Trying to Make Sense of the Xbox Studio Closures - Unlocked 644
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- čas přidán 7. 05. 2024
- Another devastating wave of Xbox layoffs results in the closure of three Bethesda studios, including the makers of last year's shadow-dropped hit Hi-Fi Rush and the decorated developers of Prey. We do our best to make sense of the move from Microsoft, a company that has spent the better part of the past decade trying to add talent and get more exclusive games on its platforms.
- Hry
The announcement couldn’t even get our studios name right… it’s “Alpha Dog Games”
Halo is my favorite franchise. But by going strictly with Xbox/Microsoft’s logic, 343 should have been axed a long time ago. Constant mishandling of the franchise for more than a decade now.
For all of 343i's faults (there's a lot of them), they've mostly put out financially "successful" titles. Their games were not as successful as they should be for such a big IP, but has brought in more $ than any of those 4 closed studios. Halo 4 sold somewhere around 8+ million units, Halo 5 sold 5+ million (not including MTX Lootboxes), and MCC at 1+ million (before PC launch). Infinite is probably the only one that financially faltered based on the "breakeven" comment post Mark V armor MTX.
@@DanIsJustDanFor the Halo franchise those numbers you listed are do not equal "success" we can t expect the same sales numbers from sth like hi fi rush. the last Halo games have been failures
@@23Amadeus92 As mentioned previously, 343i's games may not have reached the success as expected from the Halo IP. However, based on estimates (public statements, projected sales units, etc), it's not unfounded to say they were financially successful (revenue>expenses). At the very least, they were successful enough to not warrant a studio closure...although that was at a time when Xbox only had a few 1st party studios.
@@DanIsJustDanthe fact remains that 343 does get special treatment. Would coalition get a fair shake if they put out a half assed Gears right as Xbox was launching its flagship console? Would it take years of missteps to start firing people like it did 343? Money wise yes Halo has done ok but money means nothing if you tarnish the image and potential money you could make from a series. No reason that 343 should still be a thing or at the very least be the only dev handling Halo.
It’s only a matter of time. We can come back to this comment next year, well after 343i has been shutdown and the next Halo is indefinitely cancelled.
We’re waiting like 5-6 years for new halo and gears games. They took 9years to make crackdown 3. Could have made a Ryse son of Rome sequel. Could have brought Shadowrun from 07’ back. Mishandled Titanfall. Forza took 8 years to drop and was half finished. Everything is being mishandled. Meanwhile these tone deaf execs saw palworlds numbers and are probably putting all resources into that genre of game and losing focus again. It’s just all off and they need someone else in there to bring this thing back
Facts. SMH Microsoft needs to make some comeback
Need to be consequences for 9yr terrible games like Forza. Hippy happy land of everyone take ur time and create whatever u want is over. Just facts
Wow. Buy them up. Shut 'em down. Phil 'butcher' Spencer.
Its the new President.. Ole Phils hands were tied on this one...He wouldn't do Phil that dirty this quick.
Remember Ryse: Son of Rome Hellblade 2 fans?
This is what people were saying they would do after the acquisition. Not surprising to me.
It’s not surprising that the studio that made Redfall got shut down. But closing Tango seems insane.
PlayStation and Nintendo thrives because they have the big games, mixed with little ones and surprise games. A gaming company must have all those 3 types. A company cannot make only blockbusters.
Sony has been anti competitive since the introduction of the Xbox. Making it hard for Xbox to get games on the consoles. Threatening developers If their game come out on Xbox it cant come out for Ps2 ... Just all type of stuff its been a uphill battle. The studios that got closed down aren't making games that are being talked about tbh.
Playstation hasn't been very great this generation.
@@rcash3625 That tatic dont apply to the 360/Xone/Series does it?
@@BUPMY1 how when Microsoft brought once Xbox exclusives to PlayStation and you can use gamepass on damn near anything… Sony tried to require you to have a psn account for helldivers on steam nah it’s not the same completely different. Microsoft could not even get activision if they made the COD a exclusive… and they bought those studios meanwhile Sony has a monopoly on exclusivity
If one company is anti consumer then its sony XD
Phil Spencer does not believe that if they make great games it will change anything.
So, if that’s true, what are we still holding out for?
This right here!!!
Because after the PS2 Im not buying another sony PERIOD.
@@rcash3625why?
@@rcash3625 why?
