Microsoft shuts down multiple studios including Hi-Fi Rush developer

[Mr Bean]

Microsoft went on a slash and burn campaign at the Bethesda division of the company today shuttering multiple studios including ones that produced certified hits.

Microsoft shuts down Bethesda’s Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall studios

Xbox maker wants to "prioritiz[e] high-impact titles" according to letter to staff.

arstechnica.com

This is just baffling from my perspective. You’re trash canning studios that have made critically acclaimed games including one that basically gave you a game of the year contender with no wind up to focus on more AAA nonsense that’s not going to be nearly as interesting.

The responses from the development community look like they’re brutal.

'A Fucking Gut Stab': Game Industry Reacts To Shocking New Studio Closures

Game makers look on in horror at the latest round of Xbox cuts

kotaku.com

 

[Issun]

This probably has to do with tax write-offs. Nothing rich people hate.more than paying taxes.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Redfall, I can sorta understand.

Hi-Fi Rush? Why are you even bothering any more, if you're going to shut that down? I didn't even play it, but I know it pretty much carried Xbox in 2023.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

this is sucky news and I don't like it

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

There is nothing baffling about this. This has been Microsoft's M.O. for over fifty years. They're the wealthiest company in the world, with a market cap of over 3 TRILLION dollars. (Put into perspective, they are worth 30 Sonys.) Their market cap is larger than all but 7 countries GDPs on Earth. They don't need to do this for taxes, they don't need to do this for profit. They do this because this is who they are. They insert themselves into markets, they buy people up, and use them until they're done with them and then discarded with extreme prejudice. Hi-Fi Rush didn't make enough money and Shinji Mikami is now gone? Sayonara. Look forward to this happening with all of Activision's different parts that they're too inept to make good use of over the next few years as well.

 

[Poster]

We must be in the extinguish part of the process.

 

[Issun]

 

[Exposition Owl]

Prey is one of my favorite PC games ever. It confounds me that it didn't get the love it deserved, and it makes me deeply sad that the studio that developed it is being shuttered. I dunno, folks--I'm starting to think that maybe this whole finance capitalism thing isn't good.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I dunno, folks--I'm starting to think that maybe this whole finance capitalism thing isn't good.

I have a similar suspicion. Hmmmm....!

 

[RT-55J]

The beatings will continue until you make the next Forkknife.

 

[Falselogic]

Number must go up. Layoffs are what make the market right now. So we'll do layoffs. Number must go up!

 

[Bongo]

Layoffs at least make a certain kind of vampire sense: they don't believe in morale, or anything else that would disrupt the model of calculating the productivity of perfectly fungible, frictionless, spherical workers in a vacuum; and at any rate, the stock price rather than productivity is the number they are rewarded for caring about. The pragmatic reasons not to lay off are as irrelevant to them as the humanistic reasons.

But the fact that they said they wanted more Hi-Fi Rushes and then shitcanned the company that was making another Hi-Fi Rush is evidence of a total breakdown in leadership, because the left hand that praises Tango Gameworks and the right hand that divests of them are not aware of each other.

This is more egregious than most layoffs because now a Microsoft employee can't even take being publicly described as valuable and indispensable as a sign that they're not on the chopping block.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

what's really weird was shitcanning the company and then the next day saying they wanted more Hi-Fi Rushes

 

[RT-55J]

Shinji Mikami left Tango in February. I wouldn't be surprised if both his departure and the studio's dissolution were both the result of longstanding disagreements with the management at Microsoft.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Shinji Mikami left Tango in February. I wouldn't be surprised if both his departure and the studio's dissolution were both the result of longstanding disagreements with the management at Microsoft.

Maybe, but that disagreement is now gone. And it's not like there was a mass exodus of talent beyond him that left at the same time. You could have still put together games there. From what I've read, Mikami wanted to leave years ago, but stuck through things to see projects completed. If they had competent leadership, they could have spent that time grooming successors to take over after him, but they didn't.

But the fact that they said they wanted more Hi-Fi Rushes and then shitcanned the company that was making another Hi-Fi Rush is evidence of a total breakdown in leadership, because the left hand that praises Tango Gameworks and the right hand that divests of them are not aware of each other.

The really damning part of all of this, is one of those MS corporate heads saying something along the lines of, "It’s hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do," and that culling studios here will make it easier for them to manage their workforce/projects?

Which is just an absolute bonkers statement to make. In a sane world, that's a, "Please fire me as I am too incompetent to do my job," level statement. You're basically admitting you either leadership teams are too small/spread too thin to manage your studios at best, or at worst you too incompetent to do your job. So the obvious solution there is - instead of getting or replacing another manager or two, you just slash and burn entire studios with hundreds of employees??

It's unfathomably stupid. Because it's not like these studios popped up organically within Microsoft or whatever and somewhere along the lines they realized they had too much. No, they went out of their way to acquire these studios spending billions of dollars to do so, and are now lamenting they have too many of the thing they previously wanted to buy? It's malfeasance on a spectacular scale. They won't even try to offload the studios to someone else and recoup some of their investment at all. Just close up shop, fuck all you loyal employees, the beast must be fed.

 

[Baudshaw]

en paz descanse

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Whenever this happens, I just wonder how many of these formerly independent studios are given the Toys 4 Bob option to go independent again, or if they just drop the axe without any further discussion.

 

[Kirin]

Pretty sure Microsoft won't be feeling generous enough to donate their IP back to them, and it's even worse if they had any kind of non-compete clauses in their contracts...

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Did Toys 4 Bob get their ip back?

 

[Adrenaline]

Pretty sure Microsoft won't be feeling generous enough to donate their IP back to them, and it's even worse if they had any kind of non-compete clauses in their contracts...

Good news https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Yeah, MS isn't going to give IPs out, and after Bungie went straight into Sony's arms, they're run by the kinds of spiteful assholes that would rather break their toys than see anyone else having fun with them.

Good news https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes

This might be getting too political for this section of the forums, but: with the current Supreme Court, I'm not going to hold my breath on any government regulation actually sticking - especially when they're currently entertaining cases that will essentially completely neuter the regulatory ability of the federal government completely. It is completely within the character of this court to decide sorry, corporate documents have more human rights than actual humans.

 

[Sarcasmorator]

Maybe, but pre-despair is a thief of even minor positive feeling. Until it's gone, it's good that it's happening. Even if it's made to be gone, it's good that they're trying.

I struggle with this myself, but for now I'm considering this a good.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

That's a good, wise attitude to take. It's maybe a little too easy for me to fall down a despair/doom-spiral