Xbox reveals desire for smaller award winning games shortly after closing studio behind Hi-Fi Rush
Revealed to staff during an internal town hall- Matt Booty points to the companies' future goals.
Head of Xbox, Matt Booty, expressed during an internal town hall meeting that the company wants "smaller games that give us prestige and awards". This comes following the closure of several Microsoft-owned developers including Tango Gameworks - which created a smaller award winning game last year.
This information comes via a report by Ash Parrish at The Verge, who revealed information on this meeting overnight. Hi-Fi Rush - a game that apparently was successful "across all key measurements" according to Xbox's VP of video game marketing Aaron Greenburg - seemingly fits that description but was not safe from widespread cuts.
The last few days have been a PR nightmare for Microsoft. Not only does this mark the second time in the company's history that they've fumbled Japanese studios - sending an accidental message that they're not the company for gamers who enjoy Japanese games - but it paints the company as short-sighted. Tango Gameworks was a relatively small studio based in Japan - existing at a time when the Japanese Yen is at a historic low relative to the US Dollar. Cheap, small, and great.
The responses to this report are as you've likely assumed, with countless developers and fans alike expressing their frustration. Creative director at Tango Gameworks and mind behind Hi-Fi Rush, John Johanas, could only hint at his frustration through a Tweet (seen below) but you can only wonder what the morale is like inside Xbox right now, especially at developers like Ninja Theory and Zenimax.
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