Microsoft Kills Hi Fi Rush & More | Castle Super Beast 268 Clip

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[@werewolf873]

Woolies soul already died with Titanfall, they can't hurt him anymore.

[@Kango234]

I think this is my Titanfall 3 moment.

[@Muffinpurplegurk]

Everyday I cry because of it

[@Dasaltwarrior]

​@Kango234 This and Arkane Austin closing down at the same time is gonna cause me to spiral like Big Boss

[@gameb9oy]

I wonder if toys for Bob got their weird separation because they knew this was coming?

[@blackheartzerotheundergrou3225]

Could have sworn it died sooner with ReBoot...

[@sbfh014]

Microsoft doing this is literally the Eric Andre meme Microsoft: *shoots tango game works, a small studio that got them awards* Also microsoft: We need small studios that win us awards

[@MrGMoney1944]

Meanwhile Microsoft execs are behind the stage screaming fuck the awards we want money!

[@sbfh014]

@@MrGMoney1944 execs: So we decided to close the studio down because they wanted to make games that were years away Anyone with a brain: YEAH. THATS HOW GAMES THAT ARENT LOOT BOX LIVE SERVICE TRASH WORK

[@Terithian]

@@sbfh014 Even loot box live service stuff takes time to make if they want to make money on it! If the game is trash, no one is going to have any incentive to buy those loot boxes.

[@scrungybingus285]

@@sbfh014why do you think they keep gobbling up small studios like they’re tic tacs? why wait several years to make a well acclaimed video game when you can just buy a studio that’s already making a hyped up game, publish that, and then strip them for parts before they try to propose dumb ideas like “more games” that “might not appeal to everyone on earth”?

[@Dreamfillah]

Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything, tee-hee-hee. (Except it's not funny anymore.)

[@trifontrifonov4297]

Ahhh yes the extra "special" moments in the gaming industry.

[@letmeshowumypkmn]

Super ironic that this bar also comes from another killed company Or maybe extra fitting

[@voxfoxclips8684]

Let's all stare at a conglomerate in utter dispare *(proceeds to vomit)*

[@iller3]

the reason it's not funny anymore is because they're doing this to our Rent now, our Medical care, our FOOD, you name it... They literally want us to have nothing which we can claim either community or individual ownership over and we can't stop them either as we're all too divided over distractions

[@dogkingify]

It stopped being funny quite some time ago.

[@OolalaFive]

In all seriousness, imagine the nightmare of working as a game developer for Microsoft. You could be part of the dev team that creates an award winning game, your parent company calls it a "breakout hit," after which they promise to invest more in your studio. And then they fire you anyway. What's the incentive for working hard in that insane environment?

[@aidanschofield2743]

But the line! The line must always go up!

[@armedweiss5531]

"But Shareholder #17 wants to buy 15 Yachts this week, but the game only made enough for him to buy 11! Fire them!"

[@plinfan6541]

I can only imagine that the Team of Ninja Theory is just counting down the days, because that Studio is cooked.

[@Nodiee1]

​@@plinfan6541Arkane Lyon devs are probably getting a little nervous too. Imagine what happens if a game based on a Marvel property doesn't make all the money in the world. Hell even if it does well who knows what MS will do.

[@WaluTime]

Now, imagine being that dev, and the literal SAME DAY AS YOUR STUDIO GETTTING CLOSED, a high up says they need more games like yours, as you are packing your fucking shit up.

[@SolaireIntensifies]

Pat absolutely nailed it. When Tango shut down one of my first thoughts was "Oh that shadow drop was ON PURPOSE wasn't it??" It wasn't a "the game is so good it'll succeed no matter what" it was their scapegoat. "Oh the game performed bad, aw shucks, guess Tango has to go" they say 10 days before release while signing everybody's severance paperwork. But the game was so fucking good, like astronomically good, that it succeeded out of pure spite and word of mouth.

[@TorterraJayeon]

In hindsight, it’s a miracle anything Hi-Fi Rush happened at all.

[@Yinlock470]

it's funny how all the execs were clearly expecting it to fail and it ended up whipping ass. and they canned the studio anyway as punishment for proving them wrong.

[@theotherjared9824]

To recap: Microsoft expected gamepass to grow infinitely without cannibalizing copies sold. Gamepass also stagnated during the activision merger, meaning they were doing great one day and were in a massive hole the next. Instead of revising their busines model, they fired the people that made them the most money last year while claiming they need everyone else to do what they did while also selling an infeasible amount of copies every time while also releasing on gamepass.

[@cyberninjazero5659]

The most terrifying part of all this is that presumably, the people making these decisions have business degrees and have taken marketing courses. This is a level of corpo scumbag that you can't even explain with greed. We've run out of Lex Luthors now it's just Stupid Evil all the way down

[@clan741]

@@cyberninjazero5659sadly saying most of them have business degree’s is flattering. Most CEO’s and shareholders these days are where they are at from nepotism and knowing the right people who told them what to invest in early.

[@fluidthought42]

Game Pass works great!... for older titles and indie titles. For new AAA/AAAA titles though it's absolutely a negative. Game Pass ensures a minimum of return on the title, but new AAA games are only fiscally feasible if they make not a minimum but a maximum of return. Older games don't have to worry as much, they already made their initial return and don't need to worry as much about immediate maximum payoff or lost sales. This is why the Activision Blizzard acquisition in hindsight makes less sense in the context of those games being part of the Game Pass system. As exclusives sure it makes a basic amount of sense... but as the Sony CEO pointed out, maximum return is only possible by being non-exclusive. Mind you, Microsoft has the PC to fall back onto, but they're not making all the money on the PC like they're doing on the Xbox only most of the money (and even then, depends if they're using in-house engines or UE or whatever, where another cut of the pie is yoinked).

[@cyberninjazero5659]

@@fluidthought42 In other words, Game Pass is just incompetent Playstation Plus

[@czarkusa2018]

@@cyberninjazero5659 Eco/business education is a religion, not a science.

[@TheRogueWolf]

Microsoft: "We keep cutting off the heads of the geese that are laying golden eggs, and then we stop getting golden eggs! Well, better sharpen the axe."

