Microsoft closing four Bethesda studios

[CurrySpirals]

“Microsoft has now announced it is shutting down four Bethesda studios. Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios are all closing, with employees either being laid off or moved to work on other projects within Bethesda.”

Microsoft appears to be making moves to consolidate Bethesda to focus on its blockbuster franchises. TES, Fallout, and maybe Starfield. Probably mostly Fallout at this time, if I had to guess. Best of luck to those who are losing their jobs.

Do we think this will be a positive change to help refocus Bethesda, or no?

https://www.trueachievements.com/news/xbox-bethesda-studios-closing-arkane-tango

[Hotrod2go]

In answer to the OP question, then yes. FO4, ES & Starfield is all I"m interested in.

[AdahnGorion]

Originally posted by InquisitorOverhauls:

Good news! They will focus more on Starfield/FO4/ Elder Scrolls!

They will focus on TES and FO franchises. SF will be a lone title.

Expect frequent releases of games in those two IPs

Many people were fired, sadly. There will be less diversity now

[RavenFeather11.2]

Originally posted by AdahnGorion:

They will focus on TES and FO franchises. SF will be a lone title.

Expect frequent releases of games in those two IPs

Many people were fired, sadly. There will be less diversity now

Yeah. They were pointing out that they will focused on "well established and older IPs".

[RavenFeather11.2]

Originally posted by AdahnGorion:

Indeed. I don´t know why people think SF is a well established and older IP...
I would not be surprised if we see a much larger focus on FO stuff after TESVI.. not jus big games, but many different genres and platforms (more mobile stuff as well)

Also I call it now. The next big MMO probject will be a proper FO mmo.. (not survival mmo like FO76)

Idk. Wishful thinking?
I just hope the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games will turn out better...
Have fun! The forum gets old pretty quickly, doesn't it?

[Shrapnel]

Close them all except the one making Elder Scrolls and Fallout games. These guys have proven time and time again everything else they make is a dice roll at best.

[Goof]

the writing in fallout 4, skyrim, and starfield is very watered down when compared to morrowind, oblivion, and new vegas. I think they tried to make it as appeasing as possible to everyone, which waters down the end product. I felt the same when trying to rp as a pirate

[PortalShifter]

Originally posted by RavenFeather11.2:

Yeah. They were pointing out that they will focused on "well established and older IPs".

Translation: Starfailed was a disaster and we are moving on from it as soon as we legally can.

[patrick68794]

Originally posted by PortalShifter:

Originally posted by RavenFeather11.2:

Yeah. They were pointing out that they will focused on "well established and older IPs".

Translation: Starfailed was a disaster and we are moving on from it as soon as we legally can.

Nope. This is what they actually said:
"With this consolidation of our Bethesda studio teams, so that we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP"

"As we align our plans and resources to best set ourselves up for success in this complex and changing industry, our teams across Arkane Lyon, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, MachineGames, ZeniMax Online Studios and the Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will be well-positioned to build new IP, explore new game concepts, and expand on our existing franchises."

I know reading is hard, but they're flat out saying that they will be investing in new IP.

[✠Deser✞🅵☣⚔⚔♏✠]

The only thing that surprises me about that article, is that there is a man called Matt Booty. It's like women that are called BJ, it's all very impressive.

[jobo3010]

Originally posted by Disaster Gay of Crisis:

Originally posted by jobo3010:

This little detail is overlooked constantly. Microsoft has been buying up studios with big AAA IPs, but also massive mobile gaming chains. Xbox has barely put out a dozen games in the past decade though (and Phil Spencer was quoted saying Xbox would be producing 4-5 AAA titles a year back in 2020, whoops). But now thinks to the Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft now owns one of the biggest mobile gaming companies in the world. So after dissolving 4 platform gaming studios and ♥♥♥♥ canning most of the staff for middling results, I doubt they're going to double down and rotate those people into another equal risk (high cost, low output) studio like Bethesda. Don't forget Microsoft has already downsized Bethesda once back in January to make up for the cost of the Activision deal, and they had mass layoffs for Bethesda back in January of 2023 to cut slack in the underperforming gaming section.

If people think the future is bright for Bethesda, nevermind any of their products, they're delusional. I imagine most of their staff is nervous about the next wave of layoffs because Shattered Space took over a year to launch. ES6 really might be their last chance to stay relevant, but there's not a huge guarantee Microsoft will sit around to wait for a prefect product from the bloated, dated studio that's last major release has been met with 'mixed' reviews.

The thing that's missing is pointing out the obvious that Fallout and Elder Scrolls are large household name IPs. While Tango did make some good games Evil Witihin, Ghostwire and Hi-Fi Rush did not become household names. Arkane Austin that got closed is not the Arkane that developed Deathloop and Dishonored, that's the main studio in France, the only game that Arkane Austin made was Redfall. Roundhouse is another case of it's a support studio.

