Update 4.53pm: the official comment from has arrived Harvey Smithdesigner at Arkane Studios, published on his profile X/Twitter official.
«I just want to say that I love all the people at Arkane Austin very much. Good times, difficult times, we’ve been through a lot together. Of course, today’s news is terrible for all of us. Your talent will lift you up and I will do everything I can to help you.”
Original news:
There is never an end to the worst: Microsoft has decided to close a series of studies Bethesdaamong which Arkane Austinmanufacturer of Redfall, Tango Gameworksdeveloper of Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Withinand others.
Also Alpha Dog Studioscreator of the mobile game Mighty Doomwill close. Roundhouse Games will instead be absorbed by ZeniMax Online Studios, developer of The Elder Scrolls Online.
In an email sent to staff by Matt Bootyhead of Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft attributed the cuts to a redefinition of priorities of titles and resources.
The email was verified by IGN US and reads: «Today I am sharing the changes we are making to our Bethesda and ZeniMax teams. […] Arkane Austin – This studio will close and some team members will join other studios to work on Bethesda projects.”
«The previous update of Redfall it will be the last, as the development of the game will end. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy, and we will provide great offers to players who have purchased the Hero DLC.”
«Alpha Dog Studios – This studio will also close. We appreciate the team’s creativity in bringing Doom to new players. Mighty Doom will sunset on August 7th and the ability for players to make in-game purchases will be disabled. Tango Gameworks – Tango Gameworks will also be closing. We are grateful for their contributions to Bethesda and gamers around the world. Hi-Fi Rush will continue to be available to players on current platforms.”
«Roundhouse Games – The Roundhouse Games team will join ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS). Roundhouse has played a key role in many of our recent game launches and bringing them to ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will mean that we can do even more to grow the world that millions of players call home.”
It’s still: “As Bethesda studio teams consolidate, in order to invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP, a small number of roles in some Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated.”
“These changes do not reflect the creativity and skill of the talented people on these teams or the risks they have taken to try new things. I realize what these changes are disruptive also for the various support teams at ZeniMax and Bethesda who bring our games to market. We’re taking these difficult decisions to create the capacity to increase investments in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority plays”the email continues.
Redfall, despite its launch on Game Pass (you can subscribe on Amazon), has never managed to make inroads among players, over a year after its release. This does not mean that the closure of its development studio, as well as of the other teams, is an extremely strong signal dramatic.
The news, also confirmed on Tango’s official social channels (https://twitter.com/TangoGameworks/status/1787837929332601189), testifies that the dark period for the video game industry is not over and that the light at the end of the tunnel is still quite far away.
The embrace of the editorial staff of SpazioGames obviously goes to all the employees and developers affected by the cuts.
