{"id":280674,"date":"2024-05-09T08:11:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T15:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/es\/?p=332062"},"modified":"2025-07-01T16:32:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T23:32:28","slug":"microsofts-situation-has-not-ended-according-to-the-most-famous-analyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/microsofts-situation-has-not-ended-according-to-the-most-famous-analyst\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft&#8217;s situation has not ended according to the most famous analyst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Microsoft is not having the best week of its life. At least not when it comes to Xbox. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/microsoft-has-decided-to-close-four-bethesda-game-studios-all-at-once\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Having closed four game studios out of nowhere<\/a>, without giving further explanations, brand users and game fans are angry. And while <strong>normally the explanation for these things is commercial performance, it seems that this time there is something else<\/strong>. Or rather, something less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-05-08\/xbox-studio-closures-microsoft-plans-more-cost-cutting-measures-after-layoffs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">According to Jason Schreier<\/a>, one of the most important journalists in the gaming industry, <strong>this sudden closure has been the result of a cost-cutting initiative that is not yet finished<\/strong>. Stating that, in fact, all of this is only going to get worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Redfall \u2013 \u201cWelcome to Redfall\u201d Official Trailer\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZwY9IncC6XI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you don&#8217;t know what happened, last Tuesday, May 7th, Microsoft announced the closure of four studios from one of its subsidiaries, ZeniMax. <strong>These were Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios<\/strong>. They are known respectively for creating Redfall and Prey, The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush, Mighty Doom, and an unnamed project that has been canceled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With little explanation, the studios were closed via email by Matt Booty, director of Xbox Game Studios. <strong>Stating in that same email that they are looking to reprioritize titles and resources, he has only promised to relocate part of the Roundhouse Studios team<\/strong>, who will now work on the production of The Elder Scrolls Online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of this comes after Redfall was a commercial failure for Arkane Austin, but Mighty Doom performed relatively well for Alpha Dog Games and Hi-Fi Rush was a success in terms of reviews, sales, and downloads on GamePass for Tango Gameworks after a more discreet success with Ghostwire Tokyo. Something that makes the sudden and impersonal closures tremendously surprising, especially the closure of Tango Gameworks. <strong>A game that, in May 2023, one of the leaders of the Xbox marketing department called &#8220;a success in every measure&#8221;<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"sc-card-affiliation\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__content\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instant-gaming.com\/en\/13480-buy-steam-hi-fi-rush-pc-game-steam\/?igr=softonic1\" class=\"sc-card-affiliation__badge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">-43%<\/a>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__image\">\r\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instant-gaming.com\/en\/13480-buy-steam-hi-fi-rush-pc-game-steam\/?igr=softonic1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\r\n                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_app-icon-s\/p\/9f640921-c010-46af-bf52-638ec1887065\/2422683042\/hi-fi-rush-mobile-logo\">\r\n            <\/a>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__body\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__text\">\r\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instant-gaming.com\/en\/13480-buy-steam-hi-fi-rush-pc-game-steam\/?igr=softonic1\" class=\"sc-card-affiliation__title\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hi-Fi Rush<\/a>\r\n        <p class=\"sc-card-affiliation__supplier\">\r\n          From: <strong>Instant-Gaming<\/strong>\r\n        <\/p>\r\n        <p class=\"sc-card-affiliation__price\">\r\n          16.99\u20ac <strike>30\u20ac<\/strike>\r\n        <\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__cta\">\r\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instant-gaming.com\/en\/13480-buy-steam-hi-fi-rush-pc-game-steam\/?igr=softonic1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"sc-card-affiliation__button\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Get Offer<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to all this, it is worth mentioning all the information that has come out in subsequent days. <strong>Such as the fact that Arkane Austin was working on an update for Redfall to add a single-player mode and a promised DLC in its special edition<\/strong>. But according to Schreier, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the drama that Xbox is immersed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last Wednesday morning, Xbox and Zenimax executives held a meeting with the employees of the latter company. In this meeting, <strong>Xbox President and man who fired hundreds of people and closed four studios via email, Matt Booty, praised the work done by Tango Gameworks with Hi-Fi Rush<\/strong>. However, he did not provide any explanation as to why he had suddenly closed the studio for which he only had good words for their game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About the closures, he only spoke in general terms, stating that they tried to cover too much with so many studies. Like someone spreading butter on bread. <strong>Because of that, the most important studies in the division felt lacking the human resources they needed<\/strong>. Because of that, they have decided to close these four studies to free up resources and allow these other studies that need it to grow organically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dishonored Definitive Edition - Launch Gameplay Trailer\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hbZI08Wxd-k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of this comes with some particularly brutal twists. The first one is that the fact that Redfall was a critical and commercial failure had nothing to do with its closure. The next one is that, in fact, <strong>the two largest studios out of the four were already planning sequels<\/strong>. At Arkane, they wanted to go back to their roots and make a new immersive