[@EncinoDude]

*Go buy more geese after murdering current geese

[@leithaziz2716]

Not everyone is going to want to hear this, but developers should be allowed to make games that flop or under-deliver so that they can learn from those mistakes and strive towards making something better in the future. You're never going to get to that point if you fire companies off of the 1st commercial failure they create, and that doesn't make for a stable work enviroment.

[@wadespencer3623]

Been a huge problem for streaming too. A show didn't immediately make all the money? Delete it as a write off, it's gone now. Not just bad for the people who made it, but bad for art. A lot of really foundational stuff started off as pretty underground and only found fanbases with things like syndication.

[@m.czandogg9576]

I'm with you on a "feels good to say" basis. But we forget ourselves, video games generally need to be profitable to be made. It sucks but if a company can't display monetary value then they would understandably get axed. Edit: On a spicier note, IIRC no one has a right for perpetually employment no matter how well the product/profits are. It sucks but if one can't front the capital to invest then one doesn't have a say. Even spicier, be grateful that you got a chance to work, get paid and acquire experience.

[@TheBackwardsLegsMan]

It can only be said so many times, but this HAS to happen once a company is public or owned by a public company. You are quite literally legally obligated to make as much money for your investors/share holders as possible, but shareholders only care about short term profits, since they tend to just cash out once they think an investment is tanking. This creates an environment where the only thing that matters is the next quarter, so you have to do something to inflate your numbers. If you didn't have a breakout success, even if you made money, you didn't make enough for the line to go up this quarter, so we have to shutter your studio to make it look like we made more.

[@Coconut-219]

The question is, how many flops without improvement until we consider it a pattern. Where to draw the line? Because there already is, and probably always will be, those who *refuse* to learn from mistakes.

[@IstasPumaNevada]

@@TheBackwardsLegsMan Well, we need different policies then. Like perhaps some sort of gathering of people who leverage the collective power of their bargaining to prevent companies treating them like disposable cogs.

[@Santoryu90]

It’s already bad enough when one flop can get an entire studio shut down, but I guess it doesn’t matter even if the game did gangbusters just wow.

[@Lonequacker]

Shinji Mikami pulling up in his sports car to Microsoft's offices and walking in with a loaded gun.

[@charlesplante]

Every company Shinji worked for is dead. Nobody wants to work with him, it ain't 1996-8 anymore.

[@Dasaltwarrior]

Pullin' up with an attache case Leon Kennedy style

[@HatsAlEsman]

I think I meme’d Hifi into God Hand 2 too hard, both being their studios last game

[@SimpleBarghest]

@@charlesplante It's less nobody "wants to work with him," more his procedure of "mentoring a group until they can stand on their own feet, and then letting them do their own thing" isn't supported or accepted by the industry anymore.

[@charlesplante]

@@SimpleBarghest Platinum games and Clover games both died under his "guidence" iirc. He's kinda like the Sakagouchi of Capcom.

[@jack_rabbit]

at first, i was sad when i realized that as a sony gamer, i was never going to be able to play outer worlds 2... but then i realized that nobody will. and that's worse.

[@mikekazz5353]

Microsoft: quick we're losing fans what should we do? A) rerelease jet set radio future B) free Xbox live membership C) make a new banjo and kazooie D) scoot ass on carpet Microsoft: I think the fans would love D the most.

[@misterdiesel3702]

That would somehow be more productive than what they actually did 🫠

[@WIImotionmasher]

man making the base Xbox Gold (Gamepass Core) membership free, would absolutely get me to play my Xbox Series S more. Problem is itd get me to play Rainbow Six Vegas 2 lol

[@GrayFox_74]

D will get us more money

[@kaizerdeath12]

Same as Studio ZA/UM: Literally EVERYTHING done right, getting that hype, money, and brand recognittion... and some investor/s who has given up on seeing anything in in this world as anything but a self-enriching cash grab for their net worth STILL gutted you, because their annual projections only predicted a mere few tens of millions instead of the billions that was somehow seriously expected as a return.

[@mjrdonut]

can't believe Woolie bucc'd his entire wardrobe

[@iller3]

completely expected Canadian behavior

[@decimatedbody4122]

Damn the whole wardrobe? Hope he's not broke after that

[@MoI-101]

Will say, this one hurt the most out of all the news in a really long time. Tango fucking killed it, with a game I absolutely loved and thought it was the best game I'd played in a decade. Then microshit kills Tango, who was planning a sequel, and fucking says they need more games with accolades? The fuck.

[@MarkGearRex]

When Matt Booty said they wanted more award winning games, he didn't mean small games like Hi-Fi Rush, he meant big AAA pretentious games like Sony.

[@Danter5435]

​@MarkGearRex I agree that that is likely what he meant, but the quote is "We need SMALLER games that give us prestige and awards". And that is what has everyone pissed off as Hi-Fi RUSH is, in every gamers mind, a smaller game.

[@GregHWiggy]

studios with talent and potential as well, Arkane Austin made one of the best and most underrated games of last gen with Prey, clearly had a talent for great single player games with amazing gameplay, narrative and world building. And with Tango, even take away HiFi, the evil within series had a lot of fans and while ghostwire tokyo wasn't amazing by any means, I personally felt there was enough there to make a massive improvement with a sequel. just such a waste of talent from Xbox, incredibly short sighted.

[@suerennsl93]

Man, it's scary that studios like ID software and obsidian games are just one bad shareholders report away from closing down.

[@mjrdonut]

the way everything went down with Mick Gordon already kinda has me sweatin

[@pocketlint60]

Or one GOOD Shareholder's report away from closing down.

[@suerennsl93]

@pocketlint60 Yep, a damned if you do a damned if you don't thing.

[@Comkill117]

Based on Hi-Fi Rush, they’re also one GOOD shareholder report away too.

[@Kango234]

It has been a long time since I've seen gaming news thst actually managed to really bum me out. Hi-Fi Rush was such a breath of fresh air thst got me excited about video games again, but despite being successful according to Microsoft's own words, a game that creative just isn't allowed to exist in this industry.