@rcash3625 yeah please elaborate PS2 isn't normally the Playstation console people hate.
Xbox 360 era feels like a fever dream at this point !
The fact that Hellblade 2 hasn’t been advertised AT ALL for me, their prime audience, is bazaar
As a Digital Marketing Executive, I'm rolling in my wheely chair.
I'm amazed that Aaron is still around....
The shareholders are all that matter to these huge companies. None of us matter and until we speak up as consumers with our pockets this will never change.
Kind of the perk of investing millions into a company.... Yoou own enough shares you have a say wether you are a gamer or not. Most shareholders dont know whats best for the gaming community tho.
It also depends on how important that segment is to your overall company. Gaming is not a priority for Microsoft so they or the shareholders don't care about it whereas Nintendo is 100% a gaming company.
Best thing to do vote with your wallets.
Also these closures of the 3 studios, is just the tip more to come
The "stepping on rakes" metaphor unfortunately works time and time again because it means there are multiple issues Xbox needs to work out before they can walk a clear path. The "rake" is a symptom of deeper internal problems they've been struggling with since they lost the eighth generation to PlayStation (the Xbox One era). Unlocked went over a lot of them, but at this point, it really boils down to Xbox needing big, mainstream games that not only make a profit, but get the casual gamer interested in the Xbox brand, again. It really is that simple at this point, but unfortunately, with all of these compounding factors, it makes achieving this one simple goal that much harder. C'est La Vie.
Microsoft is going to test waters with COD, Elder Scrolls and Fallout. If these games don't move the needle for Xbox then Microsoft will probably get rid of Xbox.
@@daksans6764 or the xbox team becomes another sega
Phil showed us the evil within.
I'll keep playing Xbox games in my backlog but I'm getting all future games on PS5 from now on. Ghostwire Tokyo was such a cool game and the dualsense support makes it the best way to play it on console
I'm not buying another x box, that's for damn sure.
Go for Nintendo or pc then..
@@dusermiginte4647ps5 left out? Dang the hate is real
@@fabolousjada5070 better yet buy the OUYA😂
@@dusermiginte4647PC is king Nintendo is peasant
@@daksans6764 noted..
How it going today everyone have a great morning
Phil is a nice guy is such a weird thing to say when talking about firing entire dev teams. like any nice guy would let the dozens or hundreds of people involved have some advance notice rather than fire them by email.
So no he’s not a nice guy.
Its not Phil. Its the shareholders he answers too.
Most of the talent is sticking around, the management plus other administrative and marketing staff are getting canned. The project managers that worked on Redfall getting fired is not unjustified. Redfall was a complete failure.
phil didnt do this. he is a frontman they send in because then the evil company has a nice gamer guy image. its baiting studios into false security
It always gives people a cop out then that the problem with Xbox is just the leadership and not the problem with the whole brand and relationship with Microsoft. Microsoft don't care about gaming and never have, they are doomed no matter what unless cloud gaming takes off since that's the only Microsoft can leverage.
Microsoft is pushing and pulling levers behind the scenes. Xbox answers to them, Phil is the face and draws our ire, when it is actually his bosses causing the chaos and pain to the Xbox brand, employees and consumers.
Hifi rush probably was the best xbox exclusive this gen. Plus Tango being the only Japan studio. It just makes 0 sense.
So they’re basically just activision/ blizzard at this point lol. And activision/blizzard is just cod, overwatch/ and Diablo.
What makes it worse is that once microsoft acquired blizzard/activision they laid off 1900 employees. Then they go and do this and get rid of afew studios. They just buy and buy just to fire people and also get rid of studios. Ontop of that they don't do anything with the ones they already own and have them make no games. They are just in limbo until its their turn for the axe. This is why other countries held off on microsoft getting ownership of blizzard since they are trying for abit of a monopoly but once it went through they proved them correct and now they are throwing that weight around.
What is the medieval game shown around 21:45 ?
Fable Legends.
THE MOST BADASS INTRO EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Im just so over videogames anymore. If its not Call of Duty or Fornite its a failure and the stuidio shutdown. There are so many games out there that could use a touch up and quality of life improvements instead of these multi million dollar projects.
As a Game Pass and Series X advocate - if the PS5 Pro turns out to be excellent I'm so tempted to switch. This all angers me so much
Just have both loyalty is ridiculous
As a PS5 owner with Game Pass PC, there's no real war here.
you need a PS5 Pro to be convinced, dude the PS5 already has the best games this gen. Xbox problem is Phil Spencer.
