Bethesda's Arkane Austin is one of a few Xbox studios that will officially be shutting down following an unexpected piece of news that broke earlier today, and now the boss of Arkane Lyon has chimed in on the situation.
In an emotional thread on social media, Dinga Bakaba called the Xbox closures "absolutely terrible" and even went as far as stating that it's a "f***ing gut stab" to read. Here's part of his statement:
"Don't throw us into gold fever gambits, don't use us as strawmen for miscalculations/blind spots, don't make our work environments darwinist jungles. You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before."
"For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again, and it's a f**king gut stab. Lyon is safe, but please be tactful and discerning about all this, and respect affected folks' voice and leave it room to be heard, it's their story to tell, their feelings to express."
For those who aren't aware, Arkane Lyon is the team that was responsible for Deathloop and the upcoming Marvel's Blade game, whereas Arkane Austin (which has now closed) was responsible for Redfall and 2017's Prey.
Clearly there's a lot of sadness reverberating around the industry following this news (and all the other studio closures that have happened in recent months), and that includes a lot of disappointment and anger from Xbox fans as well.
How have you been reacting to this news? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 30
"You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before."
Well-worded and great point.
So Redfall wasn't the best. Prey was incredible. One game hits below expectations and they get axed? All the previous goodwill is wiped?
@EvenStephen7 Yeah, that statement almost put a tear in my eye... 😒
Well said Dinga! Also thought that the two posts from Thomas Mahler, the CEO of Moon Studios (Ori) were interesting too.
In the first he says THIS is why he never let Moon Studios get acquired by a big publisher... he saw what happened with studios acquired by EA in the 90s. Which might explain why Microsoft were never able to snap them up.
In the second he reaches out to anyone affected at Tango Gameworks and Arkane to send their CV to Moon Studios.
@EvenStephen7 Sadly, I think this is always what you are going to get with gaming development budgets so high and development taking so long. I hate it that Arkane Austin is closing-Prey is one of my all time favorite games-but when you make one game every seven years for millions and millions, each one better hit. Again, I hate it, but I actually thought Redfall doomed them a long time ago.
I think the industry we all enjoy needs to think about changing its model from 10 year huge game development cycles to 2-3 year smaller game cycles. I would rather have these studios stay open and together making high quality smaller games than releasing a huge game every decade that HAS to hit or else.
I hope all impacted find new jobs soon, but from a gaming perspective the closing of Tango hurts me the most. To me, Evil Within, Ghostwire and Hi-Fi were all spectacular, and they still get closed. I was expecting Austin to close, as messed up as the model is. But I was expecting lots more good stuff from Tango.
Hoping he still has a job after saying something (awesome) like that
Well said. Unfortunately, he's probably getting fired or demoted for speaking up :/
I can’t carry on with Xbox anymore. I have tried to defend and make sense of their decisions but I just can’t anymore. They are literally the utter sc*m of the gaming industry.
Bond, Booty and Spencer should be collecting P45’s not bonuses.
Utterly disgusting behaviour.
I feel that the current trend of game making is fatally flawed and poor. I'm actually put off by new games because they're so huge (map wise). AC Syndicate is a big map but that borders on too much for me. I really think that getting bigger maps each time is not a good model & only drags dev time further along. I'd rather the maps be smaller but more focused. Just because we can build & create huge worlds doesn't mean we should.
I miss games like Wet, Remember Me, Fallout 3, Arkham City/Origins & RDR 1 in terms of gameplay & sizes. Great games aren't always sprawling maps & aren't reliant on collectibles to get around.
I still can't believe they're doing this to a superb developer like Arkane. The Dishonored games were excellent, and Prey was terrific as well.
Not being smug as i'm gutted at these closes especially Tango but there you go people MS buying up gaming was a terrible thing, their true colours are on full display here. MS really are like hold my beer to Sony for being an awful greedy corp.
am i the only one who didn't care for dishonored and prey but loves redfall after the 60 fps patch?
@DennisReynolds "MS really are like hold my beer to Sony for being an awful greedy corp."
That's really it. I want to pick one or the other and I can't. I genuinely hate them both. Xbox was a great underdog until the ABK buyout. Then they restructured everything, MS corporate took over, and it went right back to Matrick era. I can't pick a favorite platform anymore, I just begrudgingly use platforms I hate. And the alternative on PC costs 8x more and with Steam...well...Gabe isn't going to live forever.....we can guess what happens to Steam when he's not around to protect it. And for that matter, Steam isn't as saintly as everyone believes either.
i think the bubble burst, all the frustration towards how xbox is handled is coming out.
cancel the xbox event for next month. cancel the next xbox console. sell your game ips. good riddance xbox.
we had enough!
I wholeheartedly agree with Dinga Bakaba's sentiment here. Microsoft needs to foster the talent (and IP) it has, not cut it out.
MS really is all-in on their tutorial on “how to ruin and utterly destroy your brand in less than 6 months!”
Hes not wrong. Very well said
Glad he has the courage to publicly say what he said. I hope there is no retaliation for it.
@rustyduck "am i the only one who didn't care for dishonored and prey but loves redfall after the 60 fps patch?"
Yes.
/s Glad you liked it but give me the other two games anyday over Redfall.
Could they not just merge the two arkane into one, instead of closing one?
How many people are losing their jobs this time?
Interesting ( not in a good way) that they aren't spouting numbers this time!
The Lion has woken.
Sorry. I was completely serious on the first thread, so I didn't want to repeat what I said. Basically, that something is wrong in this industry. It's not an "Xbox" problem.
I have supported xbox this generation but this is the end of my support. Time to play pc games over consoles bye bye ex box
I honestly thought Microsoft acquiring these Studios was a good thing. But I was wrong. I thought Microsoft had the money to keep these studios up and running. But guess I was wrong.
@Gloki_junior I also tried to support the xbox this generation. The xsx was the first xbox I ever bought. And Microsoft pooped on my expectations lol. I got rid of it and built a gaming pc last year. And will stick to PC from now on..
Totally agree with what he said… quite the perfect description of corporate greed and the byproduct of bad corporate decisions but the brunt of all the risk being taken resulting in closures and firings. All the while the executives getting bonuses probably…
@rustyduck Gotta admit, I do like Redfall a lot. Definitely more than most.
folks, pc is just another xbox. a very expensive xbox. i just hope ps6 isn't over 1k monies.
@MaseSco I thought the Sleeping Dogs map was the right size
The more moves Xbox makes the more it makes me glad I jumped ship after the 360 era.
@Vipor007 Interesting, I have that on my Steam list so good to know it's a good map to explore. Thanks!
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