29
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Microsoft's decision to close down Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin and other game studios is largely motivated by the desire to keep IPs, and ensuring the studios can't work for Microsoft's competition
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- Title
- The Real Reason Your Favourite Game Studios Are Getting Closed Instead Of Sold
- Published
- May 9 2024
- Word count
- 740 words
I'm not entirely sure how much stock I take in this angle, but I can believe this was part of the mentality in the executive's heads.
The idea of scatter the talent about seems pretty outdated, though. More people than ever are creating their own independent studios, and while the industry is in freefall they are still hiring, especially as rebounds for these layoffs. It's basically free pickings to snatch them up in the market compared to buying the talent directly.
In Japan it doesn't seem to be an effective strategy at all. Mikami will probably snatch up a few or more of the lai off employees in Tango and basically continue where Microsoft left off. Basically the worst case scenario for this scheme. On top of that, Japan' gaming industry will devour the talent in weeks. I don't imagine many will peter out of the industry as a result of this; their culture conditions them to seek a company and spend their entire career there, after all.
I do think a lot of these layoffs were simply ones of environment. For various reasons Microsoft didn't want to support studios in certain locations, pulling out their remaining Japanese presence (again...), pulling out of Canada in its tumultuous economy, and simply shuttering a studio in Austin (which I think they still have a presence in?) due to ol' fashioned "game failed, staff cut" reasons.
I would agree with you, especially with these studios and games.
Do I believe Microsoft bought Zenimax to make sure Starfield wasn't a Sony exclusive? Absolutely.
Do I think Microsoft is worried about a competitor making Hi-Fi Rush 2 or Prey 2? I'm not sure that even registers in the boardroom.
Maybe that's an added bonus, but this is absolutely motivated by showing growth for investors at all costs and these studios were those costs because that's easier than making successful games.
Microsoft has a history of buying up competition and either shutting them down or keeping the product.
This isn't a unique thing, lots of tech companies do this. Adobe ate up Macromedia, Photoshop (the company), and Aldus (Pagemaker). Apple, often seen as the good guy, bought NeXT (osx), SoundJam MP (iTunes), FingerWorks (iOS), Siri (the company), and OttoCat (app store).
Tech giants tend to buy up and consolidate their products rather than creating them whole cloth. Sometimes the target company is allowed to continue as a sort of independent entity (GitHub, VMware under Dell, Twitch), but usually the company disappears with a non compete.
Anticlickbait duty, from the article:
@cfabbro, could you be my clickbait duty hero again and put in that it's to keep IPs for themselves and the studios out of competitors hands :)?
Done