This week, I originally planned to preview the forthcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops reveal in June, maybe focus on Nintendo finally acknowledging the successor to the Nintendo Switch, or talk about some of the great releases this week, such as the Metroidvania puzzler Animal Well, but Xbox decided to steal the headlines and the attention of everyone for all the wrong reasons. Before going forward, I need to address it, and I’m not going to sugarcoat things: Xbox has fucked it. Royally.
The closure of four development studios—including Tango Gameworks, the developer of Hi-Fi Rush—and the resulting town hall meeting insulted developers whom the decision had impacted. Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, said, “We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards.” Umm?
The irony isn’t lost on anyone. Hi-Fi Rush was one of the highest-rated games of 2023 and the highest-rated Xbox first-party game of the year (even landing above Forza Motorsport). The game had a unique art style and eclectic soundtrack, combining rhythm and hack-n-slash gameplay mechanics to appeal to a variety of different players. Hi-Fi Rush was future franchise material, and to see the entire studio collapse is heartbreaking. Legendary Japanese developer Shinji Mikami created Tango Gameworks to usher in a new generation of developers, and now it’s all gone.
Hi-Fi Rush was shadow-dropped at Xbox’s inaugural Developer Direct in January 2023 and was a lovely surprise, but in hindsight, it should have received a proper rollout. Game Pass, while a fantastic offer for players, is likely unsustainable for a billion-dollar corporation obsessed with profit like Microsoft. I’d love to see what happened in a different universe where Game Pass didn’t exist and Hi-Fi Rush received the care and pricing it deserved. Many have discussed whether or not Hi-Fi Rush is a “small game” that fits Booty’s criteria. The fact that Microsoft valued the game at $30 says it all to me.
It’s not just Tango. Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios all suffered the same fate, although some developers will continue to work in different studios (a minuscule silver lining). There is no excuse for closing four development studios mere months after a $70 billion acquisition victory lap. My heart goes out to all affected.
The future is bleak for the Xbox brand, and it feels increasingly clear that it is being swallowed into the Microsoft Gaming brand that has been active since 2022. Phil Spencer ran up an $80 billion tab on acquisitions and now feels the pressure to get a quick return –something Game Pass can’t provide. Internal speculation on the fate of Call of Duty on Game Pass is a clear sign that Microsoft does not have complete confidence in the service. Can it offer Call of Duty 2024 on Game Pass and miss out on $70-$100 per player for one game? We’ll find out shortly. If it does keep its promise of CoD on Game Pass, I expect a sharp increase in Game Pass subscription prices. This likely won’t impact the quality of the game, but it would be nice if we could get a Treyarch Call of Duty release that wasn’t full of controversy, poor publisher decisions, and a rushed development.
Hopefully, the June showcase can put some fears to rest, but it will take a lot of work for Xbox to regain the trust of its fanbase and the wider gaming community. We can no longer take anything the company says at face value, and no matter how many exciting games are announced, there will always be the feeling that more closures are just around the corner.