Sniper Monkey

Microsoft shuts down Tango Gameworks

May 07, 2024
#game-industry

Or how corporate *will* kill your darlings

Remember how I expressed concern about Discord being potentially bought by Microsoft like two weeks ago?

Yeah, haha… they just shut down two estemeed game studios.

Arkane Austin took part in developing the smash hit Dishonored, and while they weren’t involved in the sequel (Arkane Lyon was the main developer), they created Prey, a now-cult-classic immersive sim. Unfortunately for them, after Zenimax (parent company to Arkane, Tango, and other studios) got acquired by Microsoft, Arkane Austin’s next game (Redfall) flopped. This one slip up was seemingly enough of a reason for Microsoft to kill the studio off.

Tango Gameworks were the creators of The Evil Within, two great action-horror games which I enjoyed a ton. In recent times Tango also published the pretty well received Ghostwire and critically acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush. I’m at a loss about why this studio got closed.

Coming in a long line of studios getting acquired and shut down, I can’t help but wonder, what are the goals of those big companies with this? Surely Microsoft are not getting their investments back from killing game studios mere 2-3 years after acquiring them? Both Tango and Arkane Austin managed to publish only one game each since the 2021 takeover. They weren’t given a second chance or time to make something better (unrelated: Elden Ring becomes 2022’s bestseller and FromSoftware’s most successful game to date as the studio’s director talks about retaining staff and cultivating talent).

My second guess is that the takeovers are aimed at acquiring intellectual property and revenue from older successful games. But reviving old IPs is quite rare, and most of profits on games is made in the first year after publishing, a third of which is in the first week. So this option doesn’t sound very plausible.

That leaves me with a conspiracy theory that is much more likely than it may seem, given Microsoft’s track record. My best guess is that MS are simply buying their way into market domination.

They already own what feels like a half of the gaming industry. The publishers/studios they acquired include:

In light of that, I think it doesn’t matter to them that some studio makes great games. What matters is that they are no longer competition. Making decent profits? Good. Not performing well? Even better! Kill it off and they have one less risky investment. Call of Duty will earn them millions anyway.