Xbox Has Destroyed It's Reputation
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- čas přidán 8. 05. 2024
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Bad times at Xbox, and just after today's story, we found out insiders believe even more cuts are to come.
Sources:
www.ign.com/articles/microsof...
www.gamesindustry.biz/call-of...
/ 1787880335939961162
/ 1787894632577114298
www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
www.theverge.com/2024/5/8/241...
www.gamesindustry.biz/pete-hi...
/ 1787837762588008903
www.ign.com/articles/arkane-a...
www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
/ 1649431572137779203
/ 1778527499032694987
www.ign.com/articles/shinji-m...
www.windowscentral.com/gaming...
/ 1787841717690937533
/ 1787845237878247683
/ 1787839171266015380 - Hry
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Please fix your mic holding band. its not on the corner like the other 3... Please...
i dont get this. am i suppose to get mad because people got booted?
@@darugdawg2453 The problem isn't that you don't get it. The problem is that you seem to think it's a good thing you don't get it and that somehow your absence of empathy, foresight and analytical skills makes you superior. Fascinating.
as you did, long before this clip
remember folks , no ceo's were hurt in the making of this program
Welp, there's your problem.
*Only Ceo's.
Sucks for the rest of the 99% :)
More like No Leadership pockets were injured in the making of decisions.
a company can fire people for any matter. even a ceo. welcome to the fuking real world.
This is painfully obvious how to fix but it takes a big multi-billion dollar corporation bent on ideology to avoid addressing the real issues in the room.
Customers make your company money.
That makes shareholders happy.
Make good games and listen to real customers, and you'll be successful.
Its that simple and funny enough exactly what they haven't been doing.
Oh well. I guess.
At least the CEO's are all safe. Thank god!
Amen!
Matt Booty is the CEO responsible for this, he should have been fired.
Sony : almost killed Helldivers 2
Xbox : Killed HiFi Rush's Tango Softworks and bled Arkane Austin to death
PC : *GabeN doing nothing and winning*
is this fake outrage?
You do realize the CEO is also responsible for the successful studios too right?
Microsoft did what Microsoft does best:
Embraced the competition by buying it
Extended the competition by shoving them into Game Pass
Extinguished the competition by killing off the studios
like they have been doing for 30+ years. Of course we should have less of the _alleged_ blackmail and extorsion from the 90s but the MO is still the same.
Once they buy the competition, they're no longer competition. The problem is microsoft buys companies that are struggling and looking for a buyer... then Microsoft never goes in and fixes what was causing them to struggle in the first place. Redfall being a perfect example. ActiBlizz and Bethesda too. They buy these giant companies and just go "welp we brought you now so that solves the problem you were having so don't fail!"
Because less games allows Microsoft to make better games like... uh...
Haven't heard that one in a few years.
@@thacoolest13 I don't think Hifi Rush developer was struggling...
They've made it IMPOSSIBLE for them to praise any release and have it sound sincere. Tango Studios gave Xbox a completely unexpected runaway hit. Xbox executives praised the hell out of it for six months. And then they shut the studio down. Now, every time they talk up the numbers of *any other release*, the immediate response from anyone hearing it will be "well yeah, that's what you said about Hi-Fi Rush."
As gamers, we must perpetuate this reminder.
"We feel so understaffed that we need some layoffs" is definitely one of the explanations of all time.
You close the studios making shitty games, keep the really good devs and assign them to other understaffed projects. Makes sense to me.
@@Lee-km7qq Except for Tango game, as it not actually going anywhere, they were layoff, despite making one of the best Microsoft published games of 2023. Actually, nothing makes sense regardless. A lot of these things can be avoided when the moment they bought Bethesda. Manage your studio and fix the problem they been having! Being obvlision or ignorant of such issue doesn't make things better.
Name me one really good studio@@Lee-km7qq
@@Lee-km7qq 343 is still around so your "logic" is stupid, Arkane literally only had one bad game, redfall, and Tango had ONLY good games.
Spending money on anything Xbox feels legitimately immoral to me now.
Good. Hopefully more and more people have this take. Down with AAA studios. May only the fittest survive!
They are so bad
i dont understand the hate. i get PlayStation forcing players hate but i dont know bout this one
@@darugdawg2453Typical Xbot response. It's only bad when Sony does something.
@@darugdawg2453because apparently requiring PSN account is more evil than closing great studios. Lol tf is with this logic bruv?
Xbox and Sony both have outdone themselves in recent weeks.
