your bet on who is next to be shuttered down?
my bet is #Arkane Lyon and #Rare (Sea of Thieves). both of them make high-quality games (Arkane: DEATHLOOP, Dishonored 1/2/DotO; Rare: #SeaOfThieves) and are NOT money behemoths, so they are likely the next target
Billions in profit. Billions. Spent years ravenously gobbling up game studios. And now they're chopping them down so they can keep .000001% more gain this fiscal year.
Fuck workers, art, games, players, the industry's future, basic decency. NUMBER GO UP FOREVER
When Phil Spencer took over Xbox, he sold himself as a fellow gamer to win player support. He used that vibe to convince them industry consolidation would benefit everyone.
But now we’re seeing the real costs: layoffs, closures, and fewer games. Spencer was always serving the company.
I really get the feeling that AAA games are dying.
Layoffs everywhere, huge budgets, too big to fail; indie devs are eating their lunch and ex-McKinsey MBAs are leading the Xbox division into their disaster. It was cool while it lasted… but maybe its a good thing.
I wonder why Valve is not laying off people. Maybe it's because they understand gamers and keep career-centric managers out?
Following the shock closure of a number of Bethesda studios earlier this week, @theverge digs deeper to uncover the reasons behind these decisions, and finds "growing discontent and fear among Xbox employees about what comes next."
If this works on #SteamDeck I'll get it there. The lack of marketing is frustrating though which only feeds into my concern that Ninja Theory are in line to be shut down no matter what happens with the game #VideoGames#Xbox
#Hellblade2 is only two weeks away, and fans feel Xbox should be making more noise
“Game Pass has justified its slow degrading of the value of games by promising that it makes room for little guys to survive. We all know now, finally, that this was a lie. Is it a great value for consumers still? Probably. Has Phil Spencer’s multi-billion dollar project destroyed the gaming industry? I am comfortable calling it a contributing factor to its slow decay.”
“If Tango Gameworks, who made a Game of the Year competitor [Hi-Fi Rush] that outdid sales and Game Pass download expectations, who is funded and owned by the richest company in the world, cannot stay open – what hope in hell is there for everyone else? Capitalism has caught up with us.”
Tango Gameworks Founder Responds To Xbox Shutting Down Studio
It's another tough period for the video game industry this week with Xbox announcing the immediate closure of four teams - including its Japanese studio Tango Gameworks, responsible for Hi-Fi RUSH and multiple other IP over the years.
Microsoft shutting down a few studios today should be an eye opener for the people that are rooting for MS. It's a good reminder that it's NEVER a good thing when a massive company buys a smaller company.
Either that smaller company will slowly get worse or dissolve completely. There was a trend of people saying they should buy companies to save them and let them do their own thing, but thankfully I expect to see less of that now...
MS: "Hello Alex, my dearest friend, would you like to update the firmware of your XBOX Wireless controller?"
Alex: "Gee, thanks MS! How do I update the firmware?!"
MS: "Install Windows 11 and connect it with USB, open up the XBOX app"
Alex: "Go eff down in flames"
Release v1.0.2814-master · xenia-project/release-builds-windows (github.com)
Xbox 360 Emulator Research Project...