Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda, IGN can confirm.

Alpha Dog Studios, maker of mobile game Mighty Doom, will also close. Roundhouse Games will be absorbed by The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios. Microsoft did not say how many staff will lose their jobs, but significant layoffs are inevitable. IGN has asked Bethesda and Microsoft for comment.

On Redfall, the disastrous vampire co-op game will now not receive promised updates as Microsoft has ended all development on the game. Microsoft said Redfall will remain online to play, and it will provide a “make-good” offer for those who bought the Hero DLC.

Signup here https://t.co/wb1R4m4emj to receive details on how eligible players can receive this credit. pic.twitter.com/69Os17kpQ8

— Arkane Studios (@ArkaneStudios) May 7, 2024

Arkane Lyon, which is working on Marvel’s Blade, survives the cull, as does Bethesda Game Studios (Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Starfield), and Machine Games (Indiana Jones and The Great Circle). Doom developer id Software is also unaffected.

In an email to staff sent by Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, Microsoft blamed the cuts on a “reprioritization of titles and resources”. The email, verified by IGN, is below:

Today I’m sharing changes we are making to our Bethesda and ZeniMax teams. These changes are grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades.

To double down on these franchises and invest to build new ones requires us to look across the business to identify the opportunities that are best positioned for success. This reprioritization of titles and resources means a few teams will be realigned to others and that some of our colleagues will be leaving us.

Here are the changes going into effect:

Arkane Austin – This studio will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda. Arkane Austin has a history of making impactful and innovative games and it is a pedigree that everyone should be proud of. Redfall’s previous update will be its last as we end all development on the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy and we will provide make-good offers to players who purchased the Hero DLC.

Alpha Dog Studios – This studio will also close. We appreciate the team’s creativity in bringing Doom to new players. Mighty Doom will be sunset on August 7 and we will be turning off the ability for players to make any purchases in the game.

Tango Gameworks – Tango Gameworks will also close. We are thankful for their contributions to Bethesda and players around the world. Hi-Fi Rush will continue to be available to players on the platforms it is today.

Roundhouse Games – The team at Roundhouse Games will be joining ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS). Roundhouse has played a key role in many of our recent game launches and bringing them into ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will mean we can do even more to grow the world that millions of players call home.

With this consolidation of our Bethesda studio teams, so that we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP, a small number of roles across select Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated.

Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified today, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with respect and compassion. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted in today’s notifications and through their transitions, including severance benefits informed by local laws.

These changes are not a reflection of the creativity and skill of the talented individuals at these teams or the risks they took to try new things. I acknowledge that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams across ZeniMax and Bethesda that bring our games to market. We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games.

Bethesda remains one of the key pillars of Xbox with a strong portfolio of amazing games and thriving communities. As we look to the future, there is an impressive line-up of games on the horizon. In 2024 alone we have Starfield Shattered Space, Fallout 76 Skyline Valley, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, and The Elder Scrolls Online’s Golden Road. As we align our plans and resources to best set ourselves up for success in this complex and changing industry, our teams across Arkane Lyon, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, MachineGames, ZeniMax Online Studios and the Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will be well-positioned to build new IP, explore new game concepts, and expand on our existing franchises.

– Matt

Microsoft’s announcement of the cuts at Bethesda come over three months after the company announced plans to cut 1,900 staff from its video game workforce, and amid a boom time for Bethesda’s Fallout series following the breakout hit Prime Video TV show. The closure of Tango Gameworks hits just over a year after the launch of Hi-Fi Rush, what many considered to be one of the best Xbox games in recent years. Hi-Fi Rush launched on PS5 as part of Microsoft’s new multi-platform push in March.

pic.twitter.com/KhhqgR902g

— Tango Gameworks (EN) (@TangoGameworks) May 7, 2024

Microsoft plans a June showcase event to reveal its upcoming slate of games and potentially Xbox hardware plans.

In a series of tweets, Arkane Lyon chief Dinga Bakaba hit out at the cuts, calling them “absolutely terrible.” “To any executive reading this, friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry, and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them create value for you,” Bakaba continued.

“Don’t throw us into gold fever gambits, don’t use us as strawmen for miscalculations/blind spots, don’t make our work environments darwinist jungles. You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before.

“For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again, and it’s a fucking gut stab. Lyon is safe, but please be tactful and discerning about all this, and respect affected folks’ voice and leave it room to be heard, it’s their story to tell, their feelings to express.

“Inside baseball, but if I read ‘immersive sim curse’ from the community, especially from a fellow dev, I swear to God… Please, let’s talk about the *real* challenges instead of rehashing irrational anxieties of the past.

