News Microsoft guts four studios to focus on priority games aka Bethesda games

[Admin]

Microsoft makes ruthless cuts to development staff despite successful releases.

Microsoft guts four studios to focus on priority games aka Bethesda games : Read more

 

[Dr3ams]

Most of the new AAA titles have so much political and social agendas injected into them, that I won't even consider playing the games. I want to play a game without being gaslighted or indoctrinated. Jeez...I miss studios like Westwood.

 

[valthuer]

I miss studios like Westwood.

Those were the days, man! The time and money that company used to dedicate in the cinematic experience alone, put to shame most of the modern-day game developers out there.

You can't imagine how i miss games like Red Alert and Tiberian Sun!

 

[ezst036]

Those were the days, man! The time and money that company used to dedicate in the cinematic experience alone, put to shame most of the modern-day game developers out there.

You can't imagine how i miss games like Red Alert and Tiberian Sun!

I'll add Eye of the Beholder and Dune II. Games were much better when the game itself was the point, the game was the end goal.

As Dr3ams said, it is shameful how politics and gaslighting has corrupted the gaming industry into a vessel for power and the game itself is just a secondary feature. The game is not the goal, the end to attain.

 

[bigdragon]

This news is disgusting. These smaller studios should have been left alone to create unique experiences outside the limits of big franchise IP. I want more games like Hi-Fi Rush. I have zero interest in another Fallout or Elder Scrolls. I really hate the idea in modern capitalism where a studio or product can be successful and have positive cash flow but it isn't successful or profitable enough to be kept operating.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

How about Lords of the Realm 2?

That was a good game. I’d like to see Manor Lords take that model and expand on what they’ve already done.

If you never played it, the whole thing was you had a king who’d died and 5 nobles fighting for the crown. Imagine a map of England and 5 nobles in Manor Lords. That could be a fun game with castles etc.

 

[hotaru251]

i know most of these are sad to see go but the team behind Redfall should of been gutted after they released that "game" long ago....

 

[TechLurker]

Most of the new AAA titles have so much political and social agendas injected into them, that I won't even consider playing the games. I want to play a game without being gaslighted or indoctrinated. Jeez...I miss studios like Westwood.

Very much this. I just want a pure game that tells a long enough story without being plagued with real-world political and social agenda messaging. I want good escapism, a moment to be anywhere else but reality, with a strong story, likable cast, and dialogue that fits the setting.

I get that game development has become expensive, but if some indie devs are still able to turn out memorable games that avoid political messaging while still harkening back to the wilder, whimsical games of the 90s, 00s, and 10s, surely some big-name studios could also afford to continue experimenting and just having fun with smaller IPs they own instead of making everything big budget.

As well, I find that with newer game releases, I'm spending less and less on them and more time going back to playing through a backlog or playing old games again, whether it's Spyro or Tiberium Sun or Final Fantasy. If I do spend, it's usually on niche games like Palworld, Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade, or SaGa. None of which are considered AAA, but provide enough entertainment for hours without feeding me an agenda.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

I find a lot of the AAA games I don’t care about. I am interested in the new Indiana Jones hands as well as I think a new 007 game is supposed to be arriving at some point. This may not be for pc, but really looking forward to the new college football game rumored to be releasing in July.

 

[Notton]

As well, I find that with newer game releases, I'm spending less and less on them and more time going back to playing through a backlog or playing old games again, whether it's Spyro or Tiberium Sun or Final Fantasy. If I do spend, it's usually on niche games like Palworld, Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade, or SaGa. None of which are considered AAA, but provide enough entertainment for hours without feeding me an agenda.

Uhm... Tiberium Sun is a little subtle, and FF depends on which number it was, but Helldivers 2?
HD2 is straight in your face and over the top when it comes to commentary.

 

[Notton]

Activision-Blizzard was an awful company run by a comically evil man.
Them being bought out by Microsoft was never a good thing either.

 

[helper800]

Just to be clear there are plenty of games released today that are very good with no agenda that I can see, however, the games that I play may not be the games that you play. I loved Pathfinder: Kingmaker and the second game Wrath of the righteous. BG3 was also a masterpiece. Wasteland 3 was also great. Nioh and Nioh 2 are my favorite Dark souls style games. Elden Ring is a masterpiece. I could go on, but I think you guys get the point, its not all doom and gloom.

 

[TechLurker]

Uhm... Tiberium Sun is a little subtle, and FF depends on which number it was, but Helldivers 2?
HD2 is straight in your face and over the top when it comes to commentary.

Helldivers 2 is outright satire, like 40k, and Tiberium Sun was straight-up fictional government stuff in a very campy story. There isn't a political agenda being pushed beyond the fictional Super Democracy in HD2. If anyone remotely believes it's supporting or pushing something, they're just as insane as those who take 40k's form of governance seriously.

 

[cryoburner]

Starfield received mixed user reviews and apparently didn't perform quite as well as expected, while Hi-Fi Rush received overwhelmingly positive reviews and far exceeded expectations, so the obvious solution should be to shutter Bethesda Game Studios and put Tango Gameworks in charge of the next Elder Scrolls game.

Really though, Tango Gameworks has had a fairly solid track record at putting out well-received imaginative titles, while Bethesda Game Studios has long had a reputation of producing broken, half-finished games that require modders to fix. The weak reception of nearly all titles developed by Bethesda Game Studios over the last decade should be a red flag for Microsoft that the studio might not be as well-recieved as they once were. Looking at Steam user reviews, Fallout 4 has 83% positive reviews, while Skyrim VR has 74%, Fallout 4 VR has 62%, Fallout 76 has 76%, and of course Starfield has 61% positive user reviews, in addition to a couple very poorly-received Switch/mobile Elder Scrolls themed games.

Meanwhile, Tango Gameworks released the The Evil Within with 84% positive reviews on Steam, The Evil Within 2 at 91%, Ghostwire Tokyo at 82% and Hi-Fi Rush at 97%. Their game releases over the last decade have averaged 88.5% in terms of Steam user scores, while Bethesda Game Studios only averaged 71.2% by the same metric. Bethesda's main studio undoubtedly saw much better overall sales than Tango Gameworks due to their more recognizable IPs, but it seems people are increasingly recognizing their lack of quality.

Maybe the next big Elder Scrolls game will manage to be great, but it's already been well over 12 years since Bethesda Game Studios released something with a Metascore or Steam user review score higher than the mid-80s, and it's unclear how many people who worked on Skyrim are even still with the company at this point. Microsoft's Xbox is kind of starved for unique exclusives, and one would expect a studio like Tango Gameworks to fill that role nicely. Instead, the main people involved with that company will probably create a new studio, and seeing as they are in Japan where Xbox has very little presence, they are more likely to become Playstation exclusive, if anything.

 

[slightnitpick]

I don't game anymore, but am very much anti-trust. Crap like this should be sufficient grounds for both players and developers to separately sue to unwind the merger. Or if not unwind the merger, at the very least force Microsoft to divest these studios instead of shuttering them.