Microsoft has shut down three ZeniMax teams: Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and Alpha Dog Studios. The company is also adding Roundhouse Games to Zenimax Online Studios. Arkane is home to Austin Predator and RedfallAnd Tango is responsible The Evil Within, Ghostwire Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush. Alpha Dog is the creator Mighty Doom and Roundhouse was the support studio for ZeniMax projects.
In an email to employees, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty outlined the upheaval, saying some employees would be moving to other teams under ZeniMax’s control. But most of the workers will be laid off. Here’s Booty’s breakdown of layoffs for each affected studio:
Arkane Austin – This studio will be closing with some team members joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda. Arkane Austin has a history of creating impressive and innovative games, a pedigree that everyone should be proud of. Redfall’s previous update will be its last as we finish all development on the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy, and we will be offering good deals to players who have purchased the Hero DLC.
Alpha Dog Studios – This studio will also be closed. We appreciate the team’s creativity in bringing Doom to new players. Mighty Doom will sunset on August 7th and we will disable the ability for players to make any in-game purchases.
Tango Gameworks – Tango Gameworks will also be closed. Thanks to Bethesda and players around the world for their contributions. Hi-Fi Rush will continue to be available to players on the platforms it is on today.
Roundhouse Games – The Roundhouse Games team will be joining ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS). Roundhouse has played a key role in many of our recent games, and bringing them to ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will mean we can do even more to develop the world that millions of players call home.
In addition, “a small number of roles in select Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated,” Booty’s email said.
In summary, at least when it comes to games: Redfall development has been completely halted and people who spent $100 on the Bite Back edition of the game will receive a partial refund to compensate. DLC they never got. Sign up for a refund here. Hi-Fi Rush will remain playable. Mighty Doom will close on August 7.
The remaining studios under Microsoft-owned ZeniMax Media are Arkane Lyon, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, MachineGames, ZeniMax Online Studios, and Bethesda’s publishing and corporate teams. Arkane Lyon is currently under construction Marvel’s Blade and his home Deathloop and the Dishonored franchise.
Dinga Bakaba, creative director of Arkane Lyon, shared his attitude to the cuts With the following theme in X:
This is absolutely terrifying. Permission to be human: a friendly reminder to any executives reading this that video games are an entertainment/culture industry and your business as a corporation is to take care of artists/entertainers and help them create value for you.
Don’t throw us into gold rush gambits, don’t use us as straw men for miscalculations/blind spots, don’t turn our work environment into Darwinian jungles. You say we make you proud when we play well. Make us proud in difficult times. We know you can, we’ve seen it before.
For now, the great teams are back in the sunset before our eyes, and it’s a gut punch. Lyon is safe, but please be polite and sensible about all this and respect the voice of the people affected and leave room to be heard, it’s their story, they need to express their feelings.
In 2021, Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, which includes Bethesda, id Software, Arkane and Tango, for $7.5 billion. The acquisition marked an increase in Microsoft’s efforts eat the whole industry: The company acquired five medium-sized teams in 2018, including Compulsion Games and Ninja Theory, and as of February 2019 had 13 studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner. The ZeniMax acquisition cleared regulators in 2021, paving the way for Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard, one of the world’s largest game makers. The acquisition of Activision Blizzard was the most expensive in Microsoft’s history, costing about $69 billion. After nearly two years of regulatory negotiations, the acquisition was finalized in February 2023.
It’s not just Microsoft shrinking the video game industry. Sony, Take-Two Interactive, Tencent, Epic Games and publishers of all sizes have gobbled up talent during the post-pandemic corporate consolidation, which avalanche of massive layoffs in the industry. An estimated 10,500 people lost their jobs in video games in 2023, breaking previous annual layoff records. Before today’s studio closes, about 9,400 video game workers were laid off in 2024, setting a pace that should surpass last year’s numbers.
