Xbox Closes Bethesda Studios, Including Redfall Developer Arkane Austin

Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda

Microsoft Announces Closure of Multiple Bethesda Studios Bethesda Studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more, have been closed by Microsoft in a devastating round of cuts.

• Alpha Dog Games, maker of mobile game Mighty Doom, will also close.
• Roundhouse Studios will be absorbed by The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios.
• The disastrous vampire co-op game Redfall will now not receive promised updates, including an offline mode and new character DLC, as Microsoft has ended all development on the game.
• Arkane Lyon, which is working on Marvel's Blade, survives the cull, as does Bethesda Game Studios (Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Starfield), and Machine Games (Indiana Jones and The Great Circle).
• Doom developer id Software is also unaffected.

Microsoft Statement on the Cuts In an email to staff sent by Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft blamed the cuts on a “reprioritization of titles and resources”. The email, verified by IGN, is below: >Today I’m sharing changes we are making to our Bethesda and ZeniMax teams. These changes are grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades. To double down on these franchises and invest to build new ones requires us to look across the business to identify the opportunities that are best positioned for success. This reprioritization of titles and resources means a few teams will be realigned to others and that some of our colleagues will be leaving us. Industry Impact of the Closures Microsoft's announcement of the cuts at Bethesda come over three months after the company announced plans to cut 1,900 staff from its video game workforce, and amid a boom time for Bethesda's Fallout series following the breakout hit Prime Video TV show. The closure of Tango Gameworks hits just over a year after the launch of Hi-Fi Rush, what many considered to be one of the best Xbox games in recent years. >Tweeting in April 2023, Aaron Greenberg, VP, Xbox Games Marketing at Microsoft, addressed concern that Hi-Fi Rush had failed to meet sales targets, calling the game "a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations." Greenberg continued: "We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release." Layoffs are sweeping the video game industry, with a number of high-profile studios cutting staff or shutting down. In stark contrast to a year of blockbuster video game hits, one of the biggest ongoing industry trends in 2023 was the prevalence of mass layoffs, and they have continued into 2024. While actual figures are difficult to obtain, estimates suggest the number of workers laid off in games last year approached or exceeded 10,000. A recent GDC survey of developers suggests one-third of all game developers were impacted by layoffs last year, either directly or by witnessing them happen at their company.