In a heart breaking news for the gaming industry, Microsoft has just announced they are closing major high ranking studios. These include Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Cuts at Bethesda Games, Roundhouse Games, and Alpha Dog Studios.
In a published report by IGN, and an earlier report by Jason Schreier, a lot of fans of the studios are currently shocked at the news as earlier this year Microsoft also layed off 1900 employees from Activision, Blizzard, and Xbox.
Arkane Austin was a prolific studio behind a lot of major titles such as Prey, but many people cite Redfall as the game that could have caused the studios closure. While fans are having a hard time understanding the closure of Tango Gameworks, their major success with Hi-Fi Rush that recently got released on the PS5, and was a colossal success on Xbox and PC on release.
It has been stated that Roundhouse Games will be absorbed into ZeniMax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online developer. There is nothing much to say about Alpha Dog Studios aside from Mighty Doom, a mobile game that is also part of the closure.
This is some truly devestating news as gaming industry layoffs are becoming a worrying trend, and this is particularly a trend with Microsoft owned studios.
These studios had some incredibly talented individuals at the helm, and this could also mean that we never get to see more promising works from these teams ever again, which is the worst part of this whole ordeal. Titles such as The Evil Within 3, or a new Prey title.