Arkane Lyon Studio Director Says Xbox Closures are a 'F*cking Gut Stab' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 May 2024 / 3,185 Views
Xbox today announced it is shutting down three studios at Bethesda - Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Studios - as well as saying Roundhouse Games will be joining ZeniMax Online Studios.
Arkane Lyon Studio Director and Co-Creative Director Dinga Bakaba took to Twitter to express his feelings on the closures and he was very open about this thoughts. He called the closures "a fucking gut stab," but did say Arkane Lyon is safe.
"This is absolutely terrible," said Bakaba. "Permission to be human : to any executive reading this, friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry, and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them create value for you.
"Don't throw us into gold fever gambits, don't use us as strawmen for miscalculations/blind spots, don't make our work environments darwinist jungles. You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before.
"For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again, and it's a fucking gut stab. Lyon is safe, but please be tactful and discerning about all this, and respect affected folks' voice and leave it room to be heard, it's their story to tell, their feelings to express.
"Inside baseball, but if I read 'immersive sim curse' from the community, especially from a fellow dev, I swear to God... Please, let's talk about the *real* challenges instead of rehashing irrational anxieties of the past.
"Even more inside baseball, but with a very, very wide range, as a wise and sorely missed man said: 'Please Stop.'"
This is absolutely terrible. Permission to be human : to any executive reading this, friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry, and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them create value for you.
— Dinga Bakaba (@DBakaba) May 7, 2024
For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again, and it's a fucking gut stab. Lyon is safe, but please be tactful and discerning about all this, and respect affected folks' voice and leave it room to be heard, it's their story to tell, their feelings to express.
— Dinga Bakaba (@DBakaba) May 7, 2024
Even more inside baseball, but with a very, very wide range, as a wise and sorely missed man said:
— Dinga Bakaba (@DBakaba) May 7, 2024
"Please Stop."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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He probably knows AL and NT are probably the next ones in line if their upcoming titles don't perform, so... yeah.
I make his words my own... it's not just about hitting targets and generating profit, despite that being the reason companies exist. There is much more at stake than just the financial value, just see that industries as a whole have been laying off people.
Be frank with your teams, make them believe that if they do a good job, even if it doesn't generate the expected financial return, they are still confident to start another day of work with the knowledge that they are stable and can get home at the end of the day and say that tomorrow there are more tasks to do at the company. Make your employees proud to work in one of the biggest companies, make their children want to occupy and surpass their parents' positions, after all, even if it's just for the money, there are still humans who depend on that job to support their families.
This is not a company going bankrupt, it is not a division in crisis, as the numbers have just shown the opposite. This is my indignation! It's not a restructuring, but cuts to hit targets and increase dividends for shareholders, who in my opinion are people who make a lot of money, but "damn"... excuse the words. It's not just Microsoft, but Take Two, Sony, Amazon, Google, Nvidia and other giant companies.
Microsoft just really don't know how to handle devs,
Just don't buy any more massive publishers or devs if the endgame is just shutting them down for your incompetence to handle them
