iirc ZeniMax insisted on a big multiplayer game with microtransactions, which Arkane didn't want to do since they make single player games, and they were struggling a lot with it, then Microsoft bought ZeniMax, and instead of realizing "oh this is a disaster heading off a cliff" Microsoft refused to mitigate losses and insisted Redfall keep going. And we know Microsoft is also pushing DEI shit. Probably had a Microsoft employee
And this is just Arkane Austin closing. Arkane has its Austin studio and its Lyon studio. Austin did Dishonored, Prey, and co-developed a couple Wolfenstein games. Lyon did Dishonored 2, Dishonored DOTO, Deathloop, and they're in the middle of making a Blade game.
So I'm not sure if this is getting rid of rot, because Microsoft didn't change from this and Arkane Lyon wasn't affected by this.
If Microsoft had been smart, they would have gotten Arkane Austin playing to its strengths because even if their games weren't selling like hotcakes they would have been useful to draw people into paying for Xbox Game Pass. Just scale things back a bit and not try some big budget multiplayer game from a studio that had zero experience with such a thing and never wanted to do.
Yes, a multiplayer game with microtransaction will be more profitable if it's good enough to get people to buy it and keep them playing to start buying microtransactions, but forcing a game to be multiplayer so you can stuff it with microtransactions is just going to crash and burn.
iirc ZeniMax insisted on a big multiplayer game with microtransactions, which Arkane didn't want to do since they make single player games, and they were struggling a lot with it, then Microsoft bought ZeniMax, and instead of realizing "oh this is a disaster heading off a cliff" Microsoft refused to mitigate losses and insisted Redfall keep going. And we know Microsoft is also pushing DEI shit. Probably had a Microsoft employee
And this is just Arkane Austin closing. Arkane has its Austin studio and its Lyon studio. Austin did Dishonored, Prey, and co-developed a couple Wolfenstein games. Lyon did Dishonored 2, Dishonored DOTO, Deathloop, and they're in the middle of making a Blade game.
So I'm not sure if this is getting rid of rot, because Microsoft didn't change from this and Arkane Lyon wasn't affected by this.
If Microsoft had been smart, they would have gotten Arkane Austin playing to its strengths because even if their games weren't selling like hotcakes they would have been useful to draw people into paying for Xbox Game Pass. Just scale things back a bit and not try some big budget multiplayer game from a studio that had zero experience with such a thing and never wanted to do.
Yes, a multiplayer game with microtransaction will be more profitable if it's good enough to get people to buy it and keep them playing to start buying microtransactions, but forcing a game to be multiplayer so you can stuff it with microtransactions is just going to crash and burn.