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Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda
- Thread starter Thick Thighs Save Lives
- Start date
- News
Zheph
Member
Rien
Jelly Belly
Lol my xbox 20th anniversary controller comes in clutch yet again.
In fact I've bought one for my nephew too lol
Jesus they really added a lame ass quote and his signature on the cap. He doesn’t give a shit about gamers man.
TrippleA345
Member
Mr Reasonable
Completely Unreasonable
I guess they could just refund everyone for the time they have on their account.
I wonder at what rate though? Would they give money or store credit?
EDIT: I know you're not talking about the process, but it did make me wonder.
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SaucyJack
Member
okay but...
In the history of bad takes that one is right up there.
Microsoft isn't closing Zenimax studios it otherwise wants to keep because of one-off ABK integration costs.
TrippleA345
Member
HeWhoWalks
Gold Member
Yeah, he has to be a parody account at this point. No way anyone is that stupid!okay but...
Chuck Berry
Gold Member
I mean as in seeing his name in credits for Tango
digoutyoursoul
Member
Oh what a surprise it’s him doing the interview
rhodesianshepard
Banned
Ryan McCaffrey has been pretty tough on Xbox in the recent past. I would be surprised if he didn't ask some actual questions
And I wouldn't consider him an Xbox "influencer" like many others. Even though he was the poster boy for console warring back in 360/PS3 generation
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digoutyoursoul
Member
I disagree. His retort last year after RedFall debacle was embarrassing
“Phil is a gamer. The other two are not” i.e Sony and Nintendo.
I mean what the hell has that got to do with the end product? Sony and Nintendo have better market share for a start so what is his point? It’s like people have to be borderline subservient to these executives to be part of the Xbox community or something.
Look at Ybarra’s tweet yesterday, he might as well got the violin out dude.
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GHG
Member
History has not been kind to these people.
Everyone have a read of the first couple of pages of this thread:
Shuhei Yoshida: "We believe in the premium release of a title" before subscriptions
"The new PS Plus has tiers and essentially it’s like the old PS Plus, we still release two or three new games every month and a new tier, Extra, has a catalogue of hundreds of games for people to play. For Extra, our approach [is] we like to help the publishers [with] lifecycle management. I was...
What, this kind of pressure? :
The kind of pressure that results in executives losing their jobs?
The kind of pressure that results in first party games that released in the last 12 months being absent from monthly and annual sales charts all over the world?
The kind of pressure where your hardware is firmly in 3rd place across the world?
The kind of pressure that results in you needing to spend upwards of $80 billion in order to even have a chance of staying competitive?
Sounds tough.
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rhodesianshepard
Banned
He literally crucified Phil Spencer yesterday for previous comments of his. He will ask good questions, imo
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digoutyoursoul
Member
It’s about time then.
I wonder what this entails
“ I'm sure not everybody will be happy with things we did or didn't say”
Zheph
Member
You can say that for everything tho so I wouldn't expect much
digoutyoursoul
Member
FunkMiller
Member
"I'm still going to say it's not Phil's fault."
FunkMiller
Member
Would be great if this led to a mass cancellation of GamePass, the same way the Sony Helldivers bullshit led to all the reviews and refund requests. Not gonna hold my breath on that one though, Xbox fans seem so far down the rabbit hole on this that I doubt they'd reject Phil if he came around their house and fucked their dog to death.
Pedro Motta
Member
Let all agree that it was Gamepass that fucked the sucess of Hi Fi Rush and Tango Gameworks?
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
Really nothing to suggest that other than people seeing what they want to see. As much as I loved the game, it seems like it didn't sell that well on 3 platforms. Wasn't even played much on Gamepass apparently. Ghostwire was a PS5 exclusive and didn't sell that well either.
Pedro Motta
Member
Hi Fi Rush had a lot more appeal to the masses than Ghostwire Tokyo. I loved Ghostwire, more so than Hi Fi Rush, but I understand that its more of a niche game.
mansoor1980
Member
phil spencer after closing studios..................................
Ass of Can Whooping
Gold Member
What suggests it is that Microsoft has moved the goal post yet again to which MS studios have to now be self-sustainable, and gamepass as a model is now an obstacle for games like Hi-Fi Rush instead of what was touted by so many as a safety net.
Topher
Identifies as young
cireza
Member
Come on, let's not make a disrespectful generalization about Xbox consumers, especially when what you suggest they should do sounds quite unreasonable.
I think that a lot of Game Pass subscriptions were taken 1 or 2 years ago when there were really interesting deals. I am expecting this to naturally fall when these expire, because getting 3 years for 90$ isn't exactly the same as paying 15$ per month. I am never going to put that much money in any kind of subscription that's for sure.