[@theycallmejojo6090]

Microsoft just watched Sony stumbling down a flight of stairs and decided to one up them by falling off a cliff.

[@GrayFox_74]

They had their second chance to do better than Sony, but instead aimed a rocket launcher at their feet and didn’t jump

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

Just to preempt if Pat is gonna say it later: Phil Spencer only played the first level of Hi-Fi Rush. That's it. You can see it on his limited achievements. And he didn't even play Persona 5 Tactica for an hour with how big he tried to push Atlus' big Game Pass promos. BUT HE SURE HAS TIME TO GET REVENGE ON THE VERY MAD GAMERS WHO NUKED HIS CAMP IN FALLOUT 76.

[@Kaarl_Mills]

Its really funny how 343 and Bethesda are spared from the chopping block despite fucking up for more than a decade

[@Comkill117]

343 legitimately never even released a good game. The best thing they ever did was eventually fix a broken collection of ports of another developer’s actually good games like 8 years later. The one game on MCC that is made by them sucks too. There is no fucking excuse why Tango and Arkane got shut down but they’re still around. Like Bethesda sucks but they at least published good games and have a history from 2011 and before of good stuff, 343 doesn’t even have that.

[@Serahpin]

Microsoft gives hi fi rush away for free on gamepass. Hi fi rush does super well, to the point of winning awards. Microsoft shuts down hi fi rush studio because it didn't make enough money.

[@Hillthugsta]

They killed the incentive to actually buy their games by keeping their first party on GP. If they want their cake and eat it too, they should put their new releases on GP for the first month or so a "rental period" if you will. They get the GP money and if the game is worthy enough they get the game sale.

[@diegomedina9637]

Yeah it launched on Gamepass... And still sold quite well so I really don't understand what's the deal with Microsoft.

[@onimaxblade8988]

This might literally be a permanent death-knell for Microsoft's reputation, including among developers. Like maybe Blizzard will do them good, but I don't think anyone will get over this for years. Like Eurogamer said in an article too, they only make decisions for money, not for being a company that provides products to players, and that literally can't work, not even for the worst publishers. They will inevitably continue to make the same mistakes they've made for a decade or more.

[@leithaziz2716]

Kicking off their only japanese game studio is not a good look either if they want to branch out internationally, something they've struggled with for decades.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

@@leithaziz2716 Even funnier for that image is ole Phil has literally zero time to play Persona 5 Tactica, but he has all the time in the world to spite the people who nuked his camp in Fallout 76.

[@Coconut-219]

This is almost an entire triple-A (and whatever weird realm of classification steam early-access scam developers exist in) industry problem. They have forgotten that in order to make money they have to have products that people will buy.

[@GrayFox_74]

Don’t hold your breath on blizzard.

[@FlameOfUdun96]

Don Mattrick’s miasma of failure has permeated the very core of the company. They’ve been beyond saving for a while, just been on borrowed time

[@parodysam]

They exist so when Microsoft shows off all their products they can show games and they avoid the image of their products just being boring tools you use for work

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

To be honest theyve been bungle lords for decades. Resident Evil 4 was going to be an xbox exclusice until the director felt so disrepeacted he walked out to nintendo across the street.

[@leithaziz2716]

Sony was birthed from Nintendo making the wrong call. This industry was molded by missteps from the beginning, for better or worse.

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

@leithaziz2716 That doesn't make failure, especially in this case, an always good thing. Missteps are only good if they bear fruit afterward. Not if it all just causes people to lose their jobs and nothing else. This would be like if instead of becoming a competitor, Sony just bought up a bunch of IPs people liked and waited to go out of business.

[@Roronoa2zoro]

I think my favourite response that I saw to the Mike Ybarra quote was "How can it hurt [Phil] as much as anyone else!? HE STILL HAS HIS JOB!"

[@Dasaltwarrior]

This situation, if nothing else, is showing how depressingly entertaining it is to watch the hydra's heads consume its own body out of a sheer lack of coordination

[@WakkaMadeInYevon]

Unfortunately the hydra has a high enough regeneration passive that it will never die, and just gets sad and uncomfortable to watch

[@fist-of-doom487]

Between Sony and Microsoft I think it’s safe to say the Console Wars are over. Nintendo won by doing nothing.

[@WakkaMadeInYevon]

​@@fist-of-doom487 I mean when your whole gimmick is "PC does not exist," it's a lot easier to justify the console. Microsoft kinda shot themselves in the foot with the GamePass, and Sony basically sent the PS5 out to die still just as shit a company as the other two, steadily becoming the next Disney

[@ItsDigidyDan]

@@WakkaMadeInYevon like gnawing a pillow

[@leithaziz2716]

Microsoft and Sony at the moment can be summed up with the meme of Reggie and Iwada fighting each other with the tagline: "Two companies fighting over which one can piss off their fanbase the most"

[@gameb9oy]

Ironically it’s the only company that doesn’t keep firing their third party developers in that trailer

[@leithaziz2716]

@@gameb9oy Nintendo mostly treats their 3rd party guys well. Business-wise, they always give consumers a reason to be mad at them (dinosaur rules, treatment towards mods and their communities, dated tech) but their target crowd is different from Sony and Xbox. So they don't feel the need to improve as long as they deliver great games and have no competitors.

[@gameb9oy]

@@leithaziz2716yeah, it’s silly to act like Nintendo is a company never to get mad at, but it’s also not typically a bad deal for you working for them. There’s a reason they are a company Japan itself is proud of. Heck it’s ironically probably one of the better places to work in the country

[@LieseFury]

​​​@@leithaziz2716they screwed over the Reginleiv and Advance Wars devs and tried to screw Monolith but those were relatively rare missteps over the course of decades

[@almac5446]

Wait Sony's fanbase more upset that the game wasn't exclusive to the console?

[@christiansimmers168]

Oh god. What Pat described at the end there @24:00 is exactly what happened to Boeing after they bought McDonnell Douglas, which has lead to the current state of Boeing.

