Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios, said at a town hall on May 8 that the company needed smaller games that would win awards just one day after shutting down Tango Gameworks, the developer of the critically acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush.
Booty announced on May 7 that Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Games would be shut down to prioritize high-profile blockbuster games. Now, Booty has said that what they need is the opposite.
“We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,” Booty said in the town hall, according to a report by The Verge.
That comment almost perfectly describes Hi-Fi Rush, which won a Game Award, a Developers Choice award, and a BAFTA and was assured to be financial success by Vice President of Xbox Games Marketing Aaron Greenberg.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Tango was in the process of pitching a sequel to the game at the time of their shutdown. Booty said that the closures were a result of the company being spread thin between too many different studios.
“It’s hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do,” said Jill Braff, the head of ZeniMax Studios, which absorbed Roundhouse Games during the closures. “I think we were about to topple over.”
Tango and Arkane Austin had both requested more staff as they prepared to work on new projects, which Booty and Braff suggested was the main factor behind their closures.
According to Bloomberg, employees across the company have been told to expect more cuts soon. Xbox has also allegedly been offering voluntary severance agreements to producers, quality assurance testers, and others at ZeniMax.
Xbox has not responded to The Verge or Bloomberg’s requests for comment.