Following Microsoft’s shuttering of a bunch of studios last month, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall studio Arkane Austin, Xbox’s execs have been asked a few times – as you’d hope – which that call was made. Matt Booty’s the latest to talk about it with regards to Tango in particular, and his answer’s an interesting one.
Prior to Booty, the current head of Xbox Game Studios, saying the stuff below, the console maker’s big cheese Phil Spencer had put the closures down to the need to “run a sustainable business” meaning that “sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make”.
Now, asked specifically about Tango’s shuttering during an interview on Variety’s Strictly Business podcast, Booty seems to have implied that the change in leasdership at the studio necessitated by founder Shinji Mikami’s departure in 2023.
