Microsoft is shutting down Tango Gameworks, along with 3 other studios

[MidnightDragon]

23 minutes ago, majob said:

Remember when Microsoft claimed in federal court for the ABK acquisition they wouldn't start laying their gaming staff off? Pepperidge Farm remembers

Well, the FTC’s case is ongoing and they pounced on that.

[GabrielMS13]

Tango made one of the best Microsoft first-party titles in recent memory and as a reward, they are canned.

 

I don't know what else to say, really...

[xh117]

I just bought hifi Rush too! sad news

[cy1999aek_maik]

What is Microsoft still doing in the gaming industry? Somebody get Bill on the phone

[JohnCenaSong-]

23 minutes ago, GabrielMS13 said:

as a reward, they are canned.

Game industry in a nutshell.

 

Make a good game? Maybe contribute towards some record profits? Good news folks, here's your layoff rewards.

 

[vegetollo7]

Microsoft is definitely taking one right out of the old EA playbook. For shame.

[D-E-U-S-X]

What a shame. It's not nice when game studios close, but the creative minds within the studios don't disappear, they find like-minded people and open new studios.

 

In other cases(not Tango) it should not be expected that studios that had success 15 years ago will be able to repeat this success even though hardly anyone from the team back then is still in the studio.

[Slava]

Microsoft saw Sony's Helldivers 2 blunder and said "Hold my beer". I don't think this one is getting reversed, though.

 

But yeah, there are a million things to say. They closed the studio that made their best game of 2023. Twitter is joking that MS making a good game was a mistake, and now they're going back to normal: "Sorry, won't happen again".

 

Another thing that's going to be on people's minds is of course what it means for Activision, too. Who is next. The string of shutdowns and mass layoffs continues (across the industry as well, not just MS).

 

And people are going to remember everything that was said about these developers prior to this. Hopefully less people will trust tweets like this, they hold little to no value:

 

Edited May 7 by Slava
removed double negative

[Zid960]

At this point any game studio should just stay independent. Once they get purchased. Doesn't matter if there the best dev or some game mill pusher. Just a matter of time till the reaper comes.

[iriihutoR84]

I'm probably one of the most avid Xbox gamers around these parts but I'm just constantly shaking my head at the company's current direction and wondering when we will know what the hell they are doing? Feels like they don't have any outspoken strategy and gamers and media are just confused about what's going on. Their executives are also caught with lie after lie so what can we trust?

 

 

Even Timdog has jumped ship to PS5. 

 

Tango was awesome. The Evil Within 2 may have been a bit generic but it was still a good time. Ghostwire and Hi-Fi Rush were both unique in their own ways and even if both had some flaws, creative games like that are needed. Really sucks 

[majob]

56 minutes ago, Slava said:

Microsoft saw Sony's Helldivers 2 blunder and said "Hold my beer". I don't think this one is getting reversed, though.

 

But yeah, there are a million things to say. They closed the studio that made their best game of 2023. Twitter is joking that MS making a good game was a mistake, and now they're going back to normal: "Sorry, won't happen again".

 

Another thing that's going to be on people's minds is of course what it means for Activision, too. Who is next. The string of shutdowns and mass layoffs continues (across the industry as well, not just MS).

 

And people are going to remember everything that was said about these developers prior to this. Hopefully less people will trust tweets like this, they hold little to no value:

 

Funny thing is, this tweet was made in response to this article

 

https://www.thegamer.com/hi-fi-rush-insider-claims-xbox-not-happy-with-sales-numbers/

 

And people immediately started speculating that despite the popularity of the game, the sales were still dismal since most people were just playing it on Gamepass and not actually buying it

 

[ObsiEez]

& if it wasn't already obvious enough that Microsoft buying up all these studios is bad for gamers, here is just more proof.

KEEP 3RD PARTY STUDIOS 3RD PARTY.

[DARKKRAKEN666]

4 hours ago, ZenaxPure said:

People told me it'd be different this time. Microsoft would lift all these devs up and not ruin them like they ruined Rare.

 

Was I lied to? You really think people would do that. Just go on the internet and tell lies?

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Do I need to add the /s? Hard to tell on the internet

 

Anyway, this sucks obviously. I hope this doesn't ruin the LRG physical release for Hi-Fi Rush in some way. It's really weird that LRG announced they'd be doing it and it has still yet to go up. I really want it for my action game shelf.

To be fair you can't say Microsoft ruined Rare, by the time they bought them there was little left of the original Rare team that made them great.

2 hours ago, vegetollo7 said:

Microsoft is definitely taking one right out of the old EA playbook. For shame.

Buy a load studios for the IP, fire the talent and then wonder why they can't make anything but sports games that do nothing but roster changes each year.

[SelectiveGamer]

Where's @Rozalia1 when you need them?! lol

 

Now's your chance to bury them!! 😝

 

In all seriousness... this sucks. It really does. Microsoft just keeps taking L's.

 

wow that acquisition just turned out so great didn't it?