“Even more inside baseball, but with a very, very wide range, as a wise and sorely missed man said: ‘Please Stop.’ “

Layoffs are sweeping the video game industry, with a number of high-profile studios cutting staff or shutting down. In stark contrast to a year of blockbuster video game hits, one of the biggest ongoing industry trends in 2023 was the prevalence of mass layoffs, and they have continued into 2024. While actual figures are difficult to obtain, estimates suggest the number of workers laid off in games last year approached or exceeded 10,000. A recent GDC survey of developers suggests one-third of all game developers were impacted by layoffs last year, either directly or by witnessing them happen at their company.

Developing…

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Hades 2 is now available through Steam Early Access and in just a single day it’s more than doubled the original game’s lifetime concurrent player count.

As reported by VGC, the May 6 Early Access launch of Hades 2 reached a peak of 79,276 concurrent players within 24 hours, according to tracking website SteamDB. The original Hades reached a lifetime peak of 37,749 concurrent players, meaning the sequel has already crushed its popularity on the platform.

Hades 2, which arrives as a sequel to the critically acclaimed Greek mythology themed roguelite, returns players to the world as they meet legendary figures like Odysseus, Nemesis, and Dora through a blend of storytelling, action gameplay, and dungeon crawling.

Its Early Access version has received positive critical reception too, earning a 9/10 from IGN. “Even in its Early Access state, Hades 2 is just about everything one could ask for in a sequel to one of the best roguelites of all time,” we said.

“Featuring excellent refinements to its roguelite progression, a fantastic new main character in Melinoe, and two unique sets of levels that have you fighting foes on the surface and in the underworld.”

Hades 2’s full release date is yet to be announced, as have its platforms beyond PC despite the first game being available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch. It likely won’t arrive elsewhere until 2025, however.

“We expect Hades 2 to be in Early Access development at least through the end of 2024,” developer Supergiant Games. “Given the nature of Early Access development, we don’t have a specific end date planned at this time.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

The true test of a vampire game isn’t so much in the ways it lets you do the cool things vampires do – it’s in how it portrays the classic vampire weaknesses, forcing you to live a vampire lifestyle. V Rising does a pretty good job of this, with banes from sunlight to garlic represented, while also featuring a striking and memorable art style alongside exciting and tough ARPG combat. Many of the gripes I had in my Early Access review have been addressed without changing the heart-pounding identity of the experience, especially when playing in a customized single-player world.

As a newly-resurrected vampire in a world where humans have mostly chased your kind into the shadows, this mashup of Diablo and the survival crafting genre doesn’t spend a lot of time on up-front storytelling. The descriptions for its varied bosses give some sense of how the world is put together, but there’s not really a main plot to follow until much later. You build a blood altar, you get a list of special enemies you need to kill to unlock new abilities and better technologies, and you’re off on the hunt. This doesn’t bother me too much, and I did enjoy piecing together how little bits of lore were connected, discovering new areas and factions along the way.

In Early Access, I had a hard time with the amount of resource gathering and waiting around for ore to smelt that you had to do. But with 1.0’s extensive game setup customization, I found that I could dial things like resource yields and crafting speed in to the point where there was really no drudgery involved at all. Some high tech recipes still take longer than I’d like to finish, but there is generally always something rewarding I can be doing while I wait, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Designing and detailing your massive vampire castles can be highly entertaining. On a private server, they can be built up to six stories high, with a huge variety of functional and cosmetic items to unlock – from eerie, floating candelabras to a hungry treasure chest that recycles unwanted items into their component materials. You do have to continue feeding your castle blood essence to keep it active, which comes from just about any enemy you kill. This isn’t much of an issue in an offline game since essence will only be consumed when you’re playing, and you can save up hundreds of real-world days’ worth, so you’re unlikely to ever run out. But on a public server, depending on its settings, your castle could eventually crumble or even be captured by enemy players, causing you to lose that spot on the map if you don’t log in at least once or twice a week to top it off. That can start to feel like a chore after a while.

I’m also a little bit disappointed that my castle couldn’t have a basement. Especially when I started imprisoning foolish mortals to use as blood cattle – what? Don’t look at me like that. I longed for the ability to stick them underground in an elaborate dungeon, but had to settle for an above-ground jail.

The other welcome addition since Early Access that cuts back on the downtime of building and crafting is Rift Incursions, which are timed events that pit you against a unique roster of enemies to earn Stygian Shards, which play into a new mid-to-late-game progression system. Among other things, they let you craft more powerful versions of all the base weapons using ruined weapon templates, which can be bought or found in random drops, with modifiers that can vary in strength.

This adds a little bit more of a feeling of personalized loot and progression without being overly random. You’re never going to be splitting hairs between 12 different versions of the same axe, which would have been a bit too much Diablo for me. But there is a reason to keep hitting up rifts if you want the absolute best gear for your build, which is nice.