[@originalscreenname44]

You could also draw parallels to Intel where the literal moneymen were in charge and they just kept shitting out the same quad core parts everyday, allowing AMD to make a comeback from death’s door.

[@Levitz9]

That story about the guy with the motion control patent just reminds me of how people bitched at Nintendo for making Bayonetta 2 exclusive when it was Microsoft and Sony that both passed on Bayonetta 2 in the first place. And Nintendo rolled out the red carpet for Bayo, she got into Smash and they made a Playboy cosplay shoot with Pamela Horton and everything. It's just taking Microsoft a long time to realize their future exists off of their own hardware.

[@amf1435]

Woolie should play Prey now. It's absolutely amazing, he will have a lot to think and talk about and he will pay respects to those poor lost souls of Arkane Austin

[@SH1NK1R01]

I still remember when people tried to argue that game pass was the future of gaming and everyone should jump on board. And that Microsoft absorbing all these companies was a good thing long term due to the aforementioned big good that game pass was. Game pass has since proven to strangle sales for a game meaning only the largest studios can haggle for a big enough payout to justify the loss and Microsoft has proven to be a Saturday morning cartoon villain who force chokes their minions on cooldown at the slightest inconvenience.

[@Coconut-219]

"Why make trillions when we can make... billions?"

[@GrayFox_74]

“why make billions when we can make… one million dollars !🤙🤨”

[@CountofBleck]

If a game with critical acclaim across the board cant save a studio from being closed, what in the world are we supposed to trust in? Also bonus fun fact: The reason Tango got axed is because Zenimax decided to target studios who were in between projects, and Tango was actively looking for people to make a sequel to Hi Fi Rush.

[@NEEDbacon]

Tango "Hey, were' in the process of making Sliced Bread 2 and are looking for help on that" Zenimax "No you AIN'T! Just make sliced bread 2 while we take half your budgets idiots!"

[@Ninja-The-Red-Shinobi]

Woolie is very upset, just seeing his face you know the anger and rage boiling towards Microsoft

[@Tuffty]

Seen a whole bunch of takes about the justification behind it but it should be said, even if it makes financial sense for Microsoft to do this, you're still allowed to be upset by the news. Hi-Fi Rush, Ghostwire Tokyo, Prey, Evil Within, these are all good games and I'm sad we will likely never see sequels for them ever again.

[@trickster721]

People who claim this stuff makes business sense are conspiracy theorists, they want to believe that genius hustlers are pulling all the strings. Unfortunately, the world is actually run by narcissistic idiots who make decisions based on whatever they think will make them look good that day.

[@GrayFox_74]

i think you’d make a better justification for breaking your own legs than you could for what MS does

[@markcampbell8590]

So D4 cancelled, Scalebound cancelled, and now one of my new favorite IP from last year Hi Fi Rush will not be getting any sequel.

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

Why would any small devs want to work for Microsoft after this? We just saw them send out Hi-Fi Rush to die and then it goes NUTS, makes a bunch of money, gains a huge appreciation from gamers and critics alike, and competes for awards alongside absolute MEGAGIANTS like Zelda and Mario and Alan Wake and stuff - and then they're like "oh well, planned to kill you guys anyway lol. Make bang bang shooty."

[@vincenttorrijos9680]

I'd laugh but this shows that once a studio has been designated to die, it will die whether it succeeds or not. The idea of quality maintaining a studio even in a giant corporation no longer exists

[@BlazeMakesGames]

The worst thing is that microsoft has the classic CEO mindset of short term gains are all that matter even though the money pit they dug themselves into with buying Actiblizz is something that they can't possibly recover from within a decade. Like this is a long-term problem and they're trying to solve it with short term solutions. Destroying Tango and Arkane and whatnot is not going to make them a billion dollars. Hell that upsetting statistic that people are passing around is that the golden parachute given to Bobby could have paid for both Arkane and Tango's employee wages for the next 17 years. But the thing is that that's still less than half a billion dollars and they need to make back *70* billion dollars. That's practically a drop in the bucket by comparison. Literally just letting those companies continue to exist under their umbrella would cost them so little compared to how much they've spent that it wouldn't matter, so closing them is so completely pointless. And on top of that, if those companies are still making games and are at least nearly making back how much they cost if not exceeding it, then those companies will barely if at all cost them anything to literally just let them keep existing. Not to mention that by you know, letting these (relatively) smaller companies make smaller games for you, you help build up a stronger library for your console and brand image, which helps you generally sell more consoles and games down the line. So ultimately it just feels incredibly pointless and petty to kill off these studios even if they were temporarily unprofitable or especially only slightly profitable. Plus there's what that one guy said where he was like "Why not just divest them at least so that they can continue existing under a different umbrella?" they get even *more* money short term and it doesn't hurt as much that way. But no Xbox has to take their toys and smash them on the pavement so that nobody else can play with them.

[@patrickloureiro351]

The saddest part is that the consensus now is that it wasn't even sales, microsoft was always gonna axe tango to recoup from the bethesda and activiz buyouts in fact the no marketing for the game might have been a atempt by microsoft to sabotage it so they could have a excuse ready to close the studio.

[@LouisOliner]

Man its going to suck when this time next year Ninja Theory, Machine games, id, Double Fine and Obsidian no longer exist

[@N7killerkid]

I think Tango's closure is the perfect way to illustrate how meaningless anything but infinite growth is in capitalism. It doesn't matter if you are good and skilled and go above what's expected, it doesn't even matter if you break record sales because millions of dollars are worthless if you can't consistently up yourself every year.

[@NocturneJester]

Almost like it's a system that's not actually viable for the long term sustainability of human society.

[@brokentower3148]

Volatility's just as valuable as growth

[@Zikk0_o]

@@NocturneJester Yet we live in the most viable time in human history. No other system has the prosperous longevity that Capitalism has for the average person.

[@TheMilhouseExperience]

Hifi Rush was the game that stole Forspoken’s lunch and called it fugly. Overnight, because it released from nowhere and still managed to have people praise it left and right.

[@diegomedina9637]

I don't know... That game was going to be sh*t regardless of HiFi Rush being a thing or not.

