Microsoft has closed three of its developers under the Xbox Game Studios banner, including the BAFTA-winning Tango Gameworks, earning ubiquitous support online for their affected employees. Amid the firestorm of criticism, Microsoft announced the closures of five of its studios, including Tango Gameworks, the team behind Hi-Fi Rush, the best game of 2023.
When Microsoft announced that it was shuttering Tango Gameworks, and also Arkane Austin and a smaller studio, Alpha Dog Games, the closure was received with shock and dismay. Tango Gameworks had only just seen the release of its funky multiplatform rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush, which dazzled players and critics with its animation and music. The game was awarded multiple industry accolades and feted as one of the best Xbox games of the year.
Nowhere was his place in the industry more demonstrated than in a remarkable ‘good review bombing’ campaign on Steam for Hi-Fi Rush where more than 700 positive reviews were posted in the first three days, in a nod to Tango Gameworks’ farewell and as a very public expression of dismay at Microsoft’s actions.
Microsoft’s move to disband these studios and fire hundreds of people isn’t happening in a vacuum. There’s a larger trend of layoffs in the games sector, compounding a sector that’s always a volatile risk. If that’s what Microsoft is doing to its gaming business division, what exactly does Microsoft plan on doing with it anyway? After all, Microsoft posted record numbers last quarter, meeting and beating expected financial results. Once more, it has retained its title of one of the most valuable entities in the world.
With the closure of Tango Gameworks, the industry doesn’t just lose a game studio. It loses a creative voice, and that’s especially demoralising when said creative voice is creating much-loved innovations like Hi-Fi Rush. This Microsoft move not only cuts off the momentum of a high-performing team, it potentially throws away all the goodwill and trust that it has built up with its community.
But as the dust settles, the lingering question remains: what will be the longer-term impact of these closures on Xbox’s offerings, and Microsoft’s standing in the gaming world? The future of Microsoft’s strategy is a matter of great speculation – and worry.
In the centre of this swirling maelstrom of shutdowns is Microsoft, the tech behemoth and a juggernaut of gaming, in a larger context, a company with tentacles that reach very far, far beyond merely gaming, assuredly beyond interactive entertainment. After all, this is the company behind the Windows operating system that has invaded and infiltrated itself into our lives. It hasn’t neatly remained in a single lane there either. Microsoft has pivoted and diversified massively; so, in addition to its gaming sidelines of Windows, of which Xbox is a subset, it is over established in cloud computing, in artificial intelligence, and everything in between and beyond these spheres. All the companies mentioned reside at Microsoft. It really is an all-encompassing alien-invasion-esque Category Five typhoon in its sweeping span of disruption. So at its centre, its heart, Microsoft is just about unmatched in its reach through the sheer force of its density of influence, clout, and, of course, market share.
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