Tango Gameworks Dev Asks “Not Enough?” Amid Studio Shutdown Despite Multiple Awards

Amid the studio’s shutdown, a Tango Gameworks developer has questioned whether its many awards were not enough for the Xbox management.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

I'm sorry but I'm going for cringe *insert madara got betrayed by black zetsu here* but fr tango it's never enough for Microsoft. Microsoft are cannibals imo

[TheProfessional]

Yeah PS hasn't shut down any studios.

Arkane austin made redfall, everything about that was bad regardless of microsft's involvement. Plus prey didn't sell well either.

Tango gameworks shouldn't have been closed though. The others make sense.

[notachance]

it doesn’t take long for xbox fanboys to put on their fanboy glasses again huh?
it’s always the classic combo of “PS did it too” and “it makes sense”.

And they wonder why there’s barely any new fans since xb1 era, that’s because normal people are disgusted by the corporation and its fanboys.

[Reaper22_]

"Yeah PS hasn't shut down any studios."

Now you know that's a lie.

[thorstein]

Today's lesson in rhetoric:

Whataboutism

-a type of red herring fallacy. Both are argumentative fallacies that divert attention away from the original topic to a new one. However, whataboutism uses the new topic to attack the other party, while a red herring fallacy introduces an unrelated topic.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Yes we understand ps isn't perfect especially not recently but this fallacy doesn't mean anything because if ps saw potential they'll cultivate usually and problem particularly tango where they made bangers that xbox needed but nope man shut it down like tf

[DarXyde]

1. Why are we talking about PlayStation closing studios? We know they did, but the "they did it too" deflection is such a lazy way to redirect frustration and outrage about what is happening now. We're not talking about Sony, are we? The problem is Microsoft straight up closed studios they've held for less than five years after releasing single projects. And being the cowards they are, they closed Tango when staff was away during Golden Week in Japan.

2. I don't play Arkane games as first person games are not my flavour, but let's look at this exactly as it really is: Microsoft, a company with a market cap over 3 TRILLION dollars, has doubled, tripled, quadrupled, and quintupled down on their Day one subscription service. They have sabotaged their own titles' chances of success related to revenue by doing that—add to the fact that they insisted on having all of these studios with the publishers (refusing to cleave off any studios) and having a drawn out legal battle over ABK. And even with Game Pass, Microsoft had to close the loophole for $1 subs because their players don't even want to pay the full sub fee.

And now, the developers are on the chopping block. Spencer acting as the remorseful figure after Red Fall bombed, yet he's still got his job and the studio is gone.

Stop the madness. And just to appease your whataboutism, yes, Sony deserves this fire too if/when they go that way. I can't speak for others, but I was absolutely livid when they closed Japan studio. I don't even have Plus because they raised the price and haven't had it since.

None of these corporations are good. I wouldn't lose sleep if they all burned to the ground and something that balances labour and consumer best interests came from it.

Until then, keep the anger righteous. Today, that happens to be Microsoft.

[Profchaos]

Arkane Austin were under direction for zeninax to make redfail prior to that arkane actually had a really impressive history so one mistake they partially made remember it's zeninax that drove the games direction and it's a yeah they suck they deserve it.

[MrDead]

You have talent but MS is IP hoarding so only the biggest IP's will survive, a few new ones might slip through but if they don't sell like the big titles like COD or Fallout then bye bye and thanks for the money we'll make from continuing to sell your games.

[InUrFoxHole]

That's a fair take. While Tango made hi fi it's not like any of there other games were system sellers

[Hugodastrevas]

This is legitimately heartbreaking, you pour all you got into your craft, you're recognized for it, you're successful... Just to be discarded like leftovers

[MrDead]

The games haven't been discarded, MS just made sure the people who created them are not receiving any money from future sales... like the massive c**** they are.

[Palitera]

Well, in the past, they gave away their choice power for money.
They just want to receive the aquisition and full funding money, but still call the shots?