[@juanjuri6127]

i feel like we're attributing a lot of 4d chess thinking to a set of decisions that basically amount to "make good returns for VCs today so we can cash out tomorrow and make the consequences someone else's problem"

[@NEEDbacon]

Nah, this is more like playing chess against a Pidgeon. Knocks all the pieces and craps on the board.

[@soliduswasright678]

The XBOX president Sarah Bond 2 months ago was tweeting at Tango saying how proud they are and hope for many more games from them. So either she was lying through her teeth when she said this or this decision was hastily slapped together because some Microsoft suit deemed it so because line must go up.

[@Guile_The_Exile]

Yeah this is definitely on MS, not Xbox. Xbox has been hungry for games, but these decisions definitely don't make sense with their visions.

[@punishedbung4902]

Make good game, get shut down. Make bad game, get shut down. Make CoD, live on as a slave in the CoD mines. Make Starfield, live because you made Skyrim.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

Also what Pat is calling is "I have no Microsoft, but I must Call of Duty."

[@user-ne3gu8io2i]

wild how they went from tango getting ready to pitch hi fi 2 and arkane wanting to return to their roots to shutter them in one email and for some reason redfalls steam branch is still being updated microsoft is also talking about wanting more smaller games like hi fi in the future that can get similar awards it is unbelievable how little respect they have for new ips at that company which sounds a lot like the position halo was originally in

[@fluidthought42]

It's the problem with shareholder capitalism, you are not just expected but systemically obligated to make line go up and make it go up constantly and bigly. Small businesses and smaller revenue streams cannot be tolerated when that's budget for bigger and "better" ROI.

[@night1952]

Hopefully the people behind it will go to better studios and create even better games.

[@teecee1827]

Unlikely, the job market in the VG industry is utterly saturated due to the overabundance of large job cuts. Plenty of talented people are already without a job, those are just added to the pile.

[@ElvenSonic]

Unfortunately, as another user pointed out, everyone is changing industries because there aren’t enough jobs open to make up for the infinite cuts we’re seeing.

[@ImperfectionistSupreme]

Hearing stories like this happening like, every couple of weeks is making me glad I never pursued that dream of getting into game development

[@NocturneJester]

Why not look into indie studios?

[@hail2theprince93]

Lest we forget EA killing Dead Space. Again.

[@ShyRanger]

Nintendo getting so much success and Sony and Microsft just failing all over, it makes me think of the King of the Hilly episode where Bobby manages to win a running contest thanks to every other competitor all falling over at once.

[@ricardomiles2957]

You guys all forget that japanese companies are a different can of worms and they can get way more nasty than western companies. Here it's all greed, over there it's all because a fossil decided you needed to plug your phone to use a headset on their console, it's a wild card.

[@chibi2239]

Yeah, I feel like that best describes it. 😂 I know people don't like Nintendo, and they have every right to, but the absolute fumbling from Sony and Microsoft as of late is just handing them success. ESPECIALLY with a new console on the way.

[@Monodi91]

I think Microsoft has opened a Pandora's Box with the closings last week because now NO ONE will feel like working for them is worth it in any way now. That trust is gone.

[@lbcyber]

Would this technically mean that two different Prey 2s have been cancelled?

[@datonkallandor8687]

And one of the 4 studios they closed is the developers bethesda blackmailed into being bought out during the original Prey 2 development. They didn't get to release anything before being shut down.

[@ItsDatCajunStuff]

If you see the graph in the back of that Sarah Bond Bloomberg response interview, you can see that, after Xbox/Microsoft was massively overvalued in 2020, the line on the graph has been going down. And we all know that the line CANNOT go down. Let the firings begin.

[@MillenniumDays]

Working at a retailer during the pandemic I can tell you the Switch was a hot seller for everyone stuck in their homes. Always sold out. People bought it for their kids instead of Ipads, sometimes it was cheaper and they can't access dodgy stuff on the internet so safe too. They also bought it for themselves because they where trapped at home and the games are super casual and friendly for everyone... I bought a Switch during the pandemic too and played Animal Crossing on my work breaks.

[@TyrantWesker]

Consolidating their solid handheld market and fluctuating console market into a single device was honestly a brilliant move on their part. As much as people poke fun at them for having weaker hardware, lagging behind lets them make an actual profit on console sales while still selling them for a lower price than the others who are LOSING money even at a higher price point. This also means that their games don't have to sell as much to be a success, because they don't have to make up for the losses on selling hardware. I'm really happy the new console is just going to be a more powerful Switch, because that's all anyone has asked for. No more weird gimmicks that making porting games really hard in the future, just an improvement on what we already like.

[@Coconut-219]

@@TyrantWesker Yeah. The Wii was just 2 Gamecubes in a trenchcoat, the switch is just now 8 Gamecubes in a trenchcoat. Nintendo's secret is their polish, art direction, and utter optimization black magic.

[@kildaver]

​@@Coconut-219Emphasis on the black magic of optimization. AAA companies seem proud when their games take up 50-100 gigs of storage; it's an anomaly for Nintendo games to exceed 20.

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

Microsoft is the new Embracer group. Purchase companies for their IPs, trim rverything else until quarterly profits are high enough, then lock in a vault and wait to sell.

[@cordia96]

That's every big publisher. Sony closed Studio Japan, Siren (& London), I'll never foget that. Modern Nintendo relies heavily on contractors, for silent layoffs. Take2 downsized Private Devision, closed Roll7 after 2 Indi Hits.

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

@cordia96 Negative. Basic greedy behavior/excessive studio closure within your company's history does not automatically equate to what Microsoft is being right now. EAs probably the runner up in this They're SOLELY focused on short term gains, they don't care at all about making big long term projects for people to get excited about. All because they put a 70 billion hole in their pocket. At the end of the day, Nintendo and Sony still have a decent variety of quality titles they've put time and money into. Microsoft has *none* of that. There's still executives at Nintendo that understand a well developed zelda game will make money. Microsoft is purely soulless corporate at the upper level now.

