“I’m sharing changes we are making to our Bethesda teams”.
We’re all somewhat in shock by today’s news surrounding the closure of four Bethesda development studios, including the teams behind the likes of Hi-Fi RUSH and Redfall. While it’s hard to wrap your head around why Xbox would go out and buy these studios only to shut them down a few years later, Xbox’s internal email on the matter does give us some insight as to why Microsoft has made this move.
As per IGN, Xbox’s Matt Booty addressed employees about the closures today. Booty said “the changes are grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles” and that it wants to invest in “Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds” - hinting that basically; Microsoft wants to focus on bigger releases and stronger IP over at Bethesda. Here’s a bit more of that statement:
Better give us a really fucking good Elder Scrolls 6 if you’re gonna pull this shit
So they decided to buy the competition and then close it down because it wasn’t profitable enough.
Microsoft in a nutshell.
Great, that means more blockbuster superhits like Starfield and less smaller games like Hi-Fi Rush - can’t wait!
Bloody hell, gaming sucks ass recently, and not in a good way either… :(
gaming sucks ass recently
So we’re just gonna ignore Baldur’s Gate 3, then…?
That’s what happens when the FTC lets the entire industry merger into a handful of companies.
The FTC has tried to stop a lot of mergers lately. The courts and the lack of strong antitrust laws in America are the problem more than them IMO
To be fair if the blockbuster superhits are actually good that would be fantastic. And focusing more on fewer titles could achieve that. As long as they aren’t just laying people off for the hell of it.
Tl;dr - Risks are scary. Must make line go up.