But in any case, my subscription is paid for another full year, so I can't cancel anything and this is true for a lot of people. That's the first reason why what you say is not going to happen.
Second one is that these studio closures don't affect directly players short term. Nothing is being taken away from Game Pass, or from the planning until the end of the year. And a showcase is coming June. You can be sure that Xbox are going to announce things to reinject some energy into their business.
Many people here say that the consumers should take whatever decision fits them the best, without caring about brand loyalty or whatever, but suddenly when something happens that don't even affect their consumption (at least short term), they should sanction it ? These are unreasonable expectations.
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TrippleA345
Member
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
The game didn't sell well enough on any platforms, regardless of GP. Tons of games on GP sell well and GP is not on PS5. It only accounts for 15% of the Xbox base, and a tiny fraction of the PC base. This wasn't even played on GP much and never ranked that highly. But if that makes you think GP caused it, believe what you want.
Ass of Can Whooping
Gold Member
Rewind back to 2022 and the argument would have been that wouldn't matter, because of GP
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
I think if their consoles didn't tank and GP saw a normal amount of slow growth, that would be true. That's why I think the sub model is so compelling, because if enough people do participate it is a safety net. Starfield not moving the needle at all in terms of console sales was clearly the end. There is no safety net because they're going 3rd party. The reason people expect cooler and more niche content sometimes from 1st party is because of their ecosystem funding. That's going to be gone and they'll be contracting. GP may or may not make it, but they're probably planning for minimum 50% decline in subs since a lot of Xbox gamers will go to PS5 / PS6. They may be able to land somewhere around 8-10 million subs on PC, so their safety net will be much smaller. We'll see if they decide to keep it going or not.
FunkMiller
Member
Sorry, but bullshit.
You can stop using your GamePass subscription any time. Some countries even allow for pro-rata refunds:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...riptions-38c81df4-10c1-f3eb-8d2f-b04f980c435f
The excuse 'I've got a good deal, so I'm happy' is the worst kind of self serving horseshit.
Companies like MS don't give a shit as long as they know you're still supporting them. And you're still supporting them.
Physiognomonics
Member
Exactly. FTC can not fight those marxist and state supported corporations (here Microsoft). And a good deal of the judges in US are probably political activists, corrupt or both.
And yes Gamepass has a big part in this by devaluating all those games / IPs. Once reaching a plateau of subcribers they don't need anymore those small developers doing those AA games. What's the point? they know they won't gain customers anymore or sell those games traditionnaly as they taught their customers to play those games for "free".
I am not saying all those services are bad. But they need to not cross a line and do what Nintendo is currently doing or what Sony was doing with the old PS+ "free" games. The problem is the regulators (when there is regulation) often work in some way for the corporations.
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tommib
Banned
So the FTC was right all along and those xbots on Era were disgusting fanboys pretending to be legal experts and pro-consumer advocates.
Shocking.
Ass of Can Whooping
Gold Member
It woudn't be true. The only difference would be the illusion would have gone on for a bit longer. MS is still the same megacorp they've always been. Xbox was just allowed to live a fairytail for a bit before they had to participate in the american shareholder culture again which isn't compatible with any sort of "safety net model"
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The two are not comparable at all, one gives people a cheap and affordable way to get access to a large gaming library, the other was a move which would actively restrict people in 170+ countries from playing a game they already paid for.
tommib
Banned
Consumers have voted gamepass out already. That’s why Xbox is where it is. It will only get worse moving forward.
LordCBH
Member
The FTC was 100% right, but they had a dangerous mix of incompetence + a legal system that by and large favors the megacorps in almost everything they do.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
Not exactly. The FTC was worried that MS would become so dominant that they'd keep all their games exclusive and put PS out of business, resulting in less competition for consumers in console choice. In reality, they were in need of exclusive content so badly that they've collapsed their console business within a year - pretty much the opposite of what the FTC was saying. Spencer was on record saying they were folding it up if it wasn't profitable by 2027, but it didn't even last until 2025. And now PS has the high end console market to themselves, which the FTC supposedly didn't want.
They were right that people lost their jobs, but not for the reason they expected.
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Astray
Member
The game was released with zero promotion. Twice!
Shadowdropped on Xbox Gamepass and tossed on PS5 in a press release + a cheaply-cut trailer.
Gamepass can be clearly attributed as a reason for Tango Gameworks' demise because MS catering to gamepass in that way is what fucked up what could have been their most successful launch. The game was ready for the Game Awards less than a month before release and they couldn't even be bothered to tease it.
Dumb management on all counts.