The head of Xbox Game Studios reveals the reason for the closure of Tango Gameworks. Microsoft looked not only at Hi-Fi RUSH, but also at the future of the studio – Hi-Fi Rush
According to Matt Booty, these decisions are not made based on the developer’s past successes.
The year 2024 will go down in history as one of the darkest years for the video game industry. There are a lot of developers who have pulled down the blinds during these last few months; a decision that was accompanied by waves of dismissals and title revocations. Xbox surprised last May by announcing closure of Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks Although this latest study was signed Hi-Fi RUSH extremely successful. And right now Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, says that both are to blame: future prospects of the company as well as sales volumes achieved in the past.
Buti touched on this topic in an interview with the publication Diversity in podcast format: “These decisions are never made lightly.. They are not made quickly, and there are many people, processes and oversight that help us make the right decision. They are always difficult,” explains the manager. “I won’t go into detail, mainly out of respect for the people concerned, and there was a lot of work involved in releasing Hi-Fi RUSH, which It was a great game and it brought us good results.“.
“What you have to keep in mind is that for us this is both a situation look into the future How look back at the game determined,” the coach continues. – There are many things that contribute to the success of the game. What kind of leaders are you? What kind of creative leaders do you have? Is the team the same one that has done something successful in the past? We have to look at all these things together and ask ourselves: Are we ready for future success? And while there may be factors and situations that have led to success in the past, they may not continue to be the case when you look at what you do in the future.”
“In a lot of our research, we try to look at other options.”
Despite this, Booty assures that Microsoft is considering other alternatives besides permanently closing the developer. “Thanks to a lot of our research, We are trying to consider other options– the manager continues in the interview. – For example, we recently had Toys for Bob, a studio that used to work on Call of Duty games, they came out and became new independent study. And I think we announced it we have a distribution agreement with them and we will share more details about this when the time comes.
“I’m also thinking about a studio called Twisted Pixel Texas that we acquired and then, due to sort of a change of purpose, it was no longer a perfect fit. But this studio continues to thrive today,” he continues in conversation. . “We wanted to prepare them for success. So we looked at what our options were to keep the studio open or, you know, transfer it to another owner. And that’s just one of the things we looked at. Sometimes these things work, sometimes they don’t.“.
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