I still find it entertaining how the top management can be so blind and disconnected from the fanbase, if my expectations was not already so low I would've thought both Sony and Xbox was deliberately attempting to ruin their name and reputation in some kind of insurance scheme.
My ass is still chapped over the cancellation of *Scalebound* and more recently with how Halo Infinite was mishandled.
At least Sony rectified the situation, which granted could have been easily avoided but still, while Microsoft basically erased the studios they spent BILLIONS to acquire for having exclusive games.
@@stefanradebach2889 why would you keep trash. i wouldn't.
They have indeed
A lot of these gaming companies have gotten so big and lethargic they are rotting away like the Roman Empire
That sounded cool ngl
It's beautiful to watch tbh
I mean, hey, even the biggest of empires eventually collapse. Right?
And corrupt with a few hogging up all the wealth and letting the rest wither away.
So the entire "AAA" segment of the gaming market is eating itself alive because line don't go up fast enough. And people still support these corporations / groups?
Let them cannibalize themselves I say and the gaming industry will be better off with the indie market leading the way
@@zapermunzcorruption runs deep. Indie companies have to resist when suits come around to try to acquire them. And we as consumers need to pay attention. When good companies get bought by bad companies. The good companies are no longer good.
If people were supporting these studios en masse, the line would have gone up. AAA is dying slowly, but it is dying. Indies are alive and well. As indies grow we'll get a few good years of good high-budget games before the corruption sets in all over again.
@@SkorjOlafsen
It truly is a curse, man is incapable of changing his nature.
Thats pretty much it, yeah...
-Buy the market
-pretend you don't have a Monopoly of said market
-let the studios "fail"
-disband them
-sit on the live services games that remain and charge a subscription to access them, whilst pretending they're "free to play"
-Put insane monetisation tactics in said live service games
-profit
What is weird is the assumption that the game market is inelastic.
Cross out the profit step and you're correct.
lmao you think they would let a studio fail? That makes no sense whatsoever. As someone in business, I can tell you, no company purposefully allows their studio to fail. Those studios failed because their games were trash.
@@Lee-km7qqshadow dropping Hifi and putting it into gamepass? Allowing redfall's further development?
Is it more acceptable that xbox leadership is incompentent or they're just hoping for any reason to cut these studios of because they were just interested on bethesda stuff. Much like the activision blizzard acquisition? That shit is just for CoD
Lol have you played any games from these studios to call them trash? Effin genius take
@@Lee-km7qqWho asked to make Redfall to single-player studio? That's right! MF MICROSOFT!
It's almost like they asked to make ice cream to pizza restaurants, and you said they don't fail purposely?
Why is it that C-suite executives are always able to fail upward, burning everyone below them in their path, while raking in millions for themselves?
Because its easier to eat tomatoes than it is to grow them...
Because America
I guess the real reason is because there is no accountability to the people who actually work below you, and the investors never give a shit and never understand the long term picture. It's part of the reason for enshittification of everything these days, shareholders caring only about "line go up" in the short term. Bobby Satan of actiblizz can just say "I made the stock go up" and he'll get another cushy job.
It's a feature of capitalism.
It's called promoting to the height of their competence. People who do their job well, get promoted. Eventually they reach a point where they have been promoted one time too many and they can't do their jobs, but they're not quite incompetent enough to be fired or demoted, so they just sit their being useless, where they would have been very successful if they'd just refused that promotion and stayed in the jobs they were good at.
Corporate mergers are bad for the gaming industry? Consider me shocked at this ground breaking knowledge. I had no idea that chasing endless profit would damage the integrity of the products sold, or the companies chasing them
To quote a certain Ghoul: "There's what people said they did and then there's what they actually did.
People who work for billion dollar companies will always say what you want to hear while doing completely different. Never trust a PR spin, always hold their feet to the fire.
Phil Spencer taking the Xbox brand from being the consumer friendly 1st party giant that it was with the 360 to the corporate unicronical overlord that gives nothing and consumes everything with microtransactions on the Xbox One after getting absolutely smashed by the PS2 will be studied for generations.
I dont think shipping defective consoles was consumer friendly, so did charging for multiplayer connectivity but hey.
@@FlameOfRoyeca Multiplayer was the bonus. Don't act like you didn't enjoy the free monthly games that didn't require a constant subscription to play.
