Arkane director makes plea to executives after “absolutely terrible” studio closure

Arkane creative director Dinga Bakaba has taken to Twitter to make a plea to executives after the closure of one of the studios under the developer’s umbrella. 

Today news hit that Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Games (which is being shuffled into ZeniMax Online) would be closing. This follows a long string of redundancies that have hit Microsoft-owned developers in recent months. In January, a staggering 1,900 jobs at Activision Blizzard and other first-party studios were affected.  

In response to Redfall‘s Arkane Austin closing, Arkane Lyon’s studio director and co-creative director Dinga Bakaba went to X/Twitter calling the decision “absolutely terrible”. He directly addressed executives, saying: “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.”

He continued by saying: “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 f*cking 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.”

The impassioned response comes after over a year of brutal layoffs across the video game industry that has seen thousands of jobs lost at major studios. There had been hope that the job losses might slow down after the end of the last financial year, but these closures serve as a stark reminder that this is still ongoing. 

Adding to the hurt, an Axios interview from June of last year with Head of Microsoft Game Studios Matt Booty has resurfaced by journalist Stephen Totilo. In it, speaking after the fallout of Redfall’s reception, he said: “That is the plan right now. They are hard at work on updates and continued content for Redfall.”

As Bakaba says, Arkane Lyon, who is currently working on Marvel’s Blade, is “safe” from this round of layoff. It’s not clear if Arkane Austin was providing any specific support on the game, but it will likely have a toll on the game developers still under the Arkane umbrella.