Current Events > MS closes Hi Fi Rush studio

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://tinyurl.com/35t6h95j
Microsoft is closing Tango Gameworks, the studio behind Hi Fi Rush and The Evil Within series.
Less surprising, they are also closing the Redfall studio.

I cannot overstate just how bad Phil Spencer is at his job, or just how incompetently he has managed Microsoft for the last decade.

Didn't Hi-Fi Rush do pretty well? But the studio still gets shackled.

I really liked the art direction of it but I just couldnt get into the gameplay

*****

Solar_Crimson posted...

Didn't Hi-Fi Rush do pretty well? But the studio still gets shackled.

It didn't actually sell well because most people played it through Gamepass.

Kai_Laguna posted...

Less surprising, they are also closing the Redfall studio.

Arkane? That fucking sucks

Sucks about Arkane. Prey is an underrated gem.

HighSeraph posted...

Arkane? That fucking sucks

It's Arkane Austin, not the main Arkane studio who did Dishonored.

Today in the ongoing saga of "make more money in the short-term by crushing our long-term prospects".

Yeah, not surprising about Redfall. It regularly had player counts dropping down to 3-12 people on the planet for the PC version during the slow hours. Even before people within the studio started doing interviews about how no one wanted to do the project it was obvious something went horribly wrong there.

DuneMan posted...

Yeah, not surprising about Redfall. It regularly had player counts dropping down to 3-12 people on the planet for the PC version during the slow hours. Even before people within the studio started doing interviews about how no one wanted to do the project it was obvious something went horribly wrong there.

I've seen interviews stating Bethesda forced them to turn it into a live service game because it would make them even more appealing to the Microsoft purchase they were angling for at the time.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

It didn't actually sell well because most people played it through Gamepass.

Microsoft will have to seriously reconsider their day one Game Pass strategy if this is the result.

HiFi Rush was basically the only game released in recent memory for Xbox that anyone gave a shit about.

Theres no fucking way a giant like microsoft needs to be closing studios like this

They have such an absurd amount of money, and Hi Fi rush was very well liked. Even if it didnt make a ton of money because it was day 1 gamepass people LIKED IT.

This is just destroying good will towards microsoft if anyone even has any left

I don't understand how a company can be simultaneously hiring and laying off people.

Gotta make sure the shareholders are happy and get their infinite growth. Am I right?

Board_hunter567 posted...

Microsoft will have to seriously reconsider their day one Game Pass strategy if this is the result.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

They have such an absurd amount of money, and Hi Fi rush was very well liked. Even if it didnt make a ton of money because it was day 1 gamepass people LIKED IT.

They also didn't market it or even announce it. It was just suddenly released.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Theres no fucking way a giant like microsoft needs to be closing studios like this

They have such an absurd amount of money, and Hi Fi rush was very well liked. Even if it didnt make a ton of money because it was day 1 gamepass people LIKED IT.

This is just destroying good will towards microsoft if anyone even has any left

Like I said, Phil Spencer is extremely bad at his job.

I remember people telling me Microsoft doesn't buy devs just to close them

I have said it before and I will say it again, the game industry is collapsing. It is completely unsustainable.

I could see Ninja Theory being axed if Hellblade 2 underperforms.

Monolith1676 posted...

I have said it before and I will say it again, the game industry is collapsing. It is completely unsustainable.

It's pretty much large enough that a total collapse just can't happen. Conglomerates can shutter all of their subsidiaries, but that still wouldn't kill the industry.

SocialistGamer posted...

I could see Ninja Theory being axed if Hellblade 2 underperforms.

Given that the founder left the company a few months ago, they are probably getting closed regardless of how well Hellblade 2 does.

Monolith1676 posted...

I have said it before and I will say it again, the game industry is collapsing. It is completely unsustainable.

Microsoft is one of, if not the the largest company in gaming. This wasnt a shutdown out of necessity, its greed

Kai_Laguna posted...

It's Arkane Austin, not the main Arkane studio who did Dishonored.

Oh okay.

I was about to say Arkane closing would be a way bigger deal than Tango Gameworks

Hi-Fi Rush was a great game. Though I did buy it later I recall hearing good things on release. Once I played it I loved it.

CyricZ posted...

Today in the ongoing saga of "make more money in the short-term by crushing our long-term prospects".

This is true, but by now MS has so many studios and dormant IPs that this probably wont hurt long term. I do feel for the employees.