[@chibi2239]

I say this on alot of videos now, but I'm gonna keep saying it. The sheer STATE of Xbox and Sony has pretty much GUARANTEED the Nintendo switch 2 to be a massive success. They have rolled out the red carpet for Nintendo. All the Big N needs to do is stick the landing. (Feel as you may about that.)

[@ShyRanger]

THis very much sounds like "you didn't win, they lost" thing.

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

@@chibi2239 that's not what they meant.

[@chibi2239]

@@miguelnewmexico8641 oh. Sorry then. 😅

[@goldsocks9999]

Hi-Fi rush means so much to me and it's so depressing knowing the studio behind my favorite game ever was shut down because greed

[@Adalore]

Shareholder "Fiduciary obligations" really does cause some absurd brain rot. May a vibrate video game industry rise from the burnt out forest of the AAA scene when it finally collapses.

[@LW1773]

It's all so tiring man I remember wanting to get into the gaming industry as a kid and slowly losing all love and hope as I realized it's one of the worst and most unsafe jobs ever.

[@leithaziz2716]

Man, I decided to study Computer Engineering but despite loving games I can see that's not a stable future from the get go. There will be other job opportunities thankfully for that path. I just worry I won't have fun with them.

[@ryangallagher8194]

Same, I took a course on it even with the hope of making games some day, and now I'm incredibly glad I failed to find an entry place and got into a far more normal, stable industry where I can live happily.

[@Arashi441]

Didnt happen to me, but a close friend did study and worked in the game industry for 2 years or so. He was so burnt out that he left. Now he works in the IT dept at a middle size corporate office and his salary is higher, his hours are shorter, his job is way more stable and secure and he looks way less stressed everytime I talk to him

[@just_matt214]

Making games as a hobby for fun? Truly lovely! Making games as a full-time job? You'd rather be a line cook.

[@BIGBLUBLUR]

lol, same here. I didn't have a roadmap planned out or anything, but I remember just wanting to be part of the process in any way I could. Right up until the end of highschool where I did a presentation on it for my final Senior Year assignment my school had everyone in certain classes do. I Read books, toured DeVry, watched videos, even interviewed people, and came away from it being more fascinated by the creation process than I ever had been... but realizing that it was pretty dookie as a profession. Aced my presentation, btw.

[@xXCrimsonArkXx]

It gets increasingly funnier in hindsight the fact that Starfield dropped smack dab between the release of BG 3 and CP2077 2.0/PL. It’s almost poetic even lol

[@fenris5932]

I feel like if Sony or Nintendo scoops up Tango and in a year months we see a trailer for new game Lo-Fi Blitz starring main character Earl who has Gray hair, a robot leg, and a keytar as a weapon, that would just be the execution swing for Xbox as a brand

[@jordankolb2976]

You know Mid-Fi Scramble starring Chamomile is gonna be a banger

[@chibi2239]

To be honest? Nintendo technically did that with Bayonetta 2, so it's not out of the question. (Admittedly, Platinum still existed, its just that no one wanted to publish Bayo 2, but still)

[@falguard]

Sony just needs to get Bungie to make them Ringworlds: Battle Enhanced, starring the blue-armored John Ring...

[@23kurtzy]

Man obsidian can’t catch a break. They finally get a few hits in and now they are back in the same ship they were in the 90’s

[@li-limandragon9287]

Microsoft are so petty, they see critical acclaim and hate it.

[@Dan-Ky-Kong]

It's a huge bummer that I won't see Chai and the crew anymore.

[@chibi2239]

Well if the rumor that it was getting ported was actually true, cherish those PS5 and Switch ports, I'd say.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

@@chibi2239 Hi-Fi is literally already out on PS5.

[@chibi2239]

@@UltimaKeyMaster my point still stands.

[@Feasco]

​@@chibi2239a port is not a sequel or additional content, how are you missing the point this badly

[@chibi2239]

@Feasco I'm not missing the point. The person said they "couldn't see the Hi-fi Rush crew anymore" so I'm saying cherish the ports on the other consoles.

[@lucidlullaby894]

EA / The greater videogame market: we must wring as much money out of our players for maximum profit Nintendo: 2:08 Now Nintendo has its own fair share of problems but it’s hilarious how “just make good games that people enjoy playing” keeps working so well

[@chibi2239]

That and just NOT caring about having the most powerful system. 😂 Not using the most powerful parts to make Switch is how they keep costs so low (in comparison at least).

[@FrankBlarghHonk]

And with this, I am now calling 2024 the scorched earth year for the entertainment industry as a whole.

[@leithaziz2716]

Judgment Day came early for AAA market.

[@NEEDbacon]

Yes, like here was I was thinking Kurosanji's complete mismanagement of talent and damage control would be like the worst news entertainment wise. Then Sony was like "Nah, watch as we destroy two promising upstart games for NO REASON, and killed off a beloved classic cause we can't be bothered to fix a technical issue". And THEN Microsoft said "No no, here let me show you how you piss off people"

[@fraserking4747]

They saw Sony screwing up and said “Pfft, you think you are the biggest screw ups around here? You are like little babies, watch this!” It’s so infuriating to watch this happen in real time.

[@GrayFox_74]

they bash their face with a cast iron pan and said “learn your place, i’m the clown in this industry”

[@Comkill117]

It blows my mind that Xbox went out of its way during layoffs to say 343, a dev studio infamous for ruining the one series they were created to work on, will remain after a decade of failure, but Tango has to die after releasing a game that was universally loved and did great both critically and commercially for way cheaper than their big games. Not only that but it’s also after Evil Within 2 which was another great game by the studio. The past decade has made it very clear that Xbox WANTS to die, there’s no other logical explanation.

[@Roof5tone]

It is annoying too, cuz like, Bethesda, Candy King, Activision, Blizzard. They are absolutely gonna make the money back. Line will go up, basically guaranteed. But line gotta go up NOW!

