Arkane Austin, creators of 2023’s Raidfall and The Evil Within, and developers Tango Gameworks of 2022’s Ghostwire: Tokyo have shut down. The Microsoft-owned Bethesda Softworks subsidiaries were shut down along with two other studios on Tuesday, according to an email sent by Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty.
Discontinued means post launch support of Raidfall, including any DLC expansions, now off the board However Arcane Studios, which is headquartered in Lyon, France, will remain on hold. But the ambitious, supernatural shooter from Arkane Austin launching in May 2023 is officially done, and it won’t be getting any post-launch support, let alone the two DLC characters that Xbox promised at release .
IGN confirms Arkane Austin’s closure In an email from Booty. It said, “The previous update to Raidfall will be its last update as we will end all development on the game.” “The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy and we will provide attractive offers to players who purchase the Hero DLC.”
Why did Microsoft discontinue Arkane and Tango?
Raidfall had a day-and-date launch for Xbox Game Pass on May 2, 2023, though it came to a mixed-at-best critical reception, with critics objecting to Raidfall’s story, performance, and other issues. Harvey Smith, who directed the acclaimed Dishonored (2012) and Dishonored 2 (2016) for Arcane, was the director.
Tango GameWorks was founded by Shinji Mikami, who worked on the Resident Evil franchise for Capcom in the early 2000s before moving on to titles like Platinum Games and Vanquish.
Tango Gameworks and Arkane Studios were both acquired by Bethesda Softworks in 2010. Zenimax Media subsidiary Bethesda was acquired by Microsoft and folded into its Xbox Game Studios division in 2020. Ghostwire: Tokyo was notable in that it was announced as a PlayStation 5 console exclusive in 2022, an obligation Bethesda honored for one year. It launches on Xbox Series X in April 2023.
Redfall disappointed at launch, and critical reception was only a part of it. Microsoft had taken several aggressive steps to acquire developers of first-party games, after which it was promised to distribute their games to gamers in the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Raidfall was originally planned to launch in May 2022, but was delayed as Xbox was having trouble launching its exclusives for over a year.
Two other studios, Alpha Dog Studios and Roundhouse Games, are also being closed. Booty’s email states that Alpha Dogs Mighty Doom, a mobile adaptation of the hit shooter franchise, will be shutting down on August 7. Roundhouse Games employees will join ZeniMax Online Studios to support The Elder Scrolls Online, a massively multiplayer online game based on Bethesda’s success. The Elder Scrolls fantasy RPG franchise.
The workplace closures and mass layoffs came on the heels of the company cutting 1,900 jobs from Xbox and newly acquired Activision Blizzard in a fiscal quarter. Overall Microsoft has since surpassed $3 trillion market capitalization Apple, Inc. as the world’s most valuable company (by share price). Artificial intelligence was developed elsewhere in the company to outperform AI.
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