More painful cuts in the industry, as Microsoft is closing four studios it acquired when it bought Bethesda: Arkane Austin (which most recently released Redfall), Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Studios, and Roundhouse Games.
As with many of these industry layoff announcements (including Microsoft's earlier cuts this year of 1,900 jobs), there is talk of consolidation and streamlining projects in order to both invest in existing IP and to focus on core IP. According to an internal staff email received and published by IGN, Matt Booty, Xbox Game Studios head, said they're making these changes “to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games”.
This month, Redfall’s first anniversary came and went, and there were some players reporting that they had never gotten the promised post-launch rewards that they were supposed to receive when they bought the deluxe edition of the game. Speculation that development had come to an end was already happening, but that has now been confirmed. For those who have the hero DLC/deluxe, Microsoft promises a make good offer. The studio will close, with some of the developers joining other Bethesda studios. Development has fully ended on Redfall but the game and servers will remain online for the foreseeable future.
Mighty Doom developer Alpha Dog Studios is also closing, with that game set to close August 7th. All in-game purchases will be disabled. Tango Gameworks, the studio responsible for Hi-Fi Rush, will also be closing. Hi-Fi Rush will continue to be available on all current platforms.
The fourth studio, Roundhouse Games, has a bit of a different future. The devs there are joining ZeniMax Online Studios and will be absorbed into the Elder Scrolls Online team. This move makes sense, as ZOS has worked with Roundhouse before.
In addition to these studio closures, the layoffs also affect some roles on support teams, corporate, and publishing.
