The journalist Paul Tassi on the pages of Forbes judged unreliable there Xbox managementwhen the decisions he makes lead to closing successful studios as happened precisely with Tango Gameworks.
As you know, the news of the closure of Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games and Roundhouse Games has sparked fierce reactions, especially among industry insiders, who they couldn’t find a valid reason for a similar choice by the Redmond house.
According to Tassi, what happened in Arkane Austin is obviously the result of the sensational flop of Redfalland although the merits of the studio (see Prey) could have earned it a second chance, Microsoft decided to proceed with closure and it wasn’t too surprising.
The situation of Tango Gameworks, however, is very different, given that the studio created one of the best exclusives for Xbox Series an important point of reference for Microsoft’s first party development in Japansomething Phil Spencer had always hoped to achieve.
Furthermore, and it is on this that Paul Tassi particularly insists, Hi-Fi RUSH was deemed a great success by Xbox management, an excellent product that had exceeded expectations despite having started from the bottom and launched as a surprise. Not a good game but it had disappointing results: a success.
A question of trust
According to the Forbes journalist, the decisions just made make Microsoft untrustworthy and they could create a dangerous precedent, even more so given that the Xbox Game Pass model makes it impossible to understand exactly what results a particular game has achieved.
A few days now from the launch of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, a highly anticipated and promising title but at the same time part of a not very well-known franchise, the question could become very topical again if Xbox decides to focus solely on its most attractive brandscutting everything else.
“Matt Booty from Xbox said they’re focusing on the bigger games, then who tells us that after Hellblade 2 Ninja Theory wasn’t killed off and his remains were fed to Bethesda to release The Elder Scrolls 6 faster or something like that?”, asks Tassi.
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