[JPtheNeurotic]

Think I’ll repaly evil within in tangos honor . This really does suck 

[MatThaRiPP3R84]

fucking microcancer. every single gamer should go on twitter and take a big juicy shit on spencers lap.

[Bizurke2003]

Microsoft seriously needs to consider releasing all of their games on PS5 and any that will run on Switch/Switch sucessor day and date.  They need to make money and Game Pass is value destructive and I don't believe it is making them money.  What is worse is that it is conditioning Xbox gamers from buying games and why would they when they have such a great deal in Game Pass.  Also I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of developers are just skipping an Xbox release, for example why is Red Hook Studios releasing Darkest Dungeon 2 on only PS5? Another example, where is Dave the Diver on Xbox?  Is it because Sony is paying them or is it because Xbox is not selling games?  There are other examples to this as well. Just my two cents.

Edited May 7 by Bizurke2003

[SkippiesBar]

Now remember those leaked e-mails with Phil Spencer wanting to acquire Nintendo. 

Microsoft here just destroying value. 

[Djak276]

What a surprise... Oh wait, it's Microsoft, who bought companies for millions... Of course they were about to shutdown some studios...

 

In the end, I feel like they were only interested on the Fallout / Elder Scrolls / Starfield franchises.

 

Soon, they'll shutdown some Activision's studios.

[NinjaMJD]

Feeling a lot better about switching to PS as my main platform a couple months ago.

[dimonemt]

No lessons were learned, and same mistakes are repeated, just like with Lionsgate Studios. Losing entire teams behind Hi Fi Rush and Prey hurts, especially after a claim that the former was a success in every metric. Not good Xbox, not good at all🤬

Edited yesterday at 04:00 AM by dimonemt

[The Alchemist]

Closing Tango makes absolutely no sense. I really enjoyed Ghostwire: Tokyo, as did many others from what I've seen, and by most accounts, Hi-Fi Rush wasn't just a true GOTY contender last year, but also one of few truly great games that Xbox has put out in many years. Even if sales weren't great, surely that's the type of studio Xbox would want to keep around. 

 

Some people will point to Redfall and say that closing Arkane Austin is deserved, but they also made Prey and that game is seemingly beloved by all who played it, so it's not as though they weren't capable of doing good things as well. We also heard those stories last year about how the dev team wanted Redfall to be cancelled or rebooted completely when Microsoft took over ZeniMax (or at least they hoped that would happen), but Phil and Co. pushed it out regardless of any such feedback. Who reaps the consequences of that incompetence? Certainly not Phil and the other executives 🙄 

 

The industry as a whole is in a really shitty place at the moment, and it's likely to continue this way (if analysts are to be believed) for another 1-2 years, but there's something about these particular closures that is extra shitty. I saw someone online say that Xbox is basically the American Embracer at this point given how they've historically handled (and continue to handle) studios they acquire, and I must say it's quite an apt comparison.

[Ampki]

Gamepass effect buy games support the Dev/studio.

Edited May 8 by Ampki

[SadisticSymphony]

3 hours ago, The Alchemist said:

Closing Tango makes absolutely no sense. I really enjoyed Ghostwire: Tokyo, as did many others from what I've seen, and by most accounts, Hi-Fi Rush wasn't just a true GOTY contender last year, but also one of few truly great games that Xbox has put out in many years. Even if sales weren't great, surely that's the type of studio Xbox would want to keep around. 

 

Some people will point to Redfall and say that closing Arkane Austin is deserved, but they also made Prey and that game is seemingly beloved by all who played it, so it's not as though they weren't capable of doing good things as well. We also heard those stories last year about how the dev team wanted Redfall to be cancelled or rebooted completely when Microsoft took over ZeniMax (or at least they hoped that would happen), but Phil and Co. pushed it out regardless of any such feedback. Who reaps the consequences of that incompetence? Certainly not Phil and the other executives 🙄 

 

The industry as a whole is in a really shitty place at the moment, and it's likely to continue this way (if analysts are to be believed) for another 1-2 years, but there's something about these particular closures that is extra shitty. I saw someone online say that Xbox is basically the American Embracer at this point given how they've historically handled (and continue to handle) studios they acquire, and I must say it's quite an apt comparison.

Can't even really give the credit to M$ for HiFi Rush either, it was already in development for a few years before they were acquired.

[TJ_Solo]

Quote

The industry as a whole is in a really shitty place at the moment, and it's likely to continue this way (if analysts are to be believed) for another 1-2 years, but there's something about these particular closures that is extra shitty. I saw someone online say that Xbox is basically the American Embracer at this point given how they've historically handled (and continue to handle) studios they acquire, and I must say it's quite an apt comparison.

 

This industry is fine. You have to realize that there will be ups and downs, nothing goes straight up or straight down forever. 
The companies experiencing issues are the larger ones that bought up other studios during the boom that covid created for home gaming.

Nintendo didn't buy studios during that time and they aren't closing studios now. Tencent stopped buying studios around that time and they aren't closing studios now.  MS and Embracer are experiencing these issues because they overbought when they should have invested in making games instead of buying studios.