[@abritishguy4713]

Hi-Fi Rush has been the only Xbox game in years that turned my head. And now they’ll never be a sequel. Sony fucked up with Helldivers, but at the very least they’ve been releasing a game every month this year so far. And Nintendo hasn’t stopped, except for Metroid Prime 4

[@NEEDbacon]

Sony is argurably STILL fucking up with Helldivers cause new players still can't buy it, because sony still wanna hold out hope you['ll make a PSN account. ON PC. And they genuinely don't see the problem in that. Plus, censoring Stellar Blade, an artbook to another Japanese game. And Shutting down Little Big Planet 3's user created worlds because they didn't feel like dealing with a technical issue. But even all THAT still somehow pales in comparison to Microsoft.

[@Dan-Ky-Kong]

This just strained the relationship between Xbox and Japan by like 5 years, and no one even knows it, yet.

[@NEEDbacon]

Xbox has always been at odds in Japan. It's why there was a bunch of weirdo JRPG things on the early 360 to try and get into the market. And like, the Tango thing seemed like they might have still been trying, but they decided execution is fun.

[@OtepRalloma]

6:45 I appreciate that Producers reference

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

Even my friend who once mistakenly was a pre-order addict, absolutely gave up on star field

[@ricardomiles2957]

i don't think i can trust anyone's opinion on this game until i get my hands on it. When it released it was the most hated game ever then a few months later i've seen people who were trashing the game on release playing it again and saying it was fun like nothing ever happened. I don't like bethesda already so they need to put the work to make me dissapointed

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

@@ricardomiles2957 Starfield is okay. aggressively 7/10. if you've got nothing else on your plate, it's worth playing.

[@ThisNameIsNotTaken99]

@@ricardomiles2957 I generally like Bethesda games. Starfield is like a 6/10, maybe. It's fine if you ignore the boring skill tree, the pointless and buggy outpost stuff, the shallow ship building/ship combat, and the total lack of exploration/discovery. It's on game pass, so the barrier to entry is low.

[@MattManDX1]

@@ricardomiles2957 I played it for a bit. It was fairly enjoyable for the first few hours but got stale quick. It also ran poorly and crashed a lot on my pc and my pc is upper mid-tier at least, so there's the good old Bethesda game stability issues.

[@NEEDbacon]

My favorite story about why you should avoid starfield is this. The modder who made a co op version of Skyrim was hyped up about starfield and got to porting his Skyrim co op mod over to it. And when he went to try and test it out actually playing the game. He was so bored to tears he just dropped the game and put up what little work he did as an open source for anyone wanting to actually bother. When even the MODDERS can't be bothered to fix the game, you've done goofed.

[@patchworkx7955]

Honestly. I think the studio acquisitions by MS was just to pad their influence so they get more investors. These studios were always meant to die. MS just took a play from the EA playbook

[@NEEDbacon]

EA at least TRIED to get some games out of a studio before taking them behind the shed.

[@ibrokemykeyboard]

I feel like Nintendo is the only company that still has people working at the executive level that know how to make games. Not saying Sony or MS doesn't have people at all, just don think the people with true authority positions, who are able to call the shots, have any idea what they are doing.

[@Dasaltwarrior]

I mean, it helps when game dev is the primary thing your company operates on for 4 - 5 decades

[@chibi2239]

Yeah, as a video game company, they have really been through it all since '81. And they seem to keep people around awhile, so it's people who've literally been there and through those ordeals.

[@ibrokemykeyboard]

@@chibi2239 Yeah i'd have to guess it would be something of a culture they instill in any new hires rather than finding the next hot ceo from an adjacent industry? Just talking out of my ass here but i think it makes sense.

[@chibi2239]

@@ibrokemykeyboard no, that's not crazy. That's probably why Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma are still there.

[@ibrokemykeyboard]

@@Dasaltwarrior True but sony is pushing 30 years now and have demonstrated in the past they knew better. MS too had a period where they were absolutely killing it.

[@rosenrot234]

No joke haven't been this bummed about games since PT got cancelled.

[@ricardomiles2957]

i was one of the people blown away by PT and i'm a kojima fan but over the years i realized, we were sad over nothing. In fact we know nothing about how PT would be in the final product and considering how mgsv made the anti kojima feeling more mainstream there would be the risk silent hills become a victim of expectations like MGS2

[@Conflict-ff5pi]

i completely forgot about Scalebound. Damned Pat opening up old wounds

[@Mr.Faust3]

Microsoft not make a bone headed decision challenge (impossible)

[@HectorLopez0217]

This is the most black pilling thin where Hi Fi Rush performed well but “as much as projected”

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

Like how do you even make a projection for a game you put on your subscription service for fucking free.

[@isthisajojoreference]

I’m mean Todd Howard is kinda right in that most everyone does prefer their games to not be barren, procedurally generated, slop and for them to actually have notable landmarks and substance. If that’s what he means by “ways of exploration”

[@kimmalah]

Yeah stuff like Skyrim and Fallout are fun to explore because you actually find unique locations.

[@thunderrex59]

Tis the age of the indies, aaa shits been stacked so high its falling over. I hope tango comes back together and makes some good games.

[@princescribbles684]

I would unironucally pop oft super hard for Woolie Vs. New Vegas.

[@Guile_The_Exile]

Funny how Pat brought up the Starfield convo but SF actually STILL did make money. Just not Skyrim money... And to top it off, all of these awful decisions and layoffs are coming months after the Acti-Blizz purchase... MONTHS... MS didn't even give Xbox a YEAR before making awful+PR decisions growing the seed of mistrust in everyone after this...

[@Redahoge10]

Company who shits their pants: *Refuses to stop shitting their pants*

[@notzan5302]

"meanwhile at nintendo" Nintendo doesnt have stories like these because they have stories of ruining the lives of complete randos instead by suing them into oblivion over fan games and shit. I dont think its good to brush over how shitty they are too.

[@scaldcrowe]

especially when a large part of why nintendo doesn't have these stories is due to the fact that japanese law is extremely strict about things like layoffs (hence why it's people at nintendo of america who will then get the boot instead)

[@Zikk0_o]

Because Nintendo has the image of a happy place and a ton of nostalgia from people. Not a lot of people talk about how terrible their pricing is for old games or the fact that they do the bare minimum when it comes to basic things like online, communities, deals, and ZERO support for anything they don't have complete control over(Smash).