[VariantAEC]

Tango is a dev under Bethesda which is part of Zenimax. Microsoft acquired Zenimax and everything under their umbrella. Tango had no choice in the matter.
The more you know...

[shinoff2183]

Hopefully they can move on and continue, whether forming their own studio, or getting a job elsewhere. This dev is exactly right.

[CDbiggen]

I loved ghostwire, such a shame.

[Jin_Sakai]

Xbox is trash. Get in talks with Sony. I’m sure they’d welcome you with open arms to the PlayStation family.

[-Foxtrot]

PlayStation doesn't really have something like Evil Within / Resident Evil first party wise and the fact they can switch to a different genre like Hi-Fi Rush would be good to have variety wise. I hope Sony manages to pick some of the talent up to help them along.

[anast]

I would buy a new Evil Within.

[romulus23]

Pretty sure MS doesn't prioritize awards over profits.

[anast]

You get it.

[lodossrage]

I don't get why people are disagreeing with either of you when it's the truth.

The facts are literally out in the open to verify that

[notachance]

All that talk about MS getting japanese games.. now that they actually had japanese studio producing award winning game they shut it down.

[TwoPicklesGood]

Uhh Sony shut down their Japanese studio too 😜

[VersusDMC]

They shut one of them down. Polyphony and asobi are still around.

And that is besides the point of the comment as Sony didn't say they wanted more Japanese games then closes their one Japanese studio like Microsoft did.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Sigh ignorance here, Sony doesn't just shut down tango when Microsoft they needed studios like them.... this whatifism isn't productive.

[VariantAEC]

@VersusDMC
Team Asobi is basically Japan Studio. A few key people left which is not cool but more or less it was a name change instead of a true closure. Japan Studio made the original Astro Bots game.and now Team Asobi does that. I hope they can still make some wackier games... but maybe they can't because the Japanese government like American government doesn't fund game developers directly or indirectly anymore.

[GamingSinceForever]

We should’ve figured something was coming when Tango’s creative director left not long after the acquisition.

[lucian229]

all of this only further proves gamepass is trash; it shows it doesnt matter how great the game is nor the reception. It consumes all sales and makes everything a self defeat

[RNTody]

Ninja Theory will be joining you soon. May as well go independent or team up with someone else.

[outsider1624]

If MS learn from this...then they should also release it on PS5, both physical and digital.

[RNTody]

It's inevitable bud, Microsoft is going to release their games on all platforms, and collect revenue from ownership of the IP. They're priming the situation now with Sea of Thieves. The most we'll see is a "first on Game Pass" in my opinion, until eventually all games will end up on PlayStation and even Nintendo if the Switch 2 can handle it.

[lodossrage]

@outsider1624

I agree, but it doesn't make a difference if you give it to the ps crowd a year later. Most of the time, games given to opposing platforms 6 months or more later tend to not do well

So unless that ps version is going to be same day as the xbox one, it won't fair any better than hi fi rush did.

[lodossrage]

@RBTody,

if they do that first on gamepass thing you're saying then they'll be in the same position they're in now. Gamers don't like to be kept waiting if another platform has something majority of the time.

I said this earlier, but the only way to save gamepass is to do the one thing they can't do. That is get rid of the Day 1 first party games in the service.

[Psychonaut85]

I love the one Xbot downvote on all these comments 😂

[Silly Mammo]

Obscure?

[anast]

The game didn't make enough money. It probably didn't make too much more than the budget. Awards don't make money.

[VersusDMC]

But Microsoft said it was a success...

https://www.gameshub.com/ne...

I guess we learned never to trust anything they say...

[lucian229]

only didnt make money because it was on gamepass sadly

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Gamepass and even Microsoft said it was successful unless they were lying.... Nani.

[lodossrage]

I don't know why someone disagreed with you.

MS publically said Hi Fi rush was a success and hit their metrics.