@@dindunuphenwong No, no i didn't. Because I'm not big on multiplayer. Problem is they propagated this bull in the console space, Playstation followed suit. While im not a fan of multiplayer stuff, I would have wanted coop in games like Monster Hunter from time to time. But i have pay for coop for some reason. I dont see the value because it's free on PC, like it should be.
It's not free, you're paying for solution to a problem they created. They threw in free games you cant access after your sub expires so you dont feel screwed over, although you really were screwed over XD
@@FlameOfRoyeca Incorrect. Free games on the Xbox 360 were always playable without subscription. That changed with the Xbox One. That is a lie.
Its been said before, but I think its crazy how studios with successful games also got shut down. There was an article that said something like "If failure and success is rewarded the same way, why should we care?", and that's so true. I just want Xbox to be successful, but I don't know if Xbox wants to be successful.
I don't think they do. They seem so invested in failing.
even if hi-fi rush is not the success Microsoft wanted, they have call of duty, elder scrolls, and fallout. i think they should handle one shadowdropped AA game. but modern capitalism doesn't allow us to have good things yeah...
@@heroicgangster9981We all know cod, elder scrolls, and fallout will keep making money. But all of those communities are still starved for quality and passion. 2 ingredients that have been missing for over a decade. The next titles in these franchises are not going to be very good. And eventually even the normies/sheep/fan boys will get tired of them too. Eventually.
Rewarding success and failure the same way is exactly what Marxism/Socialism/Communism look like, and far too many people still think they're viable (or even preferable) economic models, so... I dunno. The world has just gone stupid on nearly every conceivable metric.
@@HickoryDickory86 I think blaming capitalism and communism is trite, and we now need to blame bad bosses who work their subordinates like dogs and then fire them/shut down their studios.
During the Medieval eras, nobility avoided calling for the death penalty on any other nobility except in the most extreme circumstances because it would set a precedence for the rest of them. If you understand this, you’ll understand why executives rarely face consequences for their mistakes
I mean its also why presidents up to this point dont go to jail either the same generally with ceos unless they scam other people in their same class
Ahh the classic "suits fuck up so developers lose their jobs" have to love the gaming industry.
Here's hoping Uncle Phil is finally seen as the corporate vulture he was behind the gamer mask all along.
I've never trusted him. He used to say that gamers Dont care about higher resolutions than 720 p and 30fps.
Arguably the worst part is the reasoning: "Prioritizing high-impact titles ... further investing in blockbuster games ... double down on those franchises".
The big budget titles the industry constantly tells us aren't sustainable? MS future are those but even bigger.
Good
Their blockbuster games are terrible and make no money though. These execs are so out of touch.
@@coltonwilkie241 And they don't do anything to rectify that. Like what was done to the idiotic leadership at Bethesda that was responsible for how Starfield turned out?
Both Sony and Microsoft don't seem to get that you need both big and small first party titles. There is a reason Nintendo publishes several 3 mil max selling franchises on top of stuff that breaks 10 million.
Why is this hard to get? Nintendo is the most profitable company, game or otherwise, in all Japan. You'd think they would be the guys who know how to handle consoles.
"We need smaller games that get us prestige and awards"
*Kills the studio that made Hi-Fi Rush*
I really fear that Ninja Theory is next. There's been no advertising at all for Hellblade 2, and it comes out in two weeks. They're going to release it with little to no advertising, it will "underperform", and Ninja Theory will be shut down even if it reviews well. That's my fear.
I didn't like the first gane. Did it even sell well to begin with?
@@via_negativa6183 For the type of title they created, I would say, yes. By June 2018 they sold 1 million copies (break-even point was at something like 500000). But, a title like this will, unfortunately, remain niche. So I am sceptical they will do better than Hi-Fi Rush's numbers. And if everything needs to be measured by the Call of Duty measuring stick, well, good luck to all those studios with similar "niche" games.
Nobody like Hellblade. Thats why there is no advertising for it. There is a small amount of "fans" of first game that could lead to profit of the 2nd one.
But since NOBODY cared about first one, nobody played it. Nobody wants to advertise second one.
NT made like 2 games in their whole life.
DmC remake that noone cares now and noone liked.
Hellblade that people say it's "VERY GOOD" yet no one played or bought it( in commecial amount)
And people try to blame operating cost on Suits?
Even belluar in his video says that BETHESDA DIDN'T ABANDON FALLOUT 76 and they "imroved" over a years. and SOME peopel are enjoying it now.
Is it really worth in terms of operating costs? To have a division to improve a game 98% of gamers don't care about and wont every buy?
