The Xbox strategy playbook:
- Buy a lot of studios
- Close them
- ???
- Loss
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2026
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More like the Phil Spencer playbook:
- Buy a lot of studios.
- Make bank.
- Retire before the shit hits the fan.
Weighs? It's their standard operating procedure at this point. Their bread and butter seems to be buying studios for too much money, underfunding them, instilling unrealistic deadlines, and then closing them when they haven't built the next AAAA super profitable beats-rockstar level blockbuster.
FUCK! there goes the last remaining thread of the immersive sim DNA of looking glass studios
Harmonix is gone
Irrational Games is Gone
Westwood is gone
Warren Spector’s studio just released thick as thieves which is a multiplayer im-sim
Yeah I knew about that....I mean...I guess I'll take it?
Just that in terms of Looking Glass pedigree it’s a thread that still exists. Paul Neurath is there too.
This is sad, but:
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Dishonored 2 was 2016
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Prey and Death of the Outsider was 2017
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Prey Mooncrash, 2018
This was Arkane in their prime.
But that was 10 years ago:
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Wolfstein 2019 wasn't my cup of tea.
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Deathloop was... fine, but more niche.
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Redfall was not fine.
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And Marvel Blade is already delayed and over budget.
I hate to say it, but I think Arkane is already dead. It may be MS's doing, yes, but to be fair, MS funded them through several mixed games and a massive failure already.
I mean, how much of Redfall was Microsoft's fault though? It didn't really seem like a game Arkane wanted to make. I'd wager a guess and say after Deathloop underperformed, the suits gave them a brief of what they needed to make.
Microsoft didn't own them at that point. Actually, it sounds like they were kinda duped, despite MS trying do respect Arkane:
...The report reveals that whilst development started on the game in 2018, it started as a single-player title with vampires and magic, but changed direction several times due to feedback from Zenimax and Bethesda. At this time Zenimax were looking to increase their value to potential buyers, and thought the best way to do this was to encourage 'games as a service'. ZeniMax wanted to develop games that could generate recurring revenue through microtransactions, akin to titles like Overwatch and Fortnite.
The game’s development was also hampered by frequent attrition and a perennial lack of staff.
Microsoft acquired ZeniMax in September 2020 for $7.5 billion, hoping to boost its Xbox Game Pass service with exclusive games from Bethesda and its subsidiaries. The buyout actually lead staff at Arkane to hope that Redfall would be canceled, or rebooted as the single-player title they wished to create. However, due to Xbox's "hands-off approach," their prayers were not answered, and development continued in the same haphazard fashion. The only thing Microsoft did put the breaks on, was a version of Redfall for Sony Playstation.
Isn't Wolfenstein MachineGames?
I'm so sick of hearing about Xbox. You know they haven't done anything that interest people for over a decade now, you know their consoles aren't worth it if you care about exclusives, you know Game Pass ruined their platform and you know they are incapable of putting out good games. And even if they made a push to get stuff out few IPs Xbox is still pushing are washed up relics from late 2000s that only appeal to the perpetually nostalgic 360 crowd. They have nothing to offer to 90% of gamers. So why oh why are we still talking about them?
I guess it's because it's part of Microsoft, which pressure Xbox to make money. Unfortunately for us, Microsoft is ass.
Ok, why are we so focused on an ass company's just as ass subsidiary then? We get more games per year than ever before, insisting on talking about the rotten corpse of the old guard is pointless.
Any press is good press as the saying goes. Big names drive more clicks for personalized ads. Continuing the conversation keeps them relevant, and they can certainly afford to get continuing coverage. The media loves headlines that frame the wealthy as victims of unfortunate circumstance - oh it’s just the market or it’s the weather, the economy shifted etc.. In this case the headline reads like xbox is a victim and is responding rationally - rather than this being a predictable consequence of their own shitty actions. So it’s also branding for them.
The reasons are shitty too, but they’re still valid.
Because they own so much IP now and they jeep cancelling and shuttering it all.
They have done this since the Rare days
Who cares about the IP they own? Whatever they funded or bought over the years had their time in the spotlight and the world moved on. Even if Xbox was doing well they were never gonna be making another Blinx the Cat or Voodoo Vince. They were going to pump out the slop they put out in a more refined form like Sony does. So get over it already. Gaming moved past the 360, it's about time you do the same.
I do the same? What do you mean? I don't even like Xbox. But that's why you keep hearing about them, they own so much stuff and lately they've been making it all worse
Oh, sorry for the moderately aggressive language then.
I'm just really sick of gaming media at large just ignoring that newer developers exist. Indie games aren't a silverbullet (the variety in smaller releases has plummated and a small set of genres are heavily oversaturated with no signs of stopping) but my word they care a lot more than AAA ever did.
I don't get why mainstream gaming discussion still hasn't moved over yet, it makes no sense. Indie games are lightweight, cheap and thus far more accessible for most gamers. You'd think people would fully shift their attention to that segment by now, even if most indies are almost as risk averse as AAA are these days.
Do it see what happens