With the merger legally settled, the grinder gets turned on the smaller studios, including Bethesda Austin, Tango, and several others.

(Read: If you're going to complain about the source, go find one yourself. I'm not your mother here to regurgitate food in your mouth the way you prefer it.)

I'm not sure what people were expecting with the Microsoft/ABK merger. It's classic EEE. And I hope that these Gamers:tm: start learning a different OS soon, cause a lot of them are saying they won't support the company. :laughing:

YongYea did a good video with many sources too about the situation.
Good video with good opinions and ok analysis in the situation. Just sad anyways.

About they (the normies) not supporting microsoft:

Hypocrisy or ignorance, at best.
The masses would only stop supporting Microsoft if, and only if, major companies stoped doing so because so many things on main market depends on Microsoft right now its insane, and they wont.

Since this is a gaming market situation, theres a chance some gamers will start learning Linux because of how Steam is supporting Linux now with SteamOS and SteamDeck, so thats good at least.

--edit:

Wait, GOG forums don't merge posts automaticaly anymore?
eh...

There's a timing window, and it's kinda small.

I sometimes think, what does it mean in practice MS or whoever shuts down a studio? Are they laying off everyone in the studio, and if so, can't those employees just form a new studio and keep doing their great games? Like that Japanese studio (Evil Within 1-2 etc.) that MS closed down?

Of course it may become hairier if big part of those former employees are employed to other positions within the company... but then that is kinda good news in itself I guess.

If it is about losing the big investor who poured money to your game development (and marketing etc.), of course that sucks, but then you get the freedom of making games you really wanted to make in the first place, instead of the online Redfall. Get financing from a Kickstart campaign or an in-dev release or whatever...

Somehow I don't normally become that attached to game studios, only good games. Good games seem to come from various studios, I don't really care who made it, and sometimes studios that made some great games, fail with their newer games.

It pays to keep an eye on certain individuals within a gaming company that makes games that you like. For instance, knowing who the lead developer(s), chief artist(s), and even QA staff can help you to deterimine if a game is going to be fun, well polished, have a good soundtrack, etc. Even something as simple as finding out where a person worked can help figure out if the game is going to be fun and stable at release or soon after.

Think about it: if I were to say to you that a group of people were developing a new game in whatever genre you like but that group were ex-Bethesda or ex-Activision developers, would you honestly think that the game would be worth playing and/or stable on release?

And who'd pay the salaries and bills while those next great games will be made? If all of those employees would be able to weather a few months of no income, which is already a huge if, it might work for a small studio, especially one from a country where there may even be government funding available for such projects too, maybe falling under art funding. But those are pretty rare, and the period for submissions may be fixed, maybe once or twice a year, so even in those few countries they may be out of luck unless it happens just then. As for crowdfunding, it may definitely work, but again, for a small studio, no way it'd cover the expenses of even a mid-tier one, and at the same time the funding attempt might fail, plus that it will again take some time to come up with a good pitch for the new game, and until the campaign will end and the funds will come through, if successful. And having something to release as in dev may well take a year or more, so that's the path forward, after obtaining the initial funding, not the first step.
The only thing that might work for any larger studio would be to pitch that new game to other major publishers and hope one will take it, but that still requires having something to pitch, and the number of those major publishers keeps diminishing, and they're ever more risk averse, so the chances of one willing to take up something that another considered not worth it look grim.

These corporations will suffocate under the weight of DEI and the competency crisis it causes. Microsoft's own output is terrible and has been for over a decade now, and their new subsidiaries are no better. Hi-Fi Rush probably did well, but not enough to save Tango Gameworks in the eyes of the suits. They needed to cut costs, and Tango, a niche developer without Shinji Mikami's support, was seen as an obvious choice to cull. Likewise with Arkane Austin, who released the horrid Redfall a year ago.

At this point the only thing I want from Microsoft are non-MCC releases of Halo 1-3 and Reach for GOG. Native PC ports of each game, in their original forms, with multiplayer and a reasonable assortment of QOL upgrades and mod support. Release them all DRM-free with no account requirement, and call it a day.

The sad thing is Phil Spencer says Xbox "needs smaller games that give prestige and awards" aka actually good games like Hi-Fi Rush days after closing down Tango.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/8/24152137/xbox-hi-fi-rush-tango-gameworks-matt-booty

Tango also represented Xbox's commitment to bring Japanese exclusives to the console so shutting it down is a slap in the face to Xbox fans of Japanese games as well.

I honeslty havent cared much about Xbox exclusives. Halo 1 to 3 would be nice I guess (not really a FPS player). I am really excited about Hi-fi rush being multiplatform and have been hoping for a physical release. In this case, it seems that employees are getting cut/leave the company. This initiative by Microsoft is also combined with cutting staff so the closing down of studios likely means the employees of those studios are getting laid off rather than being reallocated to other studios. Maybe Microsoft could keep some key people but its probable they are firing the studio employees wholesale.

I think following Studios is honestly a good policy, especially if they have good employees. Clover Studio made some great games like Okami, God Hand, and Beautiful Joe but closed down with key members then forming PlatinumGames which has also been making amazing games (MG RIsing, Nier, Bayo).