3 out 4 closed divisions are worthless even to us, gamers. They didnt produce anything of value in years for us thus nothing of value has been lost to us.
I watched some videos of Hifi rush , i mean it's decent game. Would i WANT TO SEE hi fi rush 2 or anything like that? I don't think so.
People try to make big deal out of hi rush studio when it fact it actually isn't.
It's decent game but do you actually want to spend money on this studio as a buisness owner? I woudn't. There was no commecial succes. No big player number. Nothing. Just a good game like a Hellblade for a small group of people.
Also if Hellblade WAS( it wasnt) good game in all terms - why it took them 7 years to make a second part WITH MONEY FROM MICROSOFT?
Image if microsoft didn't buy such an amazing studio.
Where would they get their money to make second one?
Bethesda has been hot garbage for quite awhile now.
Redfall, Halo Infinite, Starfield, and so on. How much money is being burned and wasted on these mishandled mediocre games, as well as buying out all these studios only to close them down after doing little to nothing worthwhile with them?
[EDIT/EXTRA]: Also, it's funny how these studios are getting canned yet 343 Industries hasn't. Though that's likely due to its long-overdue restructuring not too long ago, they still need a team to keep milking Halo, and I also suspect a name change of 343i to distance themselves and fans alike from the funk of that team's former identity...
Actually valid 343i has been a consistently incompetent studio putting our mediocre games almost since its inception. With only one decent game unde their belt that's a spin off of what their supposed to be doing.
Say it louder for the ppl in the back! 343 has literally fumbled 3 different bags lmao
Microsoft, a trillion dollars company, is proof that having a lot of money doesn't make people smart or competent, just greedy and scummy
Yeah I don't get that either, they should of easily been added to that list.
Starfield unfortunately made a return on investment it sold good in the short term
They talked about other projects, what other projects? Are they gonna salvage Starfeild, rush out ES6 or Fallout 5, and they hoping Obsidian can carry when Bethesda fumbles. Do they expect gears 6 a halo 7 and or a doom 3 to compensate for overwatch2 struggles? I just have to ask what are they supposedly focusing on because I can’t really look to what Microsoft has and see anything.
Avowed won't sell as well as CoD and it seems niche so obsidian is in a very precarious position, same as ninja theory if hellblade 2 isn't that big of a hit.. the lack of marketing is very concerning
Yeah I'd watch the guys over at Obsidian closely. When Microsoft throws a hail Mary and closes it down. We have to keep track of where the devs go, because they make decent games. Not Xbox, not Microsoft
Your fogetting they been working on the Outers Worlds 2.
Mobile market 🤣 unfortunely...
There is also insider information from a Minecraft developer thst is circulating in the community that Microsoft is forcing developers to use more AI and that the developer is therefore very against MS. It could also be that studios that are against AI will be closed. It also sounds plausible when you consider that MS is closely linked to OpenAI and Windows has more and more AI things with it.
Maybe letting Kotick ride into the sunset with about half a BILLION dollaridoos in bonuses wasn't the brightest idea.
Bobby won. Everyone else lost.
Microsoft got Bobby "the Devil" Kotick his new yacht.
AAA has become inflated with the influx of investor cash from the speculative market over especially the last decade and now that those investments have dried up in the face of increased interest rates. We are seeing the dire consequences on many of the studios that were bought out by their publishers or holding companies like Embracer. I really think we need some kind of collapse at the top end. Someway to get the investment capital that leads to trend chasing looter shooters out of the market. I'm tired of playing clear a camp, loot a gun with bigger number, climb a tower, reveal the map, collect a doo-dad, and get a blue gun with an even bigger number the game over and over. I'm tired of hearing about the buzzword of the year from every studio. Oh we're making a hero shooter, oh wait nvm it's a battle royale, oh those aren't as popular anymore so it's an extraction shooter now! I hate it and want a breathe of fresh air rather than every studios variation on the same fucking thing.
I feel the industry is too big to completely collapse like 1983 because now more than ever there is a large presence of independent studios making great games and self publishing them online without selling themselves to Embracer Group. All I know is I wouldn't be suprised if we eventually see a publisher like EA or Ubisoft drop a few "ET" tier stinkers that tank their rep and company into an irrecoverable death spiral. Maybe BF 2042, and Skull and Bones are the start of that. One can only hope 🤣
Agree with a lot of that. I'd add the consumer has agency in all this and one can't really blame capital for trying to give customers what they want. I don't like it either but there is an argument the industry needs the rationalisation it is undergoing - it's impossible to sustain too many failing blockbusters (there isn't endless capital to waste). And consumers are both fickle and demanding, even as development and running costs rise and complexity increases. Tough to keep committing to hundreds of millions of dollar needed to launch something that might easily flop.