The fast-paced but deliberate ARPG combat is the star of V Rising, and it’s honestly some of the best in the genre today. The broad array of flashy, fun, and deadly active abilities to unlock allow for some awesome builds. I particularly liked the Blood tree, which focuses on healing yourself throughout battle. I would have appreciated a stamina bar or more ways to get additional combat dashes, because basically everything is cooldown-based, and it can feel really bad in those moments when you don’t have any buttons to push. I prefer more fine-grained resource management and builder-spender combat, myself. But it also encourages you to think carefully about when to deploy your defensive and movement abilities, which keeps bigger fights from feeling too button-mashy.

The more than 50 challenging bosses are really the highlight of V Rising. From zealous human hunters to creepy necromancers, no two feel alike in fighting style or personality, and almost all are very well-designed encounters. The later ones can be cleverly and mercilessly difficult, which is generally a good thing. My main criticism is that some of them feel like they have too many defensive and area denial abilities, to the point that you don’t get enough opportunities to attack them in melee. I can switch to my pistols, sure, but I prefer to slice my food to pieces. Luckily, each one has a fairly unique set of tricks, so it never feels like V Rising is leaning on one thing too much to dial up the challenge.

I really like the art direction overall. It’s a bit stylized and cartoony, but not in a way that detracts from the horror aspects. Whether I’m exploring a misty, haunted forest, slashing my way through a skeleton-infested graveyard, or sneaking into a pastoral human village – bundled head-to-toe in rags, which isn’t suspicious at all – everything is very readable and eye-catching. It’s never a pain to figure out what’s going on in combat, and the environment artists have made great use of color to create a range of moods and vibes. This is only helped by the soundtrack, which does generally fit what I’d call stereotypical vampire music – all mournful strings and melodramatic piano melodies – but it’s executed well.

The survival mechanics really sell the vampire fantasy, too. There is a full day/night cycle, and standing in the sun will start to drain your health quickly after a short grace period. Moving about by day is still fully possible if you’re careful, thanks to the fact that anything that casts a shadow in the environment can serve as a safe haven, including passing clouds. That’s a really cool touch. Shadows even shift throughout the day, so noon is a more dangerous time to be outside than dawn or dusk.

Keeping your blood supply topped up is also appropriately essential, as it’s your main way of healing outside of combat. What’s even better is that the blood type of the last enemy you fed on temporarily gives you a character class, which comes with handy bonuses like increased critical chance for rogues or damage resistance for brutes. How much of a bonus is based on the Blood Quality of your victim, which is semi-randomized and encourages you to seek out particularly tasty prey. I enjoyed how this system let me customize my fighting style on the fly and encouraged me to act like a discerning hunter.

There are also rich options for multiplayer, for everything from building a big castle in a private world with a few of your friends, to PvP free-for-alls with capturable castles and siege golems. I personally prefer the former. But even on public servers, I found a lot of the issues with balance in Early Access – like all of the good plots of land being taken, making the whole world feel like more of a Gothic suburb – have been alleviated quite a bit. The official servers have been very stable during the beta as well. I never felt like I lost a duel because of weird ping or anything like that.

Nintendo still believes the Switch has plenty of life left even amid steeply declining sales and the console nearing its eight-year anniversary.

The Switch, which launched in March 2017, sold 15.7 million units during the last financial year ending March 31, 2024, a decline of 12.6% on the previous year. However, Nintendo enjoyed 123 million ‘annual playing users’ during the period, the highest figure ever since Switch launched.

For the current financial year ending March 2025, Nintendo forecast 13.5 million Switch sales, which would be a 14% decline on the previous year. The Switch is now up to 141.32 million units sold as of March 31, 2024. Add another 13.5 million on top and you get 154.82 million. If the Switch continues to sell well even after its successor launches, reportedly spring 2025, it may end up as the best-selling console of all-time, ahead of the PS2’s eye-watering 160 million sold.

On this financial year, it’s worth digging into how Nintendo will achieve its aggressive 13.5 million sales figure. In its fiscal report, the company offered a vague statement, similar to those it has issued in the past: “Nintendo Switch has entered its eighth year since launch, and while it will be challenging to sustain the same sales momentum as before, we will work to maintain high user engagement with the hardware and invigorate the platform so that more consumers continue to play Nintendo Switch for longer.”

Nintendo has just announced a Nintendo Direct for June, during which fans will get a better idea of the games to expect during the console’s twilight years. But to achieve such a high number of sales during a console’s eighth year, Nintendo may have significant unannounced games up its sleeve, or may be preparing a long-awaited price cut.

Meanwhile, Nintendo announced updates sales figures for many of its Switch games. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is now up to 20.61 million sold, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is on 13.44 million, the eternally popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold another 8.18 million during the year, and Nintendo Switch Sports shifted another 3.51 million units. Pikmin 4 has sold 3.48 million, and Super Mario RPG has sold 3.31 million. Princess Peach: Showtime!, which launched in March, hit 1.22 million, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, which released in February, is on 1.12 million sold.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.