Xbox Is Shutting Four Studios, Including Arkane Austin And Tango Gameworks

In some earth-shattering news today, it's been announced that Xbox is shutting four studios in the form of Arkane Austin (Redfall, Prey), Tango Gameworks (Ghostwire: Tokyo, Hi-Fi RUSH), Alpha Dog Games (Mighty DOOM) and Roundhouse Games. The latter of those four will remain intact, but will be joining The Elder Scrolls Online team at ZeniMax Online Studios.

The news was first leaked via an internal email from Xbox's Matt Booty (thanks, IGN), in which he stated that the team felt a need to "look across the business to identify the opportunities that are best positioned for success".

"To double down on these franchises and invest to build new ones requires us to look across the business to identify the opportunities that are best positioned for success. This reprioritization of titles and resources means a few teams will be realigned to others and that some of our colleagues will be leaving us."

According to Matt's email, both Alpha Dog Games and Tango Gameworks will be closing and there's no sign of any major staff transfers to other studios - the closure of Alpha Dog also means that Mighty DOOM will be shut down.

Some of Arkane Austin's staff will be moving over to other Bethesda teams, but the studio's demise means that Redfall's planned DLC won't be going ahead - there will be "make-good-offers" for purchasers of the Hero DLC instead.

We'll bring you more concrete details if we get them - for now, here's a bit more of what Booty had to say:

"These changes are not a reflection of the creativity and skill of the talented individuals at these teams or the risks they took to try new things. I acknowledge that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams across ZeniMax and Bethesda that bring our games to market. We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games."

Developing...