I feel the same as you about all the shooters (and much else besides) btw. :D
Is it just me, or does this feel more like an oil cartel pump and dump strategy
How the hell do you go out of the hardware market sadder than Sega?!
Atleast sega is still making some nice games
Sega actually likes to make games and allow their studios to make games (well recently... the Sonic franchise was gonna go down the toilet if the movie failed) like with ATLUS being allowed to make the games they want
Im hoping MS and Sony get out of the hardware industry they both suck.
Xbox has destroyed it is reputation. Nice Title. But also agree.
MS already destroyed their rep... where have you been? Not to mention both Acti-Blizz and Beth have destroyed their own Rep as well. RIP.
Now their all one big messy clump of bad reputations and mis-handled IPs
You are what you eat, eh?
Micromanagement, telling the designers/engineers etc how to do their job, and having issues with anything they actually make from creative ingenuity cuz "Agendas/Graphs"....
It's like how the tv industry is with writers, animators, producers you name it. Only way to stop these fools is to invest in the private market i.e. actual Indie devs who ARE GAMERS.
The Golden Age happened..... something better is long overdue!
@@GangnamStyle33 Agreed, I am no longer purchasing products from the companies I mentioned. My last one was last year.
Why compete when we can just buy the competition?
The opposite of a free market sadly
Bethesda: Starfield: A Meh game for a majority of the players. Does not close.
Blizzard: Overwatch2: Do I need to say more? No one is fired.
Blizzard: Diablo Immortal and 4: greedy and horribly monitized. Gets bonuses.
Activision: Call of Duty 2 and 3 remake: both have a very negative score on steam. Keeps crankin them CoD's out.
Arkane: First big developmental failure after a string of decent games: Closed!
Tango: Hifi Rush: a brilliant game with amazing mechanics, fun gameplay, hilarious story, awesome sounds track, got amazing reviews and loved by almost everyone: Closed!
Bethesda: Starfield has sold millions of copies.
Blizzard: Overwatch 2: Is still making money (but not as much as before).
Blizzard: Diablo Immortal and Diablo 4 making hundreds of millions and keep making bank to this day.
Activision: CoD 2 & 3 both sold well and still make money to this day.
Arcane: None of their games keep raking in the cash as they were never massive hits, and they made next to no money after the initial sale.
Tango: Hifi Rush is an industry darling, but not a smash hit that keeps raking in cash.
Good or bad games, it does not matter. All that matters is "does it make money". People keep buying digital tat in games, so companies will keep feeding the whales that keep transaction-filled games profitable for years.
*The people buying in-game tat are the problem. They create a market where anything else has so much less potential for profit that not making live-service, transactionfilled skinnerboxes disguised as games is just not a viable way to do buissnes as a publicly traded company. Sad, but true. Money speaks, quality does not matter.* ☹
Thata because they did not bring in the money they wanted. The game can be great but when noone is buying it or play, they dont care if it was good. It was a smaller game with no service attached at these CEOs and shareholders dont want that.
And as long as people give the game negative feedback and reviews but still buy everything from the super duper giant vundle for 300 bucks and buy all microtransactions... then they won in their books.
Its the money that tells the truth. And the truth is people say the one thing but act the other way. In this case: "new COD bad, not gonna buy it" but then doing so anyway... thats what tells Microsoft/ activision that the player wants that.
Just like the exclusives change, this isn't Xbox, this is MS. Satya undermining Phil to appease the shareholders.
A lot of the studios cut were struggling even under Zenimax long before Microsoft acquired them. Didn't help they were overseas studios.
A pity the Japanese aren't as prone to Twitter tell alls about behind the scenes problems
If they had closed 343 instead of Tango, people would be happy intead of angry....
You know maybe Studio Heads wouldn't feel so strapped for cash if they stopped giving themselves all of it. Like imagine if the money they spent went BACK into the studio. IMAGINE.
I remember that one guy from Larian Studios saying the firings was just the beginning, and I don't think this was the end yet.
SONY ruïned their name as a publisher with Helldivers II,
Microsoft tops that with all these firings and closings of amazing studios and employed talent.
