I am in the same boat.  I started playing during the 90s as well and my first console was a Commadore 64 so that should age me.  My first PC was the first PC from IBM which mind you was also the same plant that my mom and dad worked at in Boca Raton FL.  My years of gaming has led me to never really get invested with these corporations as they will always operate towards their best interest.

The thing is, a lot of people are making assumptions that Tango is being closed because Hi Fi Rush was not successful, but I actually highly doubt that is the reason.  I believe the studio is being closed because it does not have any strong leadership.  Once Mikami left, is it the same studio without the person who built it.  If anything, all Tango was is a division of Bethesda.  So once Mikami left who is to say that he did not take with him key personnel that could lead the company.  If those people are not there then it would really not be in the best interest to keep the company but just absorb the developers into the parent company.  The rest of the closures pretty much make sense.  I personally have not been all that impressed with the output nor quality of work coming out of Bethesda lately and I believe they need a shake up but that's just my opinion.  

At the end of the day you give gamers way to much credit.  All they really care about is playing the games they like and pretty much not much else.  All the bad talk about ABK from fans and gamers never stopped COD from selling boat loads.  Meaning that online small minority is just not worth caring about.  None of those gamers are going to care if the next COD is a hit, Fallout, Doom, Eldar Scrolls you name it.  Gamers have short memories and even shorter attention spans but most importantly is that the majority of gamers really do not care about none of this stuff.  

Actually who says that is a bad thing.  Feeling safe means, you do not push yourself to go beyond what is comfortable. If anything, I believe Bethesda has been way to comfortable and it has shone with the output of games they have released.  From Starfield to Redfall and even some other games they are not really hitting the mark anymore and it shows.  I think you guys live in this fantasy world where you believe any company or job is safe.  The only way to be safe is to be successful and especially in an industry which is more a hits market than anything else.  

Also, I highly doubt that these closures were just lorded down by MS.  This was something that was probably in the works for a bit with many in Bethesda heads a part of.

Disagree.  That small online minority are the ones that organize the uninformed mobs and hand out the pitchforks that end up reversing many bad decisions.

Then why is it that popular games no matter the hate from these online minority does not matter.  Meaning that its more than just a bunch of people getting upset over something and voicing their opinion.  It takes way more than that in order to shift gamers who in general only just want to play the games they like.  This is even more the case with the younger crowd.  Just from the young people I know, none of them follow this stuff at all.  Its why popular games stay popular no matter the hate online because in general gamers just do not care.  Every now and again you get a decent push back but most times its short lived.

Unfortunately I do agree that this will hardly affect Microsoft's long term ambitions at all, they will still become the #1 publisher by at the cost of all their online reputation, they will become the next EA, they'll still have a great developers and games under them but the Xbox corporation itself will become hated by online communities.

But that's not going to stop COD selling boatloads, or Minecraft, or Forza Horizon, or Fallout, or Elder Scrolls, etc.

Satya is willing to torch all Xbox's online reputation in exchange for money, I said once that Xbox should stop being so public and be more like Sony/Nintendo, stop egging on the idiots like TimDog and only speak when they have something of substance and I now think they will do that but for all the wrong reasons, none of the reasons I said above, I think they'll now do that because they won't be able to show their faces anymore.

But online boycotts rarely ever work and if you told a COD gamer to stop buying COD because Tango was shutdown, first they'd say "who?" and then they'd laugh in your face...People weren't buying these games by large anyway, not to defend Microsoft though, Microsoft promised these studios a lot and now they're breaking all those promises and not giving them a clear idea on where they stand.

They said studios had freedom to work on whatever they want and now they're saying "actually, we want blockbuster AAA only" and shutting down studios not working on that, Microsoft should be nurturing talent and protecting it as well, allowing it to flourish but that's corporations for you, only care about the bottom line and infinite growth.

I think part of the reason Tango and Austin were picked as well was because they literally just released a game and had nothing on the horizon for years, likely both were in early pre-production, Sony did similar with the studios they closed, it also applies to Blizzard's unrevealed IP so with that being said, I hope it means all the studios with something announced and in the middle of development are safe =/ And hopefully by the time they release these projects, things are better by then for the industry at large but some are saying these layoffs will extend into 2025.

Well if reports about Perfect Dark are correct then I don’t think games being in development stopping them getting shut down is gonna be enough. PD is still being reported on that it’s a disaster still, that they don’t know if they want it third or first person lol. I don’t think being hands off with their studios is the flex MS think it is.

Also no offence to some of Xbox’ studios but they simply are not capable of creating AAA games. Hell I’m not even sure studios like 343 know how to actually create anything anymore :P