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Games Industry Reacts to Tango Gameworks Closure: "Why?"

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
With the announcement, many have expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision. However, it's not just gamers who are angry about the closure of these studios; several famous names in the industry have taken to social media to criticize Microsoft's decision:

John Johanas (Creative Director of Tango)

So that's how it ends... Unfortunately I have no words... But at least thank you to everyone who supported us.
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Johan Pilestedt (CEO of Arrowhead)

I don't understand the closure of Tango Gameworks, I mean... Why close down instead of selling? Surely the team could easily have found a new home. If I have a Rolls Royce 2024 that I don't want anymore, I sell it instead of taking it to the junkyard.
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Rich Lambert (Creative Director of Zenimax Online Studio)

I'm sorry. It's been a pleasure watching the team build this over the years. It was also a pleasure to have the opportunity to talk to you and learn more about the process of something so special and innovative. I'm devastated for the team. It hurts.
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Dinga Bakaba (Creative Director of Arkane Lyon)

This is absolutely terrible. Permission to be human: to any executives reading this, a friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry and that your business as a company is to look after your artists/animators and help them create value for you.
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Michael Douse (Publishing Director at Larian Studios)

I can't imagine how hearing that you're being fired because of *another developer's* prioritization is good for morale, especially if you're at a regional branch of another closed studio - imagine reading that and working at Obsidian or another studio. Madness.
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Cory Barlog (Creative Director of Santa Monica Studio)

Ugh, games industry, what the fuck.
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Alistair Hatch (Bethesda Regional Director)

Angry. Frustrated. Shocked. Furious. Speechless. Stupefied. Perplexed. I have a lot of love for the studios affected. The people who made up those teams were incredible, hard-working, dedicated and talented. This is awful.
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Kyle Rowley (Director of Alan Wake 2)

We took a lot of inspiration from The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2 when developing Alan Wake 2. Both are excellent horror games and I'm very sad that we won't be able to see a continuation of the franchise from Tango Gameworks. We have open positions at Remedy Games, so please get in touch!
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Mikey Dowling (Director of Communications at Obsidian)

Why do I keep working on this?
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Mike Wikan (Metroid Prime Designer)
Sympathy and best wishes to those affected by Microsoft's closure of Arkane Studios here in Austin. Arkane did a solid job and had a highly talented and motivated team. Companies need to understand that destroying their creative production studios is NOT the path to profitability.
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Adam Boyes (CEO of Iron Galaxy Studios) simply posted an image showing that in the first quarter of 2024 Microsoft had a 17% increase in revenue, reaching $21.9 billion in profit.

​
 
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Mr Moose

Mr Moose

Member
8d645d1c-5bef-4551-bd46-c8076bba56c4_text.gif
 
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Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
Deserved. I don’t understand.

I guess sales figures truly is everything these days.

gsFAxwr.jpeg


Does this look like it’s time for a studio closure?
Oh and 97% user rating Steam.

The studios that has been sleeping for the last 5+ years must have something truly spectacular coming to survive the current axe man at MS.
 
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Magic Carpet

Magic Carpet

Member
Let me just add a pin to my Wall of Crazy.
Tango Gameworks pinned all alone. Where do I put the other end of the red string?
 
TheUsual

TheUsual

Gold Member
The scuttlebutt is that talent was already leaving Tango before this. If true, I can see why it happened.
 
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Reactions: Isa
TheUsual

TheUsual

Gold Member
Punished Miku said:
It makes so little sense that this would make some sense. But yeah, waiting for some leaks or Schreir stuff.
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Yeah, definitely want to hear what happened. If this is true, maybe Microsoft is just cutting their losses and didn't see value in developing Tango back up.
 
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Reactions: Isa
A

alphachino

Member
Why? Only explanation is that they're nothing but a shower of cunts. That's why.

edit: MS, I mean.
 
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Tiago Rodrigues

Tiago Rodrigues

Member
Punished Miku said:
This will go down as their worst decision ever. It's the MS version of Japan Studios closure, but even worse. Still don't understand it.
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Not even comparable. Japan studios didn't make a single game that was worth playing in years. Almost a decade in fact.

This studio literally released last year the game that MS considered their biggest success story of Gamepass. The subscription service they pushed for years. This was a huge surprise today.

Sony also didn't close the entire Japan studio. They still managed to salvage the two parts (teams) of the studio that was working properly, Team Asobi (Astro Bot) and xDev Japan.

To even be comparable, Sony would need to close the entirety of Japan studios (including Asobi) one year after they released a huge VR hit (Astro Bot Rescue Mission) which they didn't do.
 
E

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
Wastelander92 said:
Tango was definitely lazy putting out Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire in the last couple of years alone 🙄
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Might be talking about Arkane........nothing released by the Redfall developers in the last year. Did they ever even put in the 60 fps patch they were talking about? EDIT-----Tango thread.....sorry. (too many threads today)
 
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GHG

GHG

Member
Killjoy-NL said:
This makes having to create an account seem so petty...
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Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think they hoped Sony wouldn't have nipped it in the bud as quickly as they did with the way they had all their usual press mouthpieces and lapdogs working overtime on that subject over the weekend.

Still disagree with most of your points on that subject though by the way, it's nowhere near as trivial an issue as you're trying to make out and it's good that the correct outcome was arrived upon.
 
Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Tiago Rodrigues said:
Not even comparable. Japan studios didn't make a single game that was worth playing in years. Almost a decade in fact.

This studio literally released last year the game that MS considered their biggest success story of Gamepass. The subscription service they pushed for years. This was a huge surprise today.

Sony also didn't close the entire Japan studio. They still managed to salvage the two parts (teams) of the studio that was working properly, Team Asobi (Astro Bot) and xDev Japan.

To even be comparable, Sony would need to close the entirety of Japan studios (including Asobi) one year after they released a huge VR hit (Astro Bot Rescue Mission) which they didn't do.
Click to expand...
That and Japan Studio was created and nurtured by Sony. Microsoft bought out a developer that was just fine on its own, had it create one good and one great game under it, then shut it down.
 
Danjin44

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Tango put out good games and from I can understand they sold decently well despite being niche but still not good enough apparently? Do games needs to sell COD numbers in order not to get shutdown?


Monolith Soft's games dont do crazy number but Nintendo still willing supports them because they know they are talented developers.


But with Sony and MS only huge sells matters and nothing else.
 
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lame gag1990

lame gag1990

Member
Mind boggling decision in my opinion. The only interesting developer they had. Oh well, even more reason to go to the competitors...
 
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Killjoy-NL

Killjoy-NL

Member
GHG said:
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I think they hoped Sony wouldn't have nipped it in the bud as quickly as they did with the way they had all their usual press mouthpieces and lapdogs working overtime on that subject over the weekend.
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I wouldn't even be surprised if Xbox instigated the whole account drama to distract from this news.

Let's not forget that they had this secret Discord (incl DF Bagliatella and certain Gaffers) where they came up with the whole FUD-campaign surrounding the "12Tflops vs 9Tflops" narrative.

It would certainly soften blow a bit.
Anyway, certain people not boycotting MS over this is quite hypocritical, because this is a major blow to a handfull of studios.

It is not even clear how extensive the whole deal is outside of the studios that got closed entirely.
GHG said:
Still disagree with most of your points on that subject though by the way, it's nowhere near as trivial an issue as you're trying to make out and it's good that the correct outcome was arrived upon.
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Maybe, but AH and Sony were in talks to make it optional after all for regions outside of PSN territory.
 
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