Microsoft recently closed multiple Bethesda studios, including Tango Gameworks, the developer of the well-received rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush. Xbox executive Sarah Bond, the president of Xbox, recently reacted to and explained the company’s decision to close the outfit. The game might have won numerous awards, but the company doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all approach to defining success, she said.
Reporter Dina Bass asked Bond this question: “One of the shuttered studios in particular just created a hit game; it did really well on Game Pass in terms of engagement and won a ton of awards. Shouldn’t succeeding in that way ensure the future of a studio?”
She was no doubt referring to Hi-Fi Rush, and Bond answered by saying Microsoft takes a number of factors into consideration when attempting to define what “success” is for a given game or project.
“One of the things I really love about the games industry is that it’s a creative art form. It means that the situation, and what success is for each game and each studio, is also really unique. There is no one-size-fits-all to it for us,” she told Bloomberg. “We look at each studio, each game team, and we look at a whole variety of factors when we’re faced with making decisions and trade-offs like that. But it all comes back to our long-term commitment to the games we create, the devices we build, the services, and ensuring we’re setting ourselves up to be able to deliver on those promises.”