Video game development is hard and it can take years of understanding multiple engines, narrative weaving, designing models, and a whole host of other small roles that keep the machine going and the mission clear. Developers, at least in the AAA space, often have a person for every part of game development — producers, directors, animators, writers, modelers, programmers, sound designers, these are all positions that someone else plays a hand in and if everyone gives it their all, it can make something truly fantastic.
The onslaught of layoffs as of the last few years is — to me, at least — largely due to over-hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic and a general lack of quality games worth the $70 price tag attached, most games we get fall short of that coveted price that is now an industry standard. Games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are exceptions rather than the rule of AAA game development.
In case you’ve missed it, it was reported on May 7 that Microsoft has nixed three studios — Alpha Dog Games, Arkane Austin, and Tango Gameworks — and absorbed one — Roundhouse Games. The one that hit the hardest for many was Tango Gameworks, the developer had a history of high-quality, high-rated games across its decade of developing games.
Hi-Fi RUSH was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release.
— Aaron Greenberg 🙅🏼♂️💚U (@aarongreenberg) April 21, 2023
The Evil Within series was beloved by the horror community while Ghostwire: Tokyo took the studio in a different yet familiar direction — a game with horror elements that played to its strengths of being a Japanese developer by utilizing spectors based on real myths and yokai.
Its biggest departure, though, was its last game — the shadow-dropped Hi-Fi Rush, a game that threw its dark elements out the window with high-octane rhythm movement and combat. It was truly a game that captured audiences and if it were just a slight bit more than just a single game, it could’ve managed to be a console seller, but for one reason or another, that’s never going to happen — Microsoft closed down the studio.
The reason this is more notable than Arkane Austin and Alpha Dog Games is because this studio was very successful, for all the layoffs that happened from the usual suspects, most of the time, the studio’s layoffs were a result of inconsistent releases (if it released anything at all) or not-up-to-snuff sales results for the games it did release.
When it makes sense
The closure of Volition, for example, was due to a restructuring of its parent company, Embracer Group, but rather than just layoff the studio or sell it, the company shuttered the long-running developer behind the Saints Row games, but at least its previous game it released flopped, that being the Saints Row reboot, giving some level of “oh yeah, that makes sense.”
A letter to our community. pic.twitter.com/vtFM7szLbN
— Volition (@DSVolition) September 1, 2023
Daedalic Entertainment’s development branch closed down chiefly because of the abhorrent reception to The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, its debut game and one where it was supposedly working on a sequel for.
Developer Paladin Studios closed down because it just wasn’t getting enough work and its finances were running dry.
These are examples of understandable studio closures, it’s never ideal, as this means people are out of the job, but it’s a required thing. People can scream all they want, but game companies really just want developers that can rake in profit, and if your studio is eating its bottom line for too long, why keep it open? Why keep it open if all it’s doing is wasting its money on a project that likely won’t succeed because of negative feelings toward the developer of said project?
Quality doesn’t matter anymore
Tango’s closure was a sting, and can — for some — cause a ripple of questioning whether they even want in the industry seeing how people are treated. In the olden days, producing high-quality products can save you from the harsh closure of your studio, but in the gaming industry, it’s not that way… at least not anymore. You can be on top of the world, but just as likely to end up on the chopping block as your failing peers.
The only way you are safe is if you’re too big for the parent to ignore — the Bethesdas of the world, basically. Xbox would never close the studio, it could release 10 games with the same critic reviews and audience criticisms as Starfield and still throw millions upon millions into its ventures. It’s too big to fail yet it fails a lot.
It’s sad really, the industry can be great, but game dev job security is nowhere to be seen and if Tango’s closure has told us anything, it’s not gonna get better even if you make “smaller games” that give big studios “prestige and awards.”
