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Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda (www.ign.com)

submitted 4 months ago by Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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Affected devs:

Arkane Austin (closed)
Tango Gameworks (closed)
Alpha Dog Studios (closed)
Roundhouse Games (absorbed into ZeniMax Online Studios)

These changes are grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades.

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[-] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago

Attention laid off workers from the gaming industry:

I'm one hundred percent ready for working, complete games, that don't require subscriptions, and can't be bricked remotely. Make them, and I will buy.

I will buy your products. I will buy them instead of the product being churned out by the companies that cut you.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 29 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Cool but most indie devs don't have the capital to fund the development. They want to make those games, but they have to partner with publishers so they can afford to buy stuff like food and rent while developing before they make any sales.

[-] MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world 22 points 4 months ago

The Indie scene releases a dozen of these every day. The problem is there's actually too much and most of these fail to ever find an audience.

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I am going to pretend you didn't mean it this way but that REALLY comes across as telling people who lost their jobs that they deserve it because they didn't meet your requirements (that weren't even true back in the day of DOS and BBSes...)

Please.. fuck right off with that. The devs at Arkane Austin or Tango aren't making the decision to add a battlepass or to release a game before it is "done". They are doing what management requires of them. The same management that then fires them to make sure that the overall branch of the company turns a profit.

You are kicking people when they are down.

[-] LunarLoony 28 points 4 months ago

I agree with your statement. However, what I believe the original comment was saying is that if the developers who have lost their jobs were to get together and make a game as they describe, then they would buy it. The malice was directed at Microsoft and so on.

At least, that's how I read it...

[-] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

That (your read) is precisely how I meant it.

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 0 points 4 months ago

Which is still a complete load of demonstrable bullshit.

Getting funding for a team is increasingly difficult. Plenty of studios have talked about the horrors of 2023-2024 and how nobody wants to fund even a small team. And this would not be "take it across the finish line" but a solid 3-6 years before even a chance at a return on investment because these devs wouldn't even have IPs or past releases to leverage.

But also? Listen to folk like Xalavier Nelson Jr who talk about this. They are fighting the good fight to push back against financiers and publishers to make games "the right way" with monetization models that are what people ask for. And they still get shit on endlessly and ignored.

In a lot of ways, it reminds me of "abandonware" back in the day. For those who are too young, for the longest time it was nigh impossible to buy a game that was even five or six years old because it would not be on store shelves. GoG (back when they were Good Old Games) was specifically designed to update and sell these games. And without invasive DRM to boot.

And suddenly all the abandonware torrent sites just started uploading gog installers. And now we almost never hear the term "abandonware" because... people were always full of shit and just wanted to make an excuse to justify their own actions.

[-] MotoAsh@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It is, in fact, not BS to be mad at a megacorp for cutting valuable and functioning assets, and the fact you do not understand that is hilariously pathetic.

If you're aware of people and games that do fit, then whining about it and talking about how they get crapped on instead of how cool their sfuff is doesn't help, either!

You seem to be more willing to paint things negatively than help improve, so why should we listen?

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Who the fuck isn't mad at the megacorp?

My issue is the people who use this as an excuse to blame the devs who are just doing their jobs while trying to live their dreams.

Again. There are studios out there who are doing exactly what everyone insists they want AND are doing so in ways that make getting funding difficult. And they get shit on because of a "hot take" on twitter or because their game isn't as pretty as Call of Duty.

When large groups of people get laid off because of corporate bullshit? The answer is not to say "Hey, you should fucking do better next time". It is "Fuck corporations" or "fuck capitalism".