Of course one of the companies pushing a bigger budget game with a more unique art style and gameplay system gets the boot. It always sucks when the more creative games like this don't sell enough for the suits on top. (I bet its one of those square-enix with tomb raider 2013 kind of things where the game still did well enough on steam at least, but it just wasn't enough for what the execs and shareholders wanted).

*I'm actually really hoping the hi-fi rush gets a good bit of sales once that physical from limited run games drop.*

I think MS will probably rely more and more on Activision IPs and all else will slowly get the boot if they underperform.

Oh yeah, wasn't the game literally released like the same day it was revealed?

I guess that's the downside of not letting a game build up hype

Everything has to make CoD money sadly. Which I believe the last game did bad by that standard.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

I cannot overstate just how bad Phil Spencer is at his job, or just how incompetently he has managed Microsoft for the last decade.

How can he still have his position is what I'm wondering. He came onto a bad scene, sure, but I haven't seen one decision of his that has seemed to work out well. I guess buying Minecraft was a great one, but I have to imagine that was in the works before he took helm.

Hardware-wise, Phil has failed for 10 years now.

Well that's depressing.

And Spencer is STILL not as incompetent as Mattrick was

Closing beloved games will surely help this time!

So is the Blade game still coming out?

ClayGuida posted...

So is the Blade game still coming out?

iirc, that's being made by Arkane Lyon, the main studio, not Arkane Austin. So probably.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Microsoft is one of, if not the the largest company in gaming. This wasnt a shutdown out of necessity, its greed

But the countless other companies that have shut down or have had major layoffs over the last two years far out paces any time before.

Didn't Spencer say redfall was supposed to get a makeover eventually and come back stronger.

waterjoe posted...

Didn't Spencer say redfall was supposed to get a makeover eventually and come back stronger.

Funnier still was Pete Hines insisting that they weren't pulling support for the game even as he himself was about to leave Bethesda. Like, I'm sure he was cognizant of the extra layer of BS put into that statement.

Monolith1676 posted...

I have said it before and I will say it again, the game industry is collapsing. It is completely unsustainable.

AAA development is unsustainable. But the indie genre is thriving. Never been a better time to make a game with all these tools available. Making a commercially successful product though...

Didn't Hi fi rush do fairly well? I feel like they shut down the studio when they were getting more and more brand recognition. That's dumb. Some franchises like Persona used to be niche and it sells tons of copies now

Don't even know the names of their companies

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1787863267538289135?t=LMp9TwsnVp9EB9dOUIOKLg&s=19

That sucks. No chance for Evil Within getting a continuation then.

Holy cow I know my Twitter feed is an insular space of gaming industry, RGG Studio specifically, and trans rights, but EVERYONE on my timeline is calling horseshit on this move. It's universal and LOUD.

Microsoft stay taking Ls

I dont even know how you can measure a games success with Gamepass. Not enough downloads?

hyperpowder posted...

I dont even know how you can measure a games success with Gamepass. Not enough downloads?

Whenever shareholders are involved they'll usually set some arbitrary, always-increasing, metric that one of them pulled directly from their ass.

So they may have tied it to growth of Gamepass memberships over a set number of months; again with some figure pulled directly from their ass. So if they don't meet the metric they kill jobs so their quarterly reports look good.

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

Theres no fucking way a giant like microsoft needs to be closing studios like this

They have such an absurd amount of money, and Hi Fi rush was very well liked. Even if it didnt make a ton of money because it was day 1 gamepass people LIKED IT.

This is just destroying good will towards microsoft if anyone even has any left

Late stage capitalism isn't about creating goodwill or even selling a product; it's moving the line upwards on graphs that show increased profits today by any means necessary, even making it worse tomorrow

DuneMan posted...

Whenever shareholders are involved they'll usually set some arbitrary, always-increasing, metric that one of them pulled directly from their ass.

So they may have tied it to growth of Gamepass memberships over a set number of months; again with some figure pulled directly from their ass. So if they don't meet the metric they kill jobs so their quarterly reports look good.

Still doesnt make sense to me. You need a ton of studios and constant output in order for Gamepass to succeed. Regardless if it moves needles you need people subscribing each month.

Im very curious if the new CoD is day 1 Gamepass release. Definitely would swing the needle a few million subs but that would be a metric ton of missed sales