Xbox’s studio shuttering casts a pall over summer games events | Kaser Focus

The big story of this week is a grim one: Xbox has shuttered three of its internal game studios and merged a fourth with one of its existing teams. We’ve lost Tango Gameworks, which just launched the BAFTA-winning Hi-Fi Rush; Arkane Austin, the developers of well-received Prey and the poorly received Redfall; Alpha Dog Games, the mobile developer behind the top-down title Mighty Doom; and Roundhouse Studios, the reincarnation of original Prey developer Human Head Studios. (Side note: This means that Xbox managed to close both of the Prey studios in one fell swoop.)

The games industry’s outlook already looked pretty grim going into this week. The number of layoffs in 2024 is poised to match, if not surpass, 2023’s 10,000. But this has made things feel especially dire. After all, while Redfall was a bit of a stinker, Hi-Fi Rush was one of 2023’s best games — I put it in my top 5! That wasn’t enough to save the studio from the chopping block, despite Matt Booty saying in subsequent town hall that prestige indies were precisely what the company wanted. Roundhouse’s fate of being folded into the ZeniMax Online seems almost gentle by comparison, but it’s still a loss.