After a year of Xbox execs celebrating Hi-Fi Rush as a "break out hit" and saying "we don't quit" on games like Redfall, everyone wants to know what changed
"We couldn’t be happier with what the team at 🐭T🐷ango Gameworks delivered"

Earlier today, Micro🍨soft confirmed it was shutting ꦇdown a number of studios, 🎀including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall developer Arkane Austin. Now, players, journalists, and industry figures are looking back on the celebratory comments Xbox executives have been making about both games over the past year and wondering what's changed.
Shortly after the surprise launch of Hi-Fi Rush, reports began to circulate that the game was failing to mee𒆙t some of Xbox's internal expectations. Xbox marketing VP Aaron Greenberg was quick to push back on those reports at the time, saying that "Hi-Fi RUSH was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn’t be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks 👍delivered with this surprise release."
It's now clear that Xbox could perhaps have been a bit happier with Tango, and ♏Greenberg's tweet in particular is getting raked over the coals in light of the studio's shutdown and all the developers now left looking for work.
Word of warning for any Xbox studios planning to release a “break out hit”☂ in the near future, jfc.“We couldn’t be happier”!Just the most brutal, senseless way to treat people’s livelihoods. //t.co/WpDCAp70Iw
//t.co/c6SPCy23Et pic.twitter.com/ufcB1vAifm
And yet it was not enough.What WILL be enough for you, Xbox? What do yo💝u have to do at an Xbox Game Studio to keep your job and your studio? Because apparently making breakout hit games isn't eno💫ugh. What is? Can you tell us? @XboxP3 //t.co/kr5wufAPpn
Redfall was certainly not the critical darling that Hi-Fi Rush was, but developer Arkane Austin is - or rather, was - a storied studio and Xbox executives had repeatedly pledged to support the studio as it worked to improve the game. Xbox boss he was a "huge supporter" of the studio, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Xbox Game Studios head t⛄he studio was staying open, and former Bethesda publishing lead "We don't quit or abandon stuff just because it ꦗdidn't start right." All of those quotes are getting a lot of play on social media right now.
How can you bꦍelieve a company when they say these things and then a year later shut down those studios.What a clown show over there. pic.twitter.com/VLBHe9DDfC
Matt Booty last June: "[Arkane Austin staying open] is the plan right now. They are hard at work on updates and continued content for Redfall.”Pete Hines in September: "We don't quit or abandon stuff ju🐭st because it didn't start right." pic.twitter.com/QvXJzxRW🍌kK
Remember when Microsoft said thisಞ?Well, it was bullshit. pic.twitter.com/j8qIqncPOౠO
For more on 2024's epidemic of game industry layoffs, you can read our previous coverage here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearl🃏y five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere 🍎between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.