Rumour: Rocksteady Founders Sign New Studio Game Deal With Xbox

Let's see how much of Xbox as a console is still remaining when this game comes out for the next generation...

Stuff like this excites me. Hopefully some of that original Rocksteady flavour is in here.

I don't understand the logic why they spend millions on third party deals like this yet closed Tango who they actually owned. Surely it would have been better to support their own studio and they would actually own whatever game is made including IP. Was it really worth all the backlash and ruined trust they received closing down.

Literally makes no sense to me when Tango already have proven they could produce good games of different types.

Another game from Microsoft gaming many years away and will be available on PlayStation as there won't be any exclusives by then.

@Kooky_Geezer Sony have been doing the exact same thing this year, closed London Studios and laid off people at some of their most successful studios including Naughty Dog, Insomniac and Gorilla Games whilst at the same time have been paying for '3rd' party exclusivity.
They are both multi corporations they obviously must both think whatever they are doing makes sense and it probably will.

@tho_mi I would stick to facts rather than believe rumours, and the fact is Microsoft themselves have already announced they are building their next gen console as well as other new Xbox related hardware.

@Sifi The only thing that makes sense why they closed Tango is staff wages are higher in Japan so cutting costs. It doesn't make it right when they are struggling to get Japanese games to even release on their platform.

Not a good look when they are throwing cash around after closing a studio that had released well received games and HI-FI Rush won an award the very thing they claimed they want.

Microsoft just copying Sony nothing new and Sony will also copy Xbox. I fear for the future of Xbox as it's becoming just Microsoft gaming.

@Sifi Not sure the closures of London and Tango are comparable considering London’s output over the past 20 years has been casual, VR, and EyeToy games whereas Tango’s output consisted of four good to awesome AAA titles.

Sounds a similar situation to the Avalanche made 'Contraband' game. MS, as a 'Publisher' is also there to help 3rd Party Studio's get the funding and support to release 'their' games. Its no different from Sunset Overdrive or Ori in essence.

You can talk about the closures of Tango or Arkane Austin for example, but why not also talk about the 'new' Studio's opened in the last 6months or so. Infinity Ward (Activision) opened a new Studio in Austin and Activision also opened a new Studio in Poland - Elsewhere Studios.

We don't know what state Tango or Arkane was in when acquired - but we do know Arkane lost a lot of Staff over Redfall and Tango lost its 'creator' of games like the Evil Within. Both may have needed 'huge' investment over the next 5+ yrs to get them up to a standard to produce AAA games - and 'neither' had anything in the pipeline, nothing yet started.

Still its more 'games' for Xbox that won't be on Playstation Day/Date so a 'reason' to buy Xbox Hardware....

Pretty hyped but still skeptical at the same time.

Sick of news like this about games that probably won't be out till at least five years from now if ever they better have good news for upcoming games this year the the big showcase drown out all this bull

@Kooky_Geezer It's actually cheaper to do a third-party deal than to keep a studio open.

That doesn't excuse or justify the closure of the studio, but I understand the logic.

Honestly, this is the kind of thing MS needs to do more of. They need to compete with Sony on this front far far more. And this is a good one imo. Excited to hear more about this.

And moves like this make zero sense if Xbox really was looking to go 3rd party. So just another piece of info that goes against those rumors.

@Kooky_Geezer just speculating but is it possible that after the studio head left Tango things had just been getting rough there? Like there’s a possibility that the studio was shut down for more reasons than just financial. Just speculation of course.

@xMightyMatt14x Of course that's possible but with all the silence from Phil and the management we will probably never know. It's a shame that they can't be honest for a change if they explained the reasoning maybe people would understand better. As it stands plenty of us are not happy especially if they are now throwing millions at third party games.

I don't think it was that bad there as they pitched to make Hi-Fi Rush 2 and and a immersive sim game. They did ask for more staff for the projects so an increase in costs. This points to it being more financial as wages are higher in Japan even Sony closed their Japan studio.

Interesting. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what they are cooking up.

@Kooky_Geezer I don't think they closed Tango because of high wages. The average salary for japanese game developers is 50-60.00 dollars, which is not a lot of money compared to US.

Microsoft just decided to divest from Japan because they didn't have any success to bring japenrse consumers to the XBOX platform. Japanese are very proud about their own culture, and they have a unique coporate culture in which they support each other. Especially on gaming, Japanese consumers are very dedicated for supporting their own gaming companies like Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Konami etc etc.

@Kooky_Geezer I believe it was more that Microsoft had no talent capable of taking over management in a Japanese studio. Now they are taking the reigns from Xbox they are looking to get more hands on with their studios and setting up a strong line of communication and management with tango was gonna be more effort than moronic msft corpos were willing to put in. Any of the likes of Phil Spencer, Matt booty are a dozen other Xbox people could've told them that's was public suicide.

@Kooky_Geezer There are factors we are not privy to. Our reaction is "why?!?" Tango made enjoyable games that unfortunately were not profitable even with being multi-platform. We wanted MS to keep them regardless. Decisions on these deals and closings are not happening as they are reported on game sites.

The timing of the studio closures was very close to the close of Microsoft's fiscal year (June 30) so that could be a factor as well. The little details provided indicated that both Tango and AA would have to staff up and spend 3-6 years developing additional title(s) that ultimately would not sell.

Whatever the cause, it was bad news. This compounded with the wild & reckless multi-platform rumors, eventual ports to rival consoles, and 5-month wait for a 1st party release damaged morale.

Cool that they have done a deal

If more deals like this had been made over the past 10 years Xbox would have probably had a much larger customer base.

Excellent news!
Hopefully it will be a GamePass day one release.

Guess we'll see it, 7 years from now...

Looking forward to seeing what mediocrity they can deliver in 2029

"We've made a start on the single-player action/adventure you expected us to release in 2019".