sim, perhaps a new Dishonored. At Tango Gameworks, they wanted to capitalize on the success of Hi-Fi Rush and make a sequel. Two possibilities that no longer exist, as both studios have been closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If Booty&#8217;s statements weren&#8217;t demoralizing and alarming enough, then Jill Braff, head of ZeniMax Studios, took the floor. <strong>Stating that it is difficult to sustain nine studios worldwide, she says that this &#8220;reorganization&#8221; will serve to focus on fewer projects<\/strong>. Something that aligns with the idea of exclusively focusing on larger and more beneficial short-term projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regarding the reason why these studios are closing, beyond empty words, <strong>the most convincing reason given by Booty is that both Tango and Arkane had released a game in 2023 and were now looking to hire new staff to present new projects<\/strong>. This implies that the success or failure of the projects, within ZeniMax and Xbox, is absolutely irrelevant. What matters is whether their personal accounts balance for the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"sc-card-affiliation\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__content\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instant-gaming.com\/en\/5137-buy-steam-dishonored-complete-collection-complete-collection-pc-game-steam\/?igr=softonic1\" class=\"sc-card-affiliation__badge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">-79<\/a>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__image\">\r\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instant-gaming.com\/en\/5137-buy-steam-dishonored-complete-collection-complete-collection-pc-game-steam\/?igr=softonic1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\r\n                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_app-icon-s\/p\/f3381303-688e-4916-8ebe-9d4736043706\/718853435\/dishonored-definitive-edition-logo\">\r\n            <\/a>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__body\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__text\">\r\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instant-gaming.com\/en\/5137-buy-steam-dishonored-complete-collection-complete-collection-pc-game-steam\/?igr=softonic1\" class=\"sc-card-affiliation__title\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dishonored: Complete Collection<\/a>\r\n        <p class=\"sc-card-affiliation__supplier\">\r\n          From: <strong>Instant-Gaming<\/strong>\r\n        <\/p>\r\n        <p class=\"sc-card-affiliation__price\">\r\n          14.75\u20ac <strike>70\u20ac<\/strike>\r\n        <\/p>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-affiliation__cta\">\r\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instant-gaming.com\/en\/5137-buy-steam-dishonored-complete-collection-complete-collection-pc-game-steam\/?igr=softonic1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"sc-card-affiliation__button\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Get Offer<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of this is even worse when you consider the context from which it comes. <strong>Microsoft acquired ZeniMax and Activision Blizzard for over $76 billion and last February cut over 1,900 jobs<\/strong>. Most of them from Activision Blizzard, arguing that there were redundancies to be eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In three months, not only have they gone from having tremendous redundancies within Microsoft, but they are also short of staff in their key studios. <strong>Something that doesn&#8217;t fit with any coherent business strategy, except that they may have lied in some of their statements<\/strong>. Except that, apparently, Xbox&#8217;s business strategy has not been working as expected for several years now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Xbox has been investing heavily and consistently in Xbox Game Pass for a few years now. <strong>Their business model has been to offer great games, but also smaller and experimental games, through a competitively priced streaming service<\/strong>. Games like Hi-Fi Rush. Making it enough, even if a game didn&#8217;t necessarily sell well, if it helped grow the Game Pass numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Esto es Xbox Game Pass  - Tr\u00e1iler\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pPnWPwVF_AQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem is that, according to Mat Piscatella, executive director of the analysis firm Circana, monthly subscriptions to video game streaming services have hardly grown since mid-2021. <strong>The biggest growth of Game Pass happened between late 2019 and early 2021, plummeting since then<\/strong>. Buying video games and free-to-play games with in-game purchases are the preferred ways for players. At least for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In any case, Xbox&#8217;s content and services have grown by 62% in the last quarter. <strong>Something that, according to Daniel Ahmad, analyst at Niko Partners, has been entirely due to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.<\/strong> With a 5% decrease in profits year over year, no real growth in software or services, and a significant drop in hardware sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is Microsoft&#8217;s plan from here? We don&#8217;t know. They are discussing whether to bring Call of Duty to Xbox Game Pass or not, but we don&#8217;t know their specific plan. <strong>It seems that streaming services are not the future, not even for video games, and their plan to make medium and small games relied on that service<\/strong>. That, along with the fact that insiders have repeated that this is not over, makes us fear for the state of all Xbox and ZeniMax studios that don&#8217;t make Call of Duty, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls. Because unfortunately, right now, it seems that they are all at risk of being closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft has abruptly closed four studios, and it seems that the situation will not end soon, nor do they seem to have any sort of plan regarding it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9268,"featured_media":280676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":2},"categories":[],"tags":[1072,1404,6588],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-280674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-microsoft","tag-xbox","tag-zenimax"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313286,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280674\/revisions\/313286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280674"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=280674"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=280674"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=280674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}