While the closure of Arkane Studios may not be totally unexpected after the rocky launch of Redfall, Arkane Lyon Creative Director seems to be rather distraught by today's news.

This is absolutely terrible. Permission to be human : to any executive reading this, friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry, and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them create value for you.

Don't throw us into gold fever gambits, don't use us as strawmen for miscalculations/blind spots, don't make our work environments darwinist jungles. You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before.

For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again, and it's a fucking gut stab. Lyon is safe, but please be tactful and discerning about all this, and respect affected folks' voice and leave it room to be heard, it's their story to tell, their feelings to express.

Inside baseball, but if I read "immersive sim curse" from the community, especially from a fellow dev, I swear to God... Please, let's talk about the *real* challenges instead of rehashing irrational anxieties of the past.

Even more inside baseball, but with a very, very wide range, as a wise and sorely missed man said:

"Please Stop."

While any closing of studios and layoffs is terrible news for the people involved, the shutting down of  Tango Gameworks is rather puzzling. Previous titles like The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2 and Ghostwire Tokyo were all solid games, and the most recent Hi-Fi Rush was a breakout success (according to Aaron Greenberg, Vice President of Marketing at Xbox), which earlier this year even came to PS5.

Here is the full announcement made by Xbox's Matt Booty

Today I'm sharing with you the changes we're making to our Bethesda and ZeniMax teams. These changes aim to prioritize high-impact titles and invest more in Bethesda's portfolio of hit games and beloved worlds that you've nurtured over the decades.

To double down on these franchises and invest in creating new ones, we need to look across the entire business to identify the opportunities best positioned for success. This reprioritization of titles and resources means that some teams will be reassigned to others and that some of our colleagues will leave us.

Here are the changes that will come into effect:

Arkane Austin - This studio will close and some team members will join other studios to work on projects across Bethesda. Arkane Austin has a history of creating innovative and impactful games, and that's a pedigree everyone should be proud of. The latest Redfall update will be the last, as we end development of the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy, and we will offer compensation offers to players who purchased the Hero DLC .

Alpha Dog Studios – This studio will also be closing. We appreciate the team's creativity in introducing Doom to new players. Mighty Doom will end on August 7 and we will disable the ability for players to make in-game purchases.

Tango Gameworks – Tango Gameworks will also close its doors. We are grateful for their contributions to Bethesda and players around the world. Hi-Fi Rush will remain available to players on current platforms.

Roundhouse Games - The Roundhouse Games team will join ZeniMax Online Studios. Roundhouse has played a key role in several of our recent game launches and bringing them into ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will allow us to do even more to expand the world that millions of players call home.

With this consolidation of our Bethesda studio teams, so that we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new intellectual properties, a small number of positions within some of Bethesda's publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated.

Those whose roles will be affected will be informed today, and we ask that you treat your departing colleagues with respect and compassion. We will provide our full support to those affected by today's notices and as they transition, including any redundancy payments provided for under local laws.

These changes do not reflect the creativity and skills of the talented people on these teams, nor the risks they took to try new things. I recognize that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams at ZeniMax and Bethesda who bring our games to market. We are making these difficult decisions in order to create the capacity to increase investments in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority plays.

Bethesda remains one of the main pillars of Xbox, with a strong portfolio of extraordinary games and thriving communities. The future holds an impressive number of games. In 2024 alone we will have Starfield Shattered Space, Fallout 76 Skyline Valley, Indiana Jones and the Elder Circle and The Elder Scrolls Online's Golden Road. As we align our plans and resources to best prepare ourselves for success in this complex and changing industry, our teams across Arkane Lyon, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, MachineGames, ZeniMax Online Studios and the publishing and marketing teams The Bethesda company will be well positioned to create new intellectual properties, explore new game concepts and expand our existing franchises.

Matt