60°

A Brief History of Nintendo Restructuring Their Development Teams

Nintendo is massive. They’ve always had sprawling development teams, making them the largest software developer in video games for decades now and they continue to grow. Sometimes their development teams have been discrete and easily identifiable, but now they’ve brought everything together, and essentially all software development is handled under the EPD umbrella, though it is scattered across several countries.

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hardcoregamer.com
270°

My Trust in Xbox is on Shaky Ground Right Now

The Outerhaven writes: With multiple gaming studios, including Tango Gameworks, closing, the editor-in-chief of The Outerhaven shares his thoughts on the matter.

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theouterhaven.net
rlow110h ago(Edited 10h ago)

Honestly I was looking back and at the launch of the Xbox 1. With Don Matrick at the helm I was disappointed but therevwas something else. That fighting spirit of Xbox at its inception was lost. They stopped innovating, I lost excitement on what the next big new surprise was, because their weren’t any. Not like Halo 2 and Gears launch. You couldn’t really brag about it anymore.
So here we are and corporate MS has ruined what was a beautiful renegade project.

Cacabunga3h ago

Xbox do not give a crap about developers they want publishers to make money for them that is all.

romulus232h ago

Well without developers there's nothing to publish so if that's their plan it's a pretty bad one.

shadowhaxor8h ago

For everything that Xbox did, I was hopeful it would turn stuff around. Game Pass was a start, and the release of its upcoming titles was a nice way to return. I mean, I'm not going to say it was perfect, just like I wouldn't say PlayStation is perfect. Neither company is, but when Xbox goes and does this, it makes zero sense. The message of Xbox's plan had already had me frustrated, but I was like, "Maybe they'll fix this mess."

Now... yeah. Not so confident anymore.

Aphrodia8h ago(Edited 8h ago)

That's how you know this is clickbait garbage. If you write about games for a living and didn't know Microsoft is a cancer on the industry until now than you are awful at your job.

hiroyukisanada1h ago

Came here to say exactly that @jznrpg 🤣

XiNatsuDragnel10h ago

Xbox will destroy Activision too and Bethesda will be gone too lol

Chocoburger9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

"Right now"?
But not 11 years ago with the disastrous Xbox One reveal which they NEVER recovered from?
Man are you slow on the uptake.

shadowhaxor8h ago

No, Xbox never recovered, but Game Pass (which you're a fool if you deny the success of it), Xbox Cloud, the acquisitions, the reboot of Perfect Dark (which seems to be in the gutter now), the success of Forza Horizon, Sea of Thieves, and yes, Hi-Fi Rush (FFS).

Denying any sort of improvement only goes to show you don't pay any attention to the entire picture.

Crows908h ago

I think you missed the part where these things were spread years apart. Theres no consistency

ApocalypseShadow7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

Bullshit.

Perfect Dark IP was purchased along with many other games like Halo, Gears, etc. Perfect Dark needs help with Crystal Dynamics just to finish the game. That's pathetic. HiFi Rush was purchased and was probably already coming to PlayStation before the purchase.

If Game Pass was a success, these developers wouldn't be closing their doors. We told gamers it isn't profitable. It does make revenue. But revenue isn't profit. It hasn't changed Microsoft's position in the industry or increased hardware sales. If it did, they would be shouting from the rooftops like their arrogant asses always do.

Anyone can have a cloud service. And Sony's is more successful. It took buying major publishers just to increase their spreadsheet. But Xbox continues to fail even then. By having to place games on their competitors platform while still trying to compete. You don't see Nintendo putting their games on Xbox. And Sony was only forced because they don't own the MLB license. Which was forced behind the scenes by Microsoft to take away Sony's successful game and throw it on game pass to use it against gamers buying it on PlayStation. How is the acquisitions a success if they have to close companies they just bought and make many developers jobless? Are you serious? Unless you call it a success by taking away games from other platforms that made those developers more money. That's ridiculous.

Sea of Thieves took years to fix. How is that a success that you have an unfinished game for years that needs fixing? Games should be complete at launch. Just like Halo was an incomplete game that needed fixing. Forza Horizon is a good game but even that game hasn't improved Microsoft's standing at all.

Denying all that shows that you're not paying attention.

Chevalier7h ago

Success? They missed their own targets 3 years straight, stopped announcing numbers because they're so terrible and it's not profitable. Hence the closing 4 studios. There will be more consolidation too. Just watch the by the books garbage yearly releases too followed by more season passes and shorter games come out

Chocoburger6h ago

I have been paying attention for past 11 years. That's why I made my fully accurate above post.

You're the one who hasn't, thus you made that completely worthless post.

- I don't care about a rental service for mid-tier (or any tier) games.

- I don't care about streaming services, I play on actual hardware.

- What is Perfect Dark at this point? Its just a name trying to have an easy win with nostalgia. The original developers and talent has long been gone once MS bought Rare in 2001. ITS JUST A NAME, nothing more.

-Don't care about Forza Horizon.

- Don't care about Sea of Thieves.

- I am interested in Hi-Fi Rush, but MS killing off Tango has pissed me off, so I don't want to reward them for their B.S. and now its guaranteed that the hard working devs won't see any benefit from me supporting them.

MS has done squat over the past 11 years. Nothing but the embarrassing stink of failure. I know this because I have been paying attention.