Shinji Mikami seems to be an entrepreneur, having set up a new studio called KAMUY in 2023. He already has alot of big titles under his belt (Resident Evil likely his most famous but also attached to titles like God Hand and Evil Within series) so is likely good at getting investors. I wouldnt be surprised if the currently laid off Tango employees go to KAMUY (assuming Mikami is a good boss. That I dont know).

Stick that conspiracy in a nice hole somewhere and light it on fire, I'm not interested in entertaining it. I have a suggestion, but it involves paying the entire executive suite 90% than their current wages, including stocks, options, bonds, and bonuses.

Then you simply redistribute the newly found breathing room onto the workers. Alternately, you pay everyone the same stipend, because why should the Middle Manager of Middle Managers be considered any more important than a DevOps? It depends who and when they left the company. For example, I think Bethesda's Todd Howard would be a Peter Molyneux style figure; he claims well in advance of his actual talents and stopped being useful in 1997. I don't know if it's factual, but this does feel like slash and burn tactics from the read.

I am sorry I cannot learn a different Operation System (OS) Linux is to hard. Some Linux users said there are easy versions of Linux to use, but I cannot understand terminal most of the time.

I am sorry, but I will continue using Windows until the day I die. I still even use Windows XP.

I just purchased these past four months over eighty dollars (USD) worth of MicroSoft published video games.

Linux will never be for me until it gets its self to be much much easier to use than it is now.

Sorry dude not Linux usage for me not in my life time.

Damn MS.

I worry for Obsidian sometimes.

(눈_눈) It sounds more Blizzard online only games will appear. I don't think "Bringing more Xbox games to multiple platforms" will happen. Before they close their competitors~

It may be the reason is that I very rarely play brand-new games, or actively follow what new games are in the pipeline and who are making them. I play games lagging behind, so of course it is easier for me to select games to buy and play by simply their reviews, not who is making them. For instance, when I first heard about e.g. Disco Elysium, it didn't really sound something I'd enjoy (don't know even why, just seemed like a bland game), but later the great reviews made me buy the game.

The same actually applies to movies and TV series. I don't really look forward to some forthcoming movies (I just couldn't care less if there is some new Avengers movie or Star Wars TV-series coming, probably crap anyway; Matrix 4 certainly sucked, no wonder there), I usually learn about them afterwards by the rave reviews.

Like, say, someone in this forum praising the Expanse TV-series (which is already close to 10 years old TV-series) when the Expanse game was released here (I got the game too), or getting interested into Killing Eve after seeing some Youtube-video which showed the marvelous introduction of the psychopath antagonist at the beginning of the very first episode. I am totally fine watching TV-series and movies lacking behind, picking only the great or interesting ones, and not having to wonder if the TV series will be cancelled after its first or second season because it didn't amass enough viewers or the media company just wanted to save money.

Which reminds me, I've meant to watch Sopranos from start to finish at some point. So far I've only seen glimpses of individual episodes here and there back when it was a running TV series on our national TV channels.

There are some exceptions, e.g. I got interested in the forthcoming Kingmakers game after seeing some Youtube-video about the poor state of AAA game development, and how something like Kingmakers is an antithesis (and cure) to that, according to that video. So I guess I am now looking forward to that game, but I have absolutely no idea who is making the game (are they some barely 20 year olds making their first major commercial game, or some famous ex-Origin and Sierra Online developers), and should I care.

Then again if and when that game doesn't come to GOG, it'll lessen the likelihood of me buying it, unless it turns out to be VERY good.

Normal everyday usage within the GUI with Linux doesn't really differ from using Windows. Hey there's the Firefox or Chromium web browser icon, I guess one can get online to web pages by double-clicking it? And there's the start menu behind which you can find different applications and system tools.

Even my technically-challenged wife can easily use Linux for her daily tasks, admittedly I've set up an account for her (but then so I have set up Windows user accounts e.g. for my boys, so that's not different from Windows either really...).

The more advanced stuff like how to configure this and that, that is what Google is for. You don't have to really understand what you are doing, just follow the instructions, after awhile you will probably get it too after doing the same task several times according to the instructions.

The reason why those Linux instructions are for terminal is because then it is easier to give precise instructions, rather than guiding what to click on the graphical user interface, especially as there are lots of options for those in various Linux distributions.

My godfather became an avid Linux user (mostly moving from Windows to Linux) when he was well over 50 years old, and he is not really an IT nerd either (psychoanalyst by profession, anything but an autistic IT guy).


Now, if you just unwilling to learn a different kind of OS... that is another barrier of course. I similarly have no desire to learn e.g. MacOS or iOS as I just see no point to it, no reason whatsoever for me to move to the Apple world either with my phones or my computers, and I even resist it a bit. Well, the new ARM-based Mac laptops intrigued me somewhat, but I dislike their "glue everything together, nothing can be replaced or added by yourself, even the SSD"-design, yuck!

EDIT: But if we are specifically talking about PC gaming, that certainly still is Linux' achilles heel as it still means mainly trying to get Windows games to run on Linux, which is extra hoops for normal user, usually more tinkering involved than getting the same game run on Windows (albeit sometimes it is surprisingly easy too and not much extra effort is needed at all.

IMHO that is the right way for Linux gaming trying to become more popular: make it easier and easier to run Windows games on Linux. If that succeeds, then more and more developers will start supporting Linux also officially, even making native Linux games. Expecting them to make them now for a 1% user base is even less believable than them releasing their games on GOG!