Now I agree this kinda stuff really sucks, Microsoft absolutely has no excuse doing it when it's making literal 10s of billions a year but Bethesda Studios, the developers of Starfield, Fallout and Elder Scrolls, is not really in danger because their games sell way more. Hell, in 2023 Starfield sold over 2.5 million from a quick google search.

Of course who knows now, everyone is on the chopping block because they decide to waste money in dumb crap like AI or the bar on a graph isn't going high enough.

Bethesda had those IPs and may sell well, but like the rest of the industry leaders point out everytime they lay off a quarter of their staff to show quarterly revenue gains: AAA video games are expensive to make. So would a not-video game company like Microsoft with a mostly failing gaming division continue to be OK with a studio that puts out a game that makes half a billion in sales at release (just hypothetical, not talking about Starfield directly) that cost several hundred million, and then costs another 100 million over the course of the next year or more to patch, debug, and add content?

When you're a billion dollar company, a section that eats a lot of money to produce very marginal revenue would be the second thing you cut after sections that continue to go into the red. High risk/low returns are just as bad, and sometimes worse, than smaller failing sectors to accountants. And even if Microsoft shutters Bethesda, they will still own those IPs, and can do whatever they want with them. Fallout 4 is saving Bethesda right now, but Shattered Space + Elder Scrolls need to be huge financial successes for Fallout 5 to be in Bethesda's future.

[GrimDogGaming]

It ain't over. Better think about retiring now, Toddy, before you no longer have the choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ss1RQ6g8E0

[patrick68794]

Originally posted by jobo3010:

Originally posted by Disaster Gay of Crisis:

The thing that's missing is pointing out the obvious that Fallout and Elder Scrolls are large household name IPs. While Tango did make some good games Evil Witihin, Ghostwire and Hi-Fi Rush did not become household names. Arkane Austin that got closed is not the Arkane that developed Deathloop and Dishonored, that's the main studio in France, the only game that Arkane Austin made was Redfall. Roundhouse is another case of it's a support studio.

Now I agree this kinda stuff really sucks, Microsoft absolutely has no excuse doing it when it's making literal 10s of billions a year but Bethesda Studios, the developers of Starfield, Fallout and Elder Scrolls, is not really in danger because their games sell way more. Hell, in 2023 Starfield sold over 2.5 million from a quick google search.

Of course who knows now, everyone is on the chopping block because they decide to waste money in dumb crap like AI or the bar on a graph isn't going high enough.

Bethesda had those IPs and may sell well, but like the rest of the industry leaders point out everytime they lay off a quarter of their staff to show quarterly revenue gains: AAA video games are expensive to make. So would a not-video game company like Microsoft with a mostly failing gaming division continue to be OK with a studio that puts out a game that makes half a billion in sales at release (just hypothetical, not talking about Starfield directly) that cost several hundred million, and then costs another 100 million over the course of the next year or more to patch, debug, and add content?

When you're a billion dollar company, a section that eats a lot of money to produce very marginal revenue would be the second thing you cut after sections that continue to go into the red. High risk/low returns are just as bad, and sometimes worse, than smaller failing sectors to accountants. And even if Microsoft shutters Bethesda, they will still own those IPs, and can do whatever they want with them. Fallout 4 is saving Bethesda right now, but Shattered Space + Elder Scrolls need to be huge financial successes for Fallout 5 to be in Bethesda's future.

Xbox as a division is profitable and has been for quite some time. It is not "mostly failing" lol

[CurrySpirals]

Originally posted by Zorvan:

It ain't over. Better think about retiring now, Toddy, before you no longer have the choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ss1RQ6g8E0

I would expect similar house cleaning measures in Activison Blizzard. They aren’t shutting down Bethesda Game Studios. These moves were made to double down on Bethesda Game Studios and their IP.

[GrimDogGaming]

Originally posted by CurrySpirals:

Originally posted by Zorvan:

It ain't over. Better think about retiring now, Toddy, before you no longer have the choice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ss1RQ6g8E0

I would expect similar house cleaning measures in Activison Blizzard. They aren’t shutting down Bethesda Game Studios. These moves were made to double down on Bethesda Game Studios and their IP.

No they won't shut them down. But they are currently offering producers of the studios ( of which Toddy is one ) money to leave. If he's smart, he'll leave while riding high on Fallout t.v. show and Fallout 4 resurgence. Otherwise, he'll have to deal with what happens when Shattered Space and Indiana Jones flop and the money offer won't be there.

[Athenari]

all close🥱