, but nothing on the tango front. They’re just closing it.
ign.com/…/microsoft-closes-redfall-developer-arka…
Faydaikin@beehaw.org 6 months ago
From what I just skimmed on Twitter, it sounds like the Tango Team is already working on making a new studio.
So they had a bit of a heads-up at least, it would seem.