[anast]

They were lying.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

@anast

Well man they said it themselves then you know. They're snakes Microsoft doesn't care about us no companies does tbh.

[ocelot07]

Now just imagine if this was not on gamepass and had to buy it to play it. I'm pretty sure it would of sold well.

Or if Xbox didn't buy a whole publisher. This would of been on PS5 and maybe switch a year ago and would of sold better.

[lodossrage]

@anast,

the problem is how much money can anything make when you actively promote playing it for pennies on the dollar?

[anast]

This is a great point.

But if the game were a success despite this they would have threw a bunch of money at this studio. But it only hit 6k on steam so the fans of this genre weren't really into it either.

[lodossrage]

They weren't into it because Microsoft didn't give it a fair shot. They shadow dropped it out of the blue. It has no advertising.

And it doesn't help that MS themselves openly touted it being a success early on.

With people having less disposable money, it's more important to advertise than ever so people can fiscally prepare. So shadow dropping didn't do it any favors either.

[jwillj2k4]

This means no matter how successful a game is and sells it will go into the black hole of debt gamepass and acquisitions have created. Fucking insane they didn’t see this happening. Even COD money would be a drop in the ocean of massive debt they’ve just incurred.

[lodossrage]

But that's MS's fault.

You can't tell people for the past 9 years that sales don't matter and "engagement" is what's important. Then give your new games away for pennies on the dollar and expect it to sell well. Not to mention they PUBLICALLY said Hi Fi rush was a success AND hit all their metrics.

If they do that call of duty on gamepass thing, it won't just hurt xbox game sales, that can potentially take away game sales from playstation and personal computer too. Because if you have one of the aformentioned 2 along with xbox, why pay full price when I can play the newest COD for pennies on the dollar?

There's only ONE way to save gamepass, And that is to take Day 1 games off the product. But they know they can't do that because THAT was what set them apart and it will make their fanbase really angry.

But oh well, this is the price of conditioning your audience to think they should get things for pennies on the dollar rather than buying.

[anast]

Steam players are a good indication of how successful this kind of game is. It only hit a 6k peak on Steam. This means while some people liked it despite Game Pass, not enough people liked it to justify their place in a megacorporation.

It would have done okay as an independent title, but even then the studio would have barely turned a profit on this particular game. To be honest, the game wasn't that special. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, it is not a good thing that people lost their jobs.

[Nacho_Z]

It'd be a clever move for Sony to pick up the team and set them to work. Cheap, good PR and they're a talented bunch.

[lodossrage]

I agree

But at the same time, we have to remember that when Embracer, Microsoft, Tencent, etc all went buy crazy, Sony didn't buy very many. There's a good reason for that. You don't take more than you can handle. So they probably want to reform tango, But they'd have to make sure their finances are good for it.

[Crows90]

Xbox management is not interested in games...that's where you got it wrong.

[Ninver]

Nothing will ever be enough for the grim reaper of gaming.

[hard joe]

enough is never for greed capitalism

[RiseNShine]

hifi rush wasn't a stup1d GAS with a million micro transactions, what did you expect? To be honest Microsoft has always done that, since the beginning where Bill Gates copied everything Apple did and purchased every kind of developer, invention or patent, just to throw them to the bin most of the time to avoid competition, it's just MS being MS.

[boing1]

Duh. It's a corporation. Never enough.

[TGG_overlord]

Pure slaughter fest...

[Petebloodyonion]

At one point Phil Spencer will need to address that!
He's been the one telling us that Xbox was about diversity, praising games like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment, and how he believes in smaller projects versus only AAA gaming
and strangely he's been very quiet lately.

Again Spencer needs to address this and accept responsibility.

[S2Killinit]

This is what happens when gamers advocate for consolidation of gaming by one corporate entity. We ALL have less to play now. Enjoy.

[VariantAEC]

Most other publishers don't can successful studios. Only Microsoft does that.