Morale at many acquired studios is going to be at an all-time low for a while, which will naturally decrease the quality of the products. Not to mention that many smaller studios will now be way more reluctant in acquisition deals to even end up like this in the first place.
Both SONY and Microsoft have completely ruïned their image with this and it will take a good while before any decent studio will allow themselves to be acquired again in the future.
It is kinda funny that Nintendo Switch being a 9 years old console with a 720p graphic is murdering Sony and Microsoft.
Nintendo seems to understand their target audience and give people who spend money on their products what they want.
Sony and Micosoft keep trying to fish for the next Fortnite or Call of Duty.
Yep. They know you need big games. They know you need small games. They know that graphical arms races are pointless. They aren't trying to run 57 live services at once. They know to invest long term.
It's almost like they know to be a first part developer or something
Tango made bangers,Arkane only had a stain that most likely were forced to make back when it was own by Zenimax, and they got the axe. Meanwhile,343 Industries got like 3 chances in a decade and still are mediocre at best,and finally that Infinite is getting good, they announce its last year of support
This is how you loose talent and loyalty from employees. Make LITERALLY a GOTY does not gurantee crap, it dependes on what IP you messing with.
This stinks of ´Close studious so the next quarter looks better´ type of deal
I have an affinity for Xbox but my God they squanderd all the success and goodwill of their early years. Never recovered from their Xbox One trajectory.
The way I see it. Buying studios to then dismantle them or destroy them. Is an investment towards getting rid of competition. Vying for people's wallets.
I used to work for an Activision studio, we were working on something great, a smaller but really fun and special game. CoD was late on their annual forced release, they shut down our game and switch everybody on CoD. The game was never announced, never started again, no reason for people to be mad about it since they didnt even know it existed.
Yeah... I USED to work for Activision.
You know something is fucked up when they close a studio after they make a successful hit games. I blame game pass for that Studio closing. That studio was worth what 4 billion? This is a $3.3 trillion fucking company. They couldn’t keep them around? How pathetically sad.
The AAA gaming crash is wonderful to watch lol and a long time coming.
Man both Xbox and Sony taking big L's in the same month....
Video games, They're art. They're for the sake of itself.
Treating them as a business, Is not art.
Video games as a business will always fail.
That's the way it should be and one of many reasons we need to fuck capitalism off and build a socialist world. But we live under capitalism and greed rules. Corporations are literally bound by law to maximise their returns to shareholders above all other considerations, such as treating their workers well and giving a fuck about anything that has real meaning.
Both PlayStation/Sony and Xbox/Microsoft are racing to see who can circle the drain fastest. Whether it be corporate shenanigans or low quality products.
While Nintendo has its own problems, but at least they consistently make quality products. With a few exceptions, like the new Pokémon games.
Of the three, Xbox seems to be speeding to that drain with unparalleled fervor. Xbox is directing their speedboat toward that whirlpool, PlayStation's paddling toward it with their oars, and Nintendo's just floating there, going down last because they're not actively sabotaging themselves.
I don't know what reputation you're talking about. Lost it ages ago.
When I hear "big corpo closed studios they bought", it just feels like the dystopian usual. I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that this is getting push-back, let alone so soon after Helldivers.
LOL they are the hound dog that chased the car, caught it, and then didn't realize it would keep moving and has a price to hold on to it....
Once again, these decisions aren't about getting an arrow to switch from going down to going up, it's about making the arrow go up faster. That's all this is. We aren't making *enough* money. Eventually they're going to find out that the arrow can't go up forever. I think we may be near that point.
Multi-trillion dollar company.. TRILLIONS of dollars, and they're still willing to kill people's livelihoods for the sake of chasing infinite growth...
I'll be honest, I think they cut Tango Gameworks off because Shinji Mikami was gone and they only acquired it to get him.
i think shinji heard about it and bailed before it happened.
Prestige and awards is just corpo talk for MONEY. "We want you to make smaller mobile games that dont take much money to make but makes a lot of it."
What the heck are they doing? Did they just buy up these companies all so they could destroy them and try to funnel players into Call of Duty because the players no longer have other potential IPs to go to and play? :/
Bellular said many may time, their ultimate goal is "Lines go up". While they are losing money on making game, they are making more money fleecing investors.
News "Microsoft acquires Activision". Stocks goes up!
"Microsoft laid off 1400 employees to trim fat" Stock goes up!
You're surprised? Microsoft has been acquiring other companies and dissolving them for decades. Not new, not surprising.
