There’s justifiably been a bunch of anger being shot around the gaming industry within the last week. Between Microsoft and Sony, there have been multiple instances of companies doing things for unjustified or greedy reasons, and other people had to pay the price for it. The biggest one was Microsoft deciding that it needed to “restructure” some of its studios, especially those under Bethesda, and straight-up shut down people like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. The latter was the one behind one of 2023’s most unique titles, Hi-Fi Rush. But now, The Verge is reporting that Xbox is telling its employees that it NEEDS more games like Tango’s final title even though they just shut down the company!
This insight came from a special town hall meeting with employees. Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Studios, headed the meeting, and according to those there, he said the following regarding Hi-Fi Rush.
“We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards.”
As we said in our excerpt, the jokes write themselves. Tango Gameworks gave Xbox EXACTLY that, and now they’re closing. The irony goes even deeper because they cited how they weren’t just thrilled with the game’s success, but it was proof that they were letting game developers “go outside their comfort zones” to make titles like that. Phil Spencer even noted he wanted developers to “push their aspirations” within the Xbox line of systems to see what they could make.
While we never got definitive sales numbers for Hi-Fi Rush, we know that, at the bare minimum, it had over 3 million players. That number undoubtedly came partially from the Xbox Game Pass, which is allegedly partially to blame for the studio shutdowns, and yet, it’s the thing that Microsoft and Xbox have been pushing the hardest to get “up there in numbers.”
One can only imagine the fury within that town hall meeting, as right after they heard that line from Matt Booty, they decided to leak it to The Verge. As many online sites have accurately noted, it doesn’t matter if you do good or bad right now in the game industry; you could be on the verge of getting let go or shuttered.
That’s not how it’s supposed to be, and yet, bad business decisions on the part of major publishers and “controlling parties” are slowly killing the gaming industry one studio at a time.
It’s kind of hard to make “prestige and award-winning games” when you’re shut down or looking for a job.
