Phil Spencer Addresses Tango / Arkane Austin Closures, ‘I Have To Run A Sustainable Business’

Highlights

Phil Spencer addresses closure of Xbox studios, focuses on supporting affected teams with severance and individual care.
Spencer highlights the difficult decision-making process for Xbox sustainability, acknowledging negative reactions from fans.

Phil Spencer has addressed the recent closure of Xbox-owned studios Tango Gameworks, Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog and Roundhouse Games.

Following Xbox’s Showcase yesterday, Spencer was asked a question about the topic on-stage at IGN Live. “I haven’t been talking publicly about this because right now is a time for us to focus on the team and the individuals,” Spencer began.

“It’s obviously a decision that’s very hard on them, and I want to make sure through severance and other things that we’re doing the right thing for the individuals on the team. It’s not about my PR, it’s not about Xbox PR, it’s about those teams.”

‘The Teams’

Spencer then said he had the unenviable job of keeping Xbox sustainable, and expressed that someone had to make the hard decisions.

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“I’ve said over and over, I have to run a sustainable business inside the company and grow,” Spencer said. “And sometimes that means I have to make hard decisions, that, frankly, are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make.”

The reaction to Spencer’s comments are broadly negative, with repliers pointing out that the $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft isn’t exactly a “sustainable practice.”

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Others have drawn attention to the fact that Spencer and his fellow Xbox executives are estimated to earn multi-million dollar salaries, something that always attracts criticism when there are layoffs.

The Xbox Showcase has been received positively by fans; we witnessed a plethora of trailers and world premieres to satiate any appetite, though the excitement is obviously blunted by the recent closures and layoffs experienced by Xbox Game Studios.

Gears of War: E-Day, a Gears of War prequel, was premiered at the event. We also saw Life is Strange: Double Exposure, a sequel featuring the series’ original protagonist Max Caulfield. There were many more trailers and announcements, including Doom: The Dark Ages, a trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, South By Midnight, Starfield: Shattered Space, State of Decay 3 and much much more.