StoneTitan4h ago

I never played hi-fi rush, even though I would have loved it from all I can see, but as it never came to playstation... Now it comes to playstation and I have no intention to buy it because they closed the developer and the money will only go to poor phil and his poor suits. Well I mean, what else is there to say.
Gamepass brought them into this position so you would be a fool to see it as a success lol

romulus232h ago

It's also foolish to deny the negatives gamepass is having on the industry as that is part of the entire picture as well.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 2h ago
Skuletor6h ago

Must be getting their news on Microsoft's Internet Explorer

notachance9h ago

I imagine smaller ABK studios like toys for bob and beenox are now feeling uncertain about their futures

LucasRuinedChildhood9h ago

Thankfully Toys for Bob managed to safely separate from Xbox and are independent now.

notachance9h ago

lol I don't know that, thanks for clarifying

TheColbertinator8h ago

Beenox has been in danger for years now with Activision. Microsoft may act more ruthlessly to them unfortunately.

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80°

20 Best PS1 RPGs of All Time

Cultured Vultures: Where would the PS1 be without RPGs? It’d no doubt still be a massive seller thanks to bandicoots, clones, and halfpipes, but half the cultural institution it is today? We’re not so sure.

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culturedvultures.com
SimpleSlave10h ago

While most of these games are great to amazing, most are not actual RPGs. Faux RPGs if anything. Turn Based Adventure Games for a more apt description, with Diablo, Brave Fence Musashi and Star Ocean as Action Adventure games.

Again, all great games without a doubt.

230°

Hi-fi Rush is too good a game to be shut down

It was announced today that Tango Gameworks, the studio behind Hi-Fi Rush, will be shut down, which casts doubt on the future of the game.

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videogamer.com
z2g18h ago

I’m sure the support and franchise will live on due to its success. They may even keep some ppl and roll them into other studios. There are layoffs across the map tho in the game/tech industries in general tho including Sony, Facebook and more. My personal family has been affected by them.

Lightning7718h ago

No excuses for MS. I guess Hi Fi didn't do as well as we all thought. So Much the for fun Little experiences that MS has been wanting games of all sizes. The thing is MS are so predictable this year they say "oh we want to prioritize bigger games." Next year they'll have more shut downs and say oh well these ballooning budgets of AAA blah, blah, blah. Even though a year prior they said they want more bigger games. When are gonna admit MS can't do or won't do gaming right? It's always waiting for this and that. String you along while destroying ppls jobs. Year in and year out.

Cacabunga14h ago(Edited 14h ago)

MS’ aren’t gamers they are businessmen.. they prefer a terrible game that sells and makes money to a great game with potential and can be used to grow a wider fanbase.. a bunch of crooks 🤮

TwoPicklesGood10h ago

Uhh Sony has laid more % of people off than MS…

notachance10h ago

this MS employee goes around every posts about MS studio closure and made deflecting comments in all of them lmao

Kaii17h ago

Yet MS made a company-wide profit of $22 billion.
In my eyes releasing this on gamepass was a double edged sword approach, received extremely well, but didn't hit w.e batshit insane sales target MS had In mind

jznrpg11h ago(Edited 11h ago)

Nothing will sell well when they have trained their fanbase to rely on GamePass. (There could be a unicorn every decade or something like that) The price has to go up a lot or more than likely they close a lot of studios to get upkeep way down and have few studios handle all of the IP and still raise gamepass price just not as much as necessary to keep those doors open for all of the devs that created the IPs MS now owns.

Plague-Doctor278h ago(Edited 8h ago)

The problem is it did seem to hit their targets

https://x.com/aarongreenber...

XiNatsuDragnel17h ago(Edited 17h ago)

Hifi is good but Microsoft dislikes risk I guess.

purple10116h ago

have all the people saying m$ buying all those companies, been proved correct yet,

they said more games, more choice, but ended up
less choice, less games, in reality... we were right

Crows9011h ago

It sucks to be right sometimes. Love tango works games with evil within. Also huge fan of prey...if redfall had been a single player story driven title I bet your ass they could've done wonders with freaking vampires.

Asplundh13h ago

They developed the highest rated game Xbox has had as a exclusive in years and they shut them down? Doesn't make much sense.

jznrpg11h ago

Makes sense to me. They still have the IP the studios mean nothing to MS

EazyC4h ago

That just shows how backwards their philosophy is. Studios are the ones creating the magic, you can't just chop and change them on a dime.

TwoPicklesGood10h ago(Edited 10h ago)

It does when it was a nice Indy time that didn’t make money. Unlike you, they think as a business and if the studio made enough money it would have been safe. One of the biggest companies in the world knows not then you, me, or any other random no matter what you abt to believe.

Asplundh9h ago

"Unlike you, they think as a busines"

Yeah a very poorly ran business, the brand has been going down the toilet for over a decade. With all the dumb decision making, it's not suprising why they're going 3rd party.

Plague-Doctor278h ago(Edited 8h ago)

You can't give your games away for free and then shut down studios when they don't sell. Extremely idiotic thinking

purple1013h ago(Edited 3h ago)

Funny we buy art though, we don’t buy money.

So they should start “thinking” more like creators of art l, rather than creators of money, and as a side bonus, guess what, they might get more money

I get what your saying though, even any scraped some projects recently

Yui_Suzumiya8h ago

I'm pissed about this. I loved Tango Gameworks.

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