¨Nintendo Switch Has Games¨ had a lot more truth than anyone expected it to be.
At least nintendo isn't buckling down from the pressure of AAA gaming standards. The most they buckle is when Nintendo sells $50 games (DO NOT BUY THOSE unless if it's a remake) and sports games that are intentionally unfinished at launch.
Yeah. It's almost like Nintendo knows what it's doing or something.
They’d have been thrilled with Hi-Fi Rush. They know what you do with a game like that.
As scummy a company they can be, they do indeed have games.
@@markguyton2868 Geeze, are the PC players still upset that no, frame rates are not an excuse to pirate games in a legal sense?
I'm sorry, but when it comes to managing a first party lineup, and frankly at this point a video game company with multiple game franchise getting games, you do have to look at Nintendo. Are you upset that WB only wants to make live services? That Activision only makes COD? That Sony only does giant games? Well sad to say, your options are limited at this point. Frankly it seems like you only have Capcom or Nintendo to choose from at this point.
@@krspaceT1 I love Nintendo, but I do know they do a lot of anti-customer practices like all the other AAA devs, the same goes with Valve on the PC end. The difference is they seem to actually care about more things than just "line go up".
To answer your questions, No, i don't care if the mega corpses make these decisions, they have the right to fail like any other company. If Nintendo started making equally dumb decisions, let them fail as well.
Also, I've never played any games from these other AAA companies besides Overwatch 1, so there's that too.
You may have liked Prey, but how well did it sell? I see numbers of like 600,000-700,000 units.
with arcane I can understand shutting down after red fall but Tango makes no sense what so ever after making one of their most successful games in years and wanting to make a second one
its a case of ensemble studios making halo wars which was successful then shutting down right after
@@joshallen128 I thought that was because they didn't have the rights to make it
@@dragonofdragons1720 ensemble was owned by Microsoft who owned Bungie well Bungie went independent in 2007 so Microsoft kept Halo ip and 343 was founded in 2007 but ensemble did a halo game and went defunct. Successful game not successful dev anymore
Hopefully Phil doesn’t go on the apology tour again
Activision loves call of duty because its audience is easy to exploit... They can put Goku, Kirby and Omniman there, and the audience will keep giving money. Who doesn't want easy cash like that?
HiFi Rush dies so Starfield could live, it was *not* a fair trade.
Gotta love a redundancies announcement that harps on about the exciting new opportunities it opens up. Sat through a few of those calls myself and doesn't matter whether you survived the cull or not, you're gritting your teeth at the complete lack of empathy on display from the exec acting like they're talking to shareholders and not the people who suddenly realise they've got to start really thinking seriously about where the mortgage payments are coming from.
It doesn't foster loyalty from the staff who're remaining.
On the note of Fallout 76...i tried playing it again after the TV show came out, and quit again when my quest progress didnt save. (Your inventory and levels save, but your quest progress is regularly NOT saved)
I spent probably an hour doing this boring and lengthy quest i didnt even want to do but needed the XP to grind levels AND IT DIDNT EVEN SAVE! I loaded in the next day and had to start the quest from the beginning. This wasnt the first time it happened but it was definitely one of the most inconvenient times it happened and afterward i immediately quit and uninstalled the game.
To think this all started with an out of touch executive saying:
"Fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity: it's called Xbox 360."
What does that even mean? Its not like xbox owners are going to chuck away their consoles
Xbox has destroyed “it is” reputation?
Sold to executives for 20 years. When something doesn't make sense long term, its usually because someone is getting a bonus by cutting something in the short term. Avg position term is 18 -24 months (closer to 18) so if there is damage, they will likely not be there by the time the impact hits. I sat in a meeting with Xbox Dirs a bit over a year ago. When I heard how many studios had not been onboarded yet, even studios that have been with Xbox a while...I knew this was coming. Because it was going to cost $$$ to onboard all these studios, not to mention just the cost to onboard Activision/Blizzard was going to hit budgets hard. So then they outsource, often because it puts the costs in different buckets. But then those buckets' Execs and Dirs look to cut the outsourcing spend, because doing so gives THEM a bonus. Eventually you lose budget to build grow anything and you starve it. But the exec over that budget put together a quarter where he/she 'saved' MSFT money. So they get a bonus.
Down with stupid corporations 😡🤬
The industry has been normalizing quarterly layoffs and restructuring for the past 2 decades but for a lot of reasons this feels like a layoff too far. It's a sort of transparent contradiction and betrayal the likes of which I haven't seen from such a top-level entity in a while.
at this point kotick should be hired to take spencer's job.