@@Jeymezhe don’t want a pc whats the problem
Growth from the Activision blizzard acquisition would need to be gravy on top of the natural growth from the Xbox division. Not just a way to fake growth where it does not exist
27:30 Mikami didn't even direct The Evil Within 2, Hi-Fi Rush's director John Johanas did, so his leaving Tango likely would not have had any meaningful effect on a possible EW3 given how he spent 8 years building the studio before his departure.
Don Mattrick dug the hole and Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella put the Xbox brand in it
It's all but guaranteed Ninja Theory's days are numbered.
How is it that Redfall is laid at the feet of MS when...I don't know...Bethesda was there from the beginning? How about Arkane Austin? MS showed up 3 years into development.
Next year is the year 😅
That's our Motto in Cleveland..... 😅🤙
And after that will be the real big year
Wait till e3:)
Never played any of games from those studios but seem to ignore the fact of current times. Times are tough at the moment. Consumers are spending less or cutting back. Post COVID. We know in the tech space demand was high during COVID and in recent times there has been cuts in tech but also a lot of places.
Very naive for Ryan to think Sony has nothing coming later this year. The PS5 Pro is coming out this year and their First party studios delayed games last year so as to showcase it with the PS5 Pro.
Stop trying to compare this to the same as Sony. Sony might’ve laid off part of a studio, not entire Studios.
Destin what did you expect
They did close down London studio but ywa it's not as bad. They did sack 900 people but xbox atleast wants to win one award this generation , for being the biggest shitheads 😅
Xbox is going 3rd party...
😂😂😂
Really sick of Phil Spencer, ugh when will they learn
How about never?!
Genuinely starting to regret buying a Series X. My PS5 and PC has seen more use than that thing.
What is a “success” according to Xbox is the question
Apparently Hi-Fi Rush is
Lmao what is going in the background at Ryan’s place at the end of the
Honestly, if they get rid of Ninja Theory I’m gonna be pissed
Oh it hurts how little these people know how limited companies work....
The hands off approach worked for Sea of Thieves and Grounded but they need to be more hands on. Perfect Dark will probably be another Redfall. It’s too bad they can’t get that game right.
Its interesting that alot of people are only talking against Phil Spencer but not Satyella Nadella... Im more than sure they had talks about these studio closings before they occurred so figuring out their pros and cons list for it is what really matters instead of bashing Xbox without asking all the right questions.
Hifi Rush was awesome! Better than most AAA games. We need more of these creative titles.
Phil also said something you guys never mentioned and it's important that it was mentioned. He said they don't need great games to ship consoles......... seriously? Show me proof that strategy is working? I'll wait.......................................................................
basically they want to put everybody focusing on a new Fallout
Phil needs to go
if xbox has to "reprioritize funds" - WHY did they spend 80 BILLION on buying studios only to start closiing them........that makes NO sense.
Maybe they should rework gamepass a bit or something so they can get sales idk??
So all those accusations at Microsoft around their business model not being sustainable during the Activision trial ended up being TRUE. Listen I’m an Xbox gamer but they should have never bought Activision and Bethesda riding in on a white horse playing savior. The c suit execs get million dollar bonuses while everyone at those studios lose health care. So cool.
They're probably going to go hard on a fallout game to capture the rush of the show and want it in 5 years when season 3 comes out and possibly end the show where the game will start
The message is: build better games.
Ya liked phil now his smiling face just represents lies and false promise 😢
Tango and arkane what a big loss
Chat-GPT is taking over creating games for xbox😂
Imagine if the messaging was the games instead of a marketing spin lmao
The others are debatable but Tango shouldn’t have been axed smh. At this point if you work at Bethesda or under Bethesda’s umbrella you’re only safe if you work on elder scrolls, fallout, doom or wolfenstein lol
huge win for xbox
Xbox wanted Call of Duty and Candy Crush!! (Money) Studios came as part of the deal. You keep the financially sound studios and shut down the dead weight. What do you not understand? It's business.
Don't shave off the mustache. Wear that goatee with pride buddy!
"Priority games" are Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Candy Crush. That's it.
If Microsoft cared they would have bought back some of the shares and let the line drop temporarily without other people suffering so the buck probably stops with Microsoft ultimately. Isn't that what Apple just did?
