“Our Commitment is to Make Sure That the Business is Healthy”

Xbox president Sarah Bond has responded to some of the criticisms faced by the company in the wake of its recent decisions to shutter a bunch of development studios, laying off employees in the process. In an interview with Bloomberg, Bond referred to the decision as one made to ensure the health of Xbox as a business.

“You know, it’s always extraordinarily hard when you have to make decisions like that,” said Bond when asked about the recent decision to close down ZeniMax studios by Bloomberg’s Dina Bass during Bloomberg Tech in San Francisco (courtesy of IGN).

“I’ll go back to what I was saying about the industry. And when we looked at those fundamental trends, we feel a deep responsibility to ensure that the games we make, the devices we build, the services that we offer are there through moments, even when the industry isn’t growing and when you’re through a time of transition. And the news we announced earlier this week is an outcome of that, and our commitment to make sure that the business is healthy for the long term.”

Bond went on to reiterate Xbox’s commitment to supporting games of all sizes, and the company’s commitment to being a platform where players can play games ranging from Grand Theft Auto to Palworld.

“But that said, our commitment to having our own studios and working with partners to have games large and small, we’re a platform where you can play GTA, but you can also play Palworld, where you can play Call of Duty and you can also play Pentiment, that doesn’t change. And frankly, our commitment to Bethesda and the role that it plays is part of Xbox and everything we do,” she said.

“It’s actually been pretty fantastic. I don’t know if you’ve gotten a chance to check it out. The Fallout TV show was on Amazon and it’s been great to see people fall in love with that universe, but also what it’s done for the games themselves and people going back and exploring everything that’s inside of that. There’s some other great things that are coming from our studios later this year. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I was a big Indy fan growing up. It looks like you were two, so you should check that out.”

“But really right now for us and our teams, our focus is on the people impacted and doing everything that we can do to help them through this hard transition.”

Bond was then asked specifically about the closure of Tango Gameworks, despite the success of Hi-Fi Rush since its release in 2023. In her response, Bond said that the decision was made as a tradeoff.

“You know, one of the things I really love about the games industry is it’s a creative art form,” said Bond. “And it means that the situation and what successes for each game in the studio is also really unique. There’s no one size fits all to it for us. And so 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 tradeoffs 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 that we’re setting ourselves up to be able to deliver on those promises.”

Earlier this month, a host of studios were shut down by Microsoft, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and Redfall developer Arkane Austin, as well as other studios like Roundhouse Games and Alpha Dog Studios. In an email to employees, Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty referred to the decision as a “reprioritization of titles and resources“.

The announcement to shut down Tango Gameworks came despite Xbox celebrating various milestones hit by Hi-Fi Rush, including reaching 3 million players last year. The game also got a port on the PS5, with a rumoured Nintendo Switch port also being in the works.