[@Kladyos]

Nintendo may not be full yet since Monolithsoft was hiring somewhat recently.

[@JojosGarage]

"There's no big three, it's just big me" - Nintendo

[@Zikk0_o]

"The kiddie table is in the other room" -People in 2024

[@ZeOHKay]

I read this in another comment section, but apparently morale and motivation at Arkane Lyon is NOT GREAT RN because of Austin's closure, to the point where, in a company-wide meeting, the current head of Lyon said that Blade could very well be their last game. I can only imagine that it's about the same for other divisions ATM. Because...y'know, Microsoft will kill your studio for flimsy and bottomlessly stupid reasons, even if you put out exactly what they wanted from you, so why even bother. And not only were Tango getting ready to pitch Hi-Fi Rush 2, but Arkane Austin was gonna pitch a new Dishonored game. Y'know, if the cancellation of Hi-Fi Rush 2 didn't already hurt enough. On the bright side, I remember hearing that Ken Levine wanted to bring a bunch of ex-Arkane Austin staff onto Ghost Fire to work on Judas, so hopefully they won't be out of the job for long. I kinda hope Kamuy and Unseen do the same in regards to ex-Tango staff too. Oh, and while Sony DID back down on the PSN Requirement, Helldivers II is still delisted in 180 countries ATM. EDIT: Oh, and now Sony is trying to do the PSN requirement bullshit AGAIN, but this time with Ghost of Tsushima, a primarily SINGLE-PLAYER game with SOME multiplayer components. For fuck sakes, Sony.

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

"Um ackshually it's only 177 countries without PSN." But seriously, good on Pirate Software for refusing to fall for the olive branch coated in snake oil Sony sold us.

[@NEEDbacon]

Sony "What do you mean shooting your comrade for seemingly no reason doesn't boost morale? It works in 40k!" But it really is amazing how out of their way they're going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They literally had to do NOTHING with Helldivers. But since PSN numbers are down (due to them censoring Stellar Blade) and there's a quarter report coming up, well number must go UP, MAKE NUMBER GO UP! And are doubling down on it, with even LESS reason And Microsoft also had the easiest job in doing NOTHING, and still went out of their way to piss folks off.

[@joshthejuicy]

"we're heading towards a crash" Wrong, we are in the crash for AAA now

[@carl8790]

This one stings a lot, cuz I loved Hi-Fi Rush. It's the only game from Microsoft, besides Flight simulator that I actually played and really enjoyed. Now I'm more disincentive from Xbox and gamepass as a platform after hearing this depressing news.

[@micheljavert5923]

The Investors demanded blood. And blood they were given. Blood for the blood gods. Skulls for the Skull Throne.

[@sadv3]

RIP Hi Fi Rush

[@jkw22]

I hope woolie never gets buc ee broken

[@alephnole7009]

wouldn't be surprised if Obsidian & Ninja Theory studios get killed off within a year of Avowed & Hellblade 2 releases

[@chibi2239]

Yeah, and much like Hi-fi...I get the sense that it doesn't even matter if they're successful...they're gonna get canned.

[@alephnole7009]

@@chibi2239 exactly.

[@NEEDbacon]

At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if it was mere weeks after launch. Hell, maybe if Microsoft is feeling extra spicy, DAY OF closures.

[@SliderGamer55]

I'm not the first person to point this out, but Nintendo is essentially gonna get a monopoly of console gaming by doing absolutely nothing at this rate, Luigi style. Especially pathetic since Nintendo clearly have gave up on this year getting new games so that their next system will have a strong launch (so exactly the same as Switch to a much lesser extent, Wii (people forget how many Wii games were literally just Gamecube games until they weren't).

[@cyberninjazero5659]

Sony still exists, and while they might make their own bad/annoying decisions. They manage to not absolute clusterfuck themselves. Yes, we talked about Helldivers' forced PSN. But consider how that effects them on PS5. In that it doesn't, that scenario only fucked over PC players, whom they are incentivized not to care about/view as a lesser concern. Let's not pretend that it's not an even playing field against "Oh, REBUY ALL THE RETRO GAMES AGAIN YOU PAY PIGGY" Say what you will about Sony but when I buy a PS1/2 Classic, I can still play it 3 consoles later (PS3/4/5).

[@chibi2239]

I wouldn't say monopoly, Sony is still there and can recover, unlike Xbox. But I can see a much more heated rivalry between the two (Sony and Nintendo). Especially since, as of right now, Sony is the one on the backfoot here. It'll be interesting to say the least.

[@EncinoDude]

You're crazy if you think Sony is gonna pull out of the video game industry

[@dr6559]

They’re not going to back out but if things keep going the way they are, they may end up in the spot Microsoft is in now. Why buy an Xbox if the PS5 and Switch are getting their games? Well, if Sony can’t sell more consoles or more games and they have to start porting everything to PC and the Switch 2 or whatever, why buy a PS5? I’m sure they’ll find a way out of this hole they’re in, but good god Iwata knew how to read the future and made Nintendo dodge basically all of this.

[@EncinoDude]

@dr6559 what hole is sony in?

[@VaneHartless473]

Woolie should play New Vegas. Woolie should also absolutely not play New Vegas on Stream

[@werwolfnate]

Episode ten, and he's finally leaving good springs.

[@alicannonfodderfun8596]

As a series x owner this just fucking blows my mind. The ONE good game that is an console exclusive and just shoves the developer in the trash because they blown 65 billion on Activision and farted out rushed starfield. They cant even do anything with the Activision deal since their Microsoft and they dont do anything with the stuff they bought ( rare was shoved to do kinect games for years)

[@CosmicRejectsVideo]

Nintendo: We have no idea what we are doing but, we aren't doing as bad as the other guys.

[@Zikk0_o]

More like. Nintendo: Holy shit, these idiots are still buying our ancient hardware and internet 1.0???? Nintendo: Let's make it interesting and go after each and every emulator and continue to charge full price for games over two decades old.

[@planguy9575]

Hi Fi Rush was a freaking great game with a likable cast of characters that I would have wanted to see in a ton of sequels. I wanted spin offs starring every single side character.