A bad day, today, for many video game creators: Microsoft and Bethesda have announced the closure of four studios, two of which are well known to Xbox users: they are Tango Gameworks, authors of the popular Hi-Fi Rush and the horror series The Evil Within, as well as the only Japanese studio in the Xbox stable, and Arkane Austin, authors of the unfortunate RedFall.

In addition to these, Alpha Dog Studios, the mobile title studio that launched Mighty DOOM last year, and Roundhouse Games, formerly known as Human Head Studios and co-creators of RedFall, are also being shut down.

Some of these developers will be relocated to other studios, but most will have to find a new home for their professional talents. In an internal communication, the head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty makes it clear that these closures are due to the desire to focus on more profitable projects. Here are his words:

Today, I'm sharing the changes we're making to our Bethesda and ZeniMax teams. These changes build on prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda's portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds that you've nurtured for many decades.

To focus on these franchises and invest in building new ones, we need to look across the business to identify the opportunities best positioned for success. This reprioritization of titles and resources means that some teams will be realigned with others and that some colleagues will leave us.

These changes do not reflect the creativity and skill of the talented individuals on these teams or the risks they have taken to try new things. I realize that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams at ZeniMax and Bethesda who bring our games to market. We are making these difficult decisions to build the capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games.

Bethesda also announced that those who had purchased the Bite Back Edition of RedFall, or those who had taken the Bite Back upgrade, will be able to receive credits as refunds since the content that was promised for this edition will no longer be made. This page will be updated later with details on how to obtain them.

Needless to say, this is very bad news for the entire gaming world and for those people who have invested their lives in these studios; for our part, we are particularly sorry for Tango Gameworks, which we would have liked to see produce other highly creative gems, but also for Arkane Austin, authors of the excellent Prey. We also hope given the 1900 layoffs made between Xbox Game Studios and Activision Blizzard at the beginning of the year, this is the last bad news of the year for the world of video games.