Xbox has reportedly shut down Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios, with members of the latter team being folded into ZeniMax Online Studios.
The End for 4 Bethesda Studios
Xbox started 2024 by laying off almost 2,000 employees from the recently acquired Activision Blizzard and Xbox, leading to the departure of then Blizzard president Mike Ybarra. Now Xbox has issued another set of layoffs, this time combined with significant studio closures that have seen multiple developers that fall under the Bethesda umbrella completely shut down.
As reported by IGN, Xbox has decided to shut down Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and Tango Gameworks, with Roundhouse Studios also effectively shutting down by being “absorbed” by ZeniMax Online Studios. Arkane Austin worked on the 2017 Prey game and Redfall, Tango Gameworks was known for The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush, Alpha Dog Games was working on the Mighty Doom mobile game, and Roundhouse Studios was primarily serving a support role at the time of its closure.
Around these studios, the most shocking one is definitely Tango Gameworks. Recently, this studio lost it’s power with the left of Shinji Mikami, who is the founder of the studio. Now the studio is shutting down, maybe Shinji Mikami was seeing this end for studio.
Arkane Austin’s closure comes in the wake of Redfall’s disastrous launch. The co-op FPS was released to widespread negative reviews and was abandoned almost immediately after release. Prior to Redfall, Arkane Austin worked on the 2017 Prey game, which many point to as one of the most underrated games of its generation. It’s unfortunate that Arkane Austin won’t have the chance to redeem itself with a new project. Arkane Lyon, meanwhile, remains operational and is currently working on the Blade video game in collaboration with Marvel.
Read More: Shinji Mikami Founded a New Company
