Xbox says it wants more small, award-worthy games like Hi-Fi Rush, immediately after closing the studio behind that game.
On May 8th, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty held a town hall to discuss its recent closures of four studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Dishonored maker Arkane Austin. According to The Verge, Booty took some time to talk about Xbox’s future goals amid the closures, and that’s when he made a particularly questionable comment.
“We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,” Booty told employees, per The Verge. The quote was quickly derided on social media, given that it came just one day after Xbox shuttered Hi-Fi Rush, a game that was exactly what Booty called for: “smaller and awards-worthy.”
As Hi-Fi Rush director John Johanas has explained, it was largely a smaller team at Tango Gameworks that made the game. Xbox also charges only $38.99 for Hi-Fi Rush, more than half the standard price of most games, which further points to its status as a “smaller” title for the company.
What’s more, the game garnered significant critical acclaim and won multiple awards from various organizations, including Best Audio Design at The Game Awards. Of course, companies care most about commercial performance, but even by those metrics, Xbox had claimed Hi-Fi Rush was a hit.
“Hi-Fi Rush was a breakout 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,” said Aaron Greenberg, Xbox’s vice president of marketing, on X (formerly Twitter) last year. Hi-Fi Rush was also just released on PS5 in March, which would have expanded its audience.
As noted by The Verge, Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s CEO of Gaming, also told Kinda Funny last year how important it is to give Xbox teams “the creative platform to go and push their ability, push their aspirations.” Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported yesterday that Tango Gameworks had been pitching a Hi-Fi Rush sequel, as well as Arkane Austin wanting to do Dishonored 3 or a similar game, but of course, we now know they weren’t able to do so.
The closure of Tango also goes against something that Spencer has been talking about for years: Japanese games on Xbox. After all, the team was Xbox’s sole Japanese team, and it even had talent that had been mentored by legendary Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami, who left the studio last year.
Speaking with Game Watch last year, Spencer was even asked about Xbox creating “uniquely Japanese AAA titles such as Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon,” which were from the Xbox 360 era, to which he replied that Xbox is “currently developing new games in collaboration with Japanese companies.” Naturally, faith in the company’s commitment to the Japanese market feels particularly shaken after the closure of such a beloved Japanese developer.
As it stands, neither Spencer nor other Xbox leaders have commented publicly on the closures. Bloomberg reports that Booty attributed the cuts to leadership feeling understaffed with all of the Bethesda studios, which is an interesting comment given that Activision Blizzard’s large lineup of teams just joined the Xbox family.
It remains to be seen how the company will address all of this, especially as it prepares for its big Xbox Games Showcase next month.
Image credit: Xbox
Source: The Verge
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