Even great developers or other people with great talents will never be wanting to apply with this bad company.
Why didn't they just sell off the developers?
Thats it! Back to Winnepeg!
Kind of Microsoft in a nutshell. ...Id like to know if those profits are from Microsoft services like Office or from Xbox?
The next elder scrolls will come out close to the next witcher and get absolutely slaughtered sales and critically in comparison
The best thing about this whole video is that they're actually calling out Xbox and Microsoft, rather than sweeping it under the rug or down playing the seriousness of the matter. If more people actually did that then maybe some change could happen, especially if you voted with your wallets.
Here's the problem with Xbox and Microsoft. There not being bold. There not being agressive. There not being a trillion dollar games company! There not listening to there fanbase. There not listening to the people who buy there console! like what are they doing?
Management. Just management. You don't know nothing of management. You can't manage a company thinking only as gamers. They have to enhance efficiency all the time. The Market requires improvements and better results quarter after quarter.
Don't they need JAPANESE GAMERS, then why they closed Tango Studio it was one of my favorite 😢
Japan was literally the birth place of video games, so why did these money hungry pigs closed down their Japan branch just so they could make more money on a dead horse called Starfield?!
People are ignoring that when Mikami left Tango in 2023, he took the key people from Tango with him to form a new studio.
Tango became worthless without all the key people.
where are all the xbox consolidation clowns at now? Are they still hoping Microsoft buys Square Enix, Sega and Nintendo?
Xbox needs a new CEO, Phil Spencer needs to resign.
Why?
@@dusermiginte464710 years of no games ? 😅
@@fabolousjada5070 lol, what a joke.. Xbox have more games than pisstation.
@@dusermiginte4647 "pisstation" have big game after big game.... the "flop box" have flop after flop and evreyone is fired
@@Jpcraque "evreyone" doesnt think so.
Do you know Minecraft? COD? Forza? Halo? Starfield?
Wteff did playstation release last year except spiderman? Nothing?
This year, sony release nothing.
2025 nothing also?
they know there's a war coming
the xbox brand is dying slowly
Fire Stella and Ryan and make Destin host
Then they are lied last year about hi fi rush exceeding expectations. So they are lying about what the expectations were. Or what they expected
Classic Destin......
Xbox announces major studio closures.
"Well PlayStation did this toooooo"
Smh
These companies are not loyal
We talk about the Fallout show being huge. How do you not have Fallout 5 or New Vegas 2 or SOMETHING ready to go with that? Instead you pull a Bethesda and release a buggy mess update. Great job
TV studios don't care about game release schedules and Bethesda doesn't want to cannibalize Fallout 76 while it's making money and is working on three other games at the same time.
Who knew it was going to be huge? Could have been a dud.
stella is soooo stressed
Lol and there's plenty of stuff people dont like about what Microsoft\xbox is doing take the L's ryan and destin 😂
Hi, Ryan!
Vote with your feet.
Elon Musk should take over and reinvent Xbox
Stella!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but waaaait... Mighty Doom is a fun little mobile title why get rid of it? ... What about fallout shelter?
I'm going to buy Microsoft.
Try, its the biggest company on the planet..
@@dusermiginte4647 Yeah man, just watch. I'll shut them down as well.
@@xSavedSoulx not a member of Mensa, are you?
Hopefully Microsoft buy sony for 1/30 of Microsoft value and shut sony down.. 😂
Ow many jobs? Someone please say.
Phil just another Bobby wears a sheep suit 🐺 Xbox Furever😂
Oh no, anyways...
Xbox content creators had a blame too, you guys been covering Phil Spencer horrendous leadership for over 10 years. Phil Spencer was the worst thing that happened to Xbox. Xbox it's dying and you were accomplices
Phil Spencer is gonna save Xbox
He's gonna save it right into the ground
😂😂😂 10 years and what games that blew people minds have he gave you? Dont worry I’ll wait
Phil need to go, PS get rid of Jim, now its Xbox time to get rid of Phil
I’m still playing my Xbox and having fun. Life moves on
Why do we believe these mega corps especially xbox when since the xbox one have tbh never truly kept to their plans and promise ! Xbox has had constant bad news this year or even 95%
That nonsense Nintendo game should be free
This guy (the second appearing) looks like a toy. Even his hair approves of this comment.
Video game industry crash 2023 2024
Na just a Xbox crash
Hey.