2024 continues its tragic track record of layoffs and studio shutdowns, with no less than four of Bethesda’s studios either closing or being absorbed according to an email sent out to staff by Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty.
According to the email, which was shared and verified by IGN, the four studios impacted are Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios. While Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Games are being completely shuttered, Roundhouse Studios will be merged into ZeniMax Online Studios, which works on The Elder Scrolls Online. Some staff at Arkane Austin will also be reassigned elsewhere.
Arkane Austin’s last title was Redfall, the co-op vampire game that saw a critical drubbing from players upon its May 2023 release. Booty says the game’s servers will remain online, but support has otherwise ended. Guess this means Redfall will never get an offline mode, dooming it to become inoperable once the servers shut down. As a quick note, Arkane Lyon, which made Dishonored and is developing a Blade game for Marvel, will remain open.
As for Tango Gameworks—developer of the The Evil Within games—its last project was Hi-Fi Rush, which launched as an Xbox and PC exclusive in January 2023 before getting a PlayStation 5 port this past March. Announced and released on the very same day, Hi-Fi Rush was a critical hit (we even named it the best Xbox game of 2023), Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb claimed in March 2023 it “didn’t make the money that it needed to make” (thanks, TheGamer). Xbox marketing VP Aaron Greenburg denied this was the case on Twitter, calling Hi-Fi Rush “a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations,” adding how Microsoft “couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered.” Yet it’s decided to disband that very same team, with no sign of any of Hi-Fi Rush‘s staff being kept on elsewhere.
Alpha Dog Games, meanwhile, had worked on several mobile games, including top-down shooter Mighty Doom. Microsoft will be sunsetting Mighty Doom this August and removing the ability for you to make in-game purchases.
This all comes just four months after the last major wave of cuts within Microsoft. At the beginning of the year, the publisher let go of around 1,900 employees across its internal studios, including Activision Blizzard. That was only three months after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and its subsidiaries went through.