What makes Tango Gameworks closure even more bullshit is the salaries for tech jobs in Japan aren't anywhere close to those in the US and also the weak yen basically means it costs Microsoft 40% less compared to if those expenses were in USD.
Xbox has NOT destroyed it's reputation; it did EXACTLY what I thought they would do.
Buying (dozens of) studios, and doing NOTHING with them for a few years, and then closing them.
And closing the ONE STUDIO that actually made a good received game proves they have not learned a damn thing.
Videos 2 days in a row of a big company ditching development studios despite them making successful games. Sony cuts jobs at places like Gureilla and Insomniac. One thing these game studios are making abundantly clear is that even making wildly successful games is not good enough for you to be safe.
Nice background music for your videos. Mass effect Andromeda's galaxy theme music is good.
If you don't close studios unless leadership leaves or the studio loses it's passion... then why are Activision, Blizzard, and King still running?
Can't lose passion that had already checked out?
Based on the premisse at least
@@sneezyfido that makes sense.
They're meta-gaming the economy. Cut back future investments and fortify the core of their current holdings. Corporate consolidation is always terrible for an industry. Why improve anything when you can just absorb and remove competition.
I wager 6-8 months and another announcement like this will happen. If you currently work at Xbox Studios in any capacity whether in publishing or development, update your resumes and RUN!
This is just the beginning.
The gutting will continue with other publishers under the Xbox Studio brand.
Fire Todd Howard!
"But, but Phil Spencer was one of the good ones!" 🤣🤣🤣
@1:55 What is fun about a guy who is delusional and doesn't even recognize his own sister?!?
"Prey" is one of the best, most under-rated games played over the past couple of years.
That game not getting a sequel from the same studio is a massive shame. Moon crash was a great expansion as well.
There's no way to read these moves even as a cynical bean-counting investor and not see rank incompetence and floundering.
18:47 Why did you have to tear my heart out like that. *sigh*
Remember when everybody was hoping and wanting Xbox to take over ABK just to get BC out?? Remember when all thoes people still had jobs under BC?! How anyone thought this would lead to good things blows my mind, a mega corporation built on the foundation of maintaining a monopoly with buyouts will never change its spots.
What some people may be overlooking is that you can’t honor a deal with FTC if the studios you made the deal with don’t exist. I think this could a play to work around the exclusivity deal after the Activision acquisition
Phil saw how Jim Ryan closed japan studio and said "I'm gonna close my japanese studio someday too!"
All good deeds, hard work, successful accomplishments shall be PUNISHED!
The thing of it is, I don't think we can solely blame the CEOs. After all, there's one entity they are beholden to: Shareholders. And Shareholders are always wanting bigger profits, fatter margins and lower costs.
Microsoft has had some classics but they destroy almost any game studio they touch. What will they do next?
Mr. Booty performance so far is brilliant. You can really see how much effort he is putting in his work.
Please follow up on this when Xbox / Microsoft actually comments on why they chose to close Tango - surely they will be questioned about this either on an earnings call or somewhere else. I'd be very interested to hearing the actual reason "from the horses mouth" if you will.
Oh you mean "Its" reputation?
"Why aren't we getting more golden eggs out of these geese we keep killing?!"
The closing of studios is not the issue. The lack in good games xbox is producing is the issue.
Bethesda needed a great amount of structuring if future products have any hope of success.
I bought an Xbox series X with GP for it and my PC back in 2020, it sounded like they were going places.
Several failed, safe, pandering, unfinished and intensely uninteresting games later... I sold my Xbox.
Having to make these deep cuts doesn't surprise me at all.
Always stick with the Nintendo PC combo.
Microsoft has always been very wishy-washy in their strategy. Heck they can't even stick to a naming convention for more than a year!
And nintendo as well why is sony the only one who can name their console right
I was involved in a lot of mergers in my career. Maybe, _maybe,_ 10% of them made economic sense. From what I can tell they're usually just an attempt to buy the competition so you can raise prices.
Wow! Look at all those golden Parachutes.
Was looking forward to The 3vil Within 🙁
Imagine being a company worth over 3 Trillion buying up Studios and then sacking the staff and destroying the studio's they paid for that is the waste of money, some of these studio's make good games and money for their company they should be protected by the umbrella of Microsoft like Amazon are doing with Twitch which has never made a profit ever.