Why is Xbox killing its studios? - Pachter Factor S9E36

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Microsoft just killed Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks when it needs every game possible for Game Pass. It has plenty of money to keep them operating and both studios have created excellent games so what's the rationale?
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#ArkaneStudios #Redfall #HiFiRush #Dishonored #TangoGameworks #TheEvilWithin #Prey #Finance #GamePass #GameDev #GameDevelopment #Layoffs #Xbox #PlayStation #Nintendo #SIFTD

[@SIFTDGames]

How much will Grand Theft Auto VI cost? Is Phil Spencer's time up at Xbox? Are console exclusives gone for good? These episodes are LIVE RIGHT NOW for those of you who subscribe with Twitch Prime! Thank you for taking a couple seconds to help us and stick it to big brother! www.twitch.tv/SIFTDgames

[@Dovtutis]

Always a pleasure to listen mr. Pachter

[@ulyssesperez1989]

Can't re-up on my twitch account on mobile. I've tried in the past, but still no confirm message. Sorry...

[@kendrickstarr]

Mafia 3 was pretty good. I disagree with you there

[@iFukuyama]

He tries to be objective in these videos, so it's not really a quality judgement, just the metacritic and sales as compared to production cost. Mafia 3 was hugely expensive.

[@matodion]

Same here, I immediately scream Bullshit as soon as I heard him call the game a piece of crap. He should catch me outside with that noise.

[@Stri4ker21]

Mafia 3 is definitely the weakest in the series. It's a mediocre game for me.

[@munkytaint666]

agreed. there's a few annoying things that maybe hold Mafia 3 back from greatness, but overall, it's a really good game and does a handful of things exceedingly well.

[@MdrnGmngScks]

Mafia 3 eventually became good, it was a buggy mess when it came out.

[@p.ukem0n327]

Xbox closes studios - huge outcry. PS closes studios - crickets. Media is weird.

[@Night-Mayor]

But has Sony closed a successful studio?

[@shorafarahani]

@@Night-Mayor London Studio was just fully shut down

[@MdrnGmngScks]

​@@shorafarahaniLondon Studio was not a successful studio, but it was their go to studio for VR which shows Sony have fully given up on PSVR2, that and the PC adapter.

[@iFukuyama]

The three studios that were shut down were all under the Bethesda umbrella. So to me it looks like Bethesda operates with some autonomy and was told to cut costs because of bad performance for Starfield or over time and this is how they chose to address it. Assuming that to be true, the follow up question then would be if it's reasonable for Microsoft to allow Bethesda to fire good departments.

[@spazco8669]

lol people Gamers are clueless. Tango have never met sales or engagement targets once on any of thier games. More people complaining xbout their closure than ever played their games.

[@pdraggy]

100% is it 'bad'? sure, but people act like it's some horrible thing. EA still exists guys, MS killed Lionhead AGES ago yet they still exist! Fable, Lionhead's baby, still exists! you people are all tree huggin hippies, get a life. I AM pissed at Xbox' stance on exclusives. THAT's something that's worth getting mad about- something that WILL kill the industry MUCH FASTER and MUCH MORE GRUESOME than the occasional studio assassination (sure GIVE everything to Playstation and PC, just look at the GPU market, the 1080 debuted at $699, now 2000 dollar GPUs are the norm! or Ticketmaster's hold on buying concert/ sports event tickets fees out the wazoo and nobody can do anything about it). This is barely a drop in the barrel in the grand scheme of things yet ya'll act like we're heading for the worst possible future or something..

[@pdraggy]

Microsoft made more from me playing Starfield for 3 months (17.95 x 3) than they would if I bought the game outright (okay, maybe about even, but had I not noticed and just cut myself off it would have been more!). How many COD-heads who 'try' Xbox Gamepass Ultimate JUST for COD and end up paying 200+ microtransactions JUST for that one game! Or how many will be like me and after a few months buy the complete game on Steam for full price on top of the 50 bucks they spent on gamepass (assuming they canceled it). Gameing is NOT like movies, it's not generaly a one and done thing ESPECIALLY a game like COD. No, IMO MS is gonna make a BAG out of this... at least in the short run. Let me tell you, since I play most games 3+ months at a time if I like them, I'm not falling for that subscribtion service thing again. Great for movies, great if you just want to dip your toes into all the latest games etc. But I like to engulf myself in these games I'm not their taget audience (... or maybe I am and they're just EVIL and I shouldn't associate myself with the gamepass lol).

[@TecraX2]

Given your reference to Steam, I assume you play on PC. On consoles you have to pay an annual fee/subscription in order to play online. Eg. on PS5 you have to pay $70 for COD and $70 for 12 months PS+ Essential. I'd much rather pay the slightly higher cost for 12 months of Game Pass Ultimate, since this also includes other games (eg. Perfect Dark, Indiana Jones, Doom etc.)...

[@DonJulioGames]

What game is showing on 3:30?

[@Thoughtlesskyle]

Dishonored 2 I believe

[@AchtungEnglander]

Superb answer

[@david.9633]

Thanks for the episode

[@matodion]

Bullshit! Mafia 3 was good

[@MdrnGmngScks]

I can even get shutting down studios that don't do well, even though I think Arkane Austin (and Rocksteady) it wasn't their fault, it appears live service was forced on them when their specialty are single player. But to close down a successful studio like Tango, a game all the senior leadership were claiming HiFi Rush was a big success shows either Microsoft are incompetent leaders or the AAA industry truly is collapsing under it's own weight. I personally think it's both.

[@StephenYuan]

With Tango, the studio found Shinji Mikami left for another studio and took a bunch of people with him. So Tango was already sort of a shell of itself. And they had no ongoing project.

[@MdrnGmngScks]

@@StephenYuan Always heard Mikami wasn't that involved in HiFi Rush and ended up being their best game (I liked Evil Within 1 & 2, liked HiFi Rush even more). Tango were trying to get a sequel to HiFi Rush off the ground I was certainly more interested in that than anything else Microsoft have in the pipeline. It was absolutely Microsoft's best game last year, way better than Starfield. If you shut down any studio under Bethesda it's BGS.

[@RossMalagarie]

Easy why does any company layoff? Because its a fast tremendous lost in "expenses" as in millions in salaries and benefits that the company no longer is responsible for. Its done so managers and higher ups can say look CEO/board members/shareholders at all these millions I saved you so I get to keep a percent and y'all get to keep the rest in bonuses. And we can hire new cheaper employees slowly next year. That way those pesky workers don't get to stay too long and demand more pay/benefits. Silly people that actually do the work to make us much richer, thinking money and benefits is for them don't they know that money and benefits are for us rich only. Its the workers job to do what we say for how much we say and be appreciative that we allow them to work for us to make us richer. They should be happy we allowed them to work for us for those 5 months. Hell workers should pay us to work for us

[@elCommandante263]

🎱

[@DemoEvolvedGaming]

I am willing to believe that MS mismanaged the Redfall studio so badly that all the good talent left and theres really nothing left to save. But I am not willing to believe that the HiFi Rush team was missing essential talent. I will never agree with the Tango shutdown, that is shame on MS.