No-fi Blush

 That's a terrible title

We've all heard what happened to the Tango Gameworks for the crime of making an award-winning game- taken behind the barn and shot in the back of the head- a warning for everyone out there to pack up and give up if you find yourself under the Xbox banner. A move that very much seems to have been not appreciated by the former employees of the gameworks as they've let their opinions be sprinkled across social media, postulating on what might have been the cause but lamenting it either way. Above it all, however, is the big green X themselves doing their best to just forget the problem ever happened and praying that makes it go away. It will not. Obviously. This is growing into a bigger black stain with every passing moment.

Let us not forget the moment with President Bond where she was ambushed with this question regarding the reason for Tango being killed off- at least I can call it an ambush for the way she stumbled a response despite the fact it was the most foreseeable talking point in all known existence. Where it comes to Bond and Phil Spencer, their reticence to speak straight, and to squirm around the matter, has led to beliefs on the consistency of the Xbox brand dropping, people speculating how dire circumstance are and just the all around situation worsening. Hell, Phil tried to marble mouth his way out of a response and ended up saying that it's his responsibility to ensure Xbox gamers are afforded everything they expect with the brand, heavily implying that Xbox is so hard up that they needed to kill studios in order to keep the service at status quo- improvements aren't even on the table!

And in this comes a fear. Probably a justifiable one. A fear that this dire, such to the extent that succeed or fail you are up for extermination, then surely anyone could be next on the block. At the very least Xbox had the good grace to tell their team of the shutdown privately before leaking it out to the press, now if only they could exposit what was wrong clearly it would really help cut down on all the rumour and speculation flying about. I feel there's such an unjust level of secrecy that is implicitly tied to corporate movements for literally no reason- where everything from conduct expectations to success quotas are left to the imagination for fear of ever having your own standards held against you. It's the same sort of culture that disincentivises employees discussing wages with on another- it's a supremely outdated and insular move that only fosters distrust and misinformation.

Of course, let me not give off the impression that I am any better a source for elucidating Xbox's actions than the average observer! I've only the bitter cynicism to taint my distrust. For all I know Xbox could be on the verge of tilting off the edge at Microsoft places a boot on their back and asks them "What are you gonna do, little fish?" But what I can comment on is the recent sprinkling of supposed context of yet another Xbox source that, big surprise, contradicts what we've already been told. Because being vague and unspecific has worked out so well for everyone this far, hasn't it? Matt Booty, not exactly in a public setting but rather a 'Variety Business Podcast', spoke someone's truth on the matter. 

Matt acknowledged the success of the studio but went further to analyse what exactly went into that success and the factors that contributed to it, positing the many features that could go in to making a title successful. Of course, I'd imagine this was an attempt to remain somewhat aloof and unspecific that totally fell apart when Matt just came out and said- "What leadership do you have? What creative leadership do you have? Is it the same team that shipped something successfully previously?" And those are the metrics by which the future of studios are apparently weighed, and in this instance, cut short. One might call it a 'lack of faith'.

Essentially what this is slyly referring to is the fact that the founder of the studio, industry legend Shinji Mikami of 'Resident Evil' fame, left the studio after the release of Hi-Fi Rush in order to pursue newer ventures- and that is now being pointed to as the catalyst for the studio's demise. In the same way that losing Kojima was the end of Konami's credibility, a powerful creative lead like Mikami was so intrinsic to the studio, as well as those other heads around him of course, that in his absence Tango Gameworks just weren't the same studio anymore. At least that's what we're supposed to believe and I have to say- I never liked this train of reasoning no matter how many times I hear it parroted.

It's like what everyone has been saying about Bioware whilst casting side eye. "They're not the same studio! All the legends are gone, you can't expect anything out of them anymore!" Which compounds a more complex issue into deeply reductive boxes that restrict the future genealogy of the industry. We're talking about a studio full of people who perfected their craft under the supervision of these 'legends', who worked with them, would have been taught by them, and in some cases probably expected to take what they learnt and added something new now that the stage was open for someone new to take the reigns. We can't have the old legends around forever- they'll need successor's someday! And even if that is too much credit to give a team of colleagues- at the very least these studios by reputation alone would attract a similar style of team to that which existed before. You're not going to get a team of Live Service knuckledraggers signing up to work at FromSoftware, now are you?

Out of all the possible excuses for the firing I think this may just be the most headscratching. Sure, the former team may contest that they had serious plans for the future- but of course they would say that, maybe their upcoming projects sounded weak to someone with an objective look from the outside. Maybe they were juggling the next Redfall and were too self conscious to admit it. But saying they were no longer worthy of keeping alive because some of the make-up of the studio is different now just boggles the mind- at the very least you have to give a bit more to go on. If not, then you owe them the chance to prove themselves. Or you would, if you cared about the industry. Which is becoming increasingly the question we pose when considering Xbox these days...