1 week Ago By Varun Godinho
Microsoft will be closing three game studios and absorbing a fourth, without citing specific reasons for why the decision to close them was made, reports Bloomberg and the BBC . Microsoft will shut four studios. These include Tokyo studio Tango Gameworks, the developers of Bafta award-winning Hi-Fi Rush.
Shinji Mikami, Tango’s founder and studio head, departed from the studio last year. Also, Texas-based Arkane Austin – the developers behind Prey – and Canadian developer Alpha Dog Studios are being closed down. Meanwhile, Wisconsin-based Roundhouse Games will be absorbed into Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios.
Microsoft has not said how many jobs will be cut due to the closures, all of which are being made at subsidiary Bethesda which Microsoft acquired for A$11.4 billion in 2020. The BBC has reported seeing an email from head of Xbox Games Studios Matt Booty to staff.
He noted that the move would result in ending development on Arkane Austin game Redfall, with “some members of the team” joining other studios. The company plans to “provide make-good offers” to players who had pre-ordered downloadable content for the game that will now not be released. “These changes are grounded in prioritising high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades,” he wrote.
He added that there would also be “a small number of roles” cut across Bethesda’s.
