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Prior to Arkane Austin’s closure earlier this week, the studio was reportedly pitching a new single-player immersive sim game. Additionally, more cuts at Xbox are apparently still to come.
According to Bloomberg, Arkane Austin wanted to return to its development roots and possibly revisit the Dishonored series to create a new entry. Xbox executive Matt Booty and ZeniMax boss Jill Braff reportedly suggested that the reason for Xbox’s recent studio closures was due to them needing additional staff to pitch new projects. The cuts are not done, according to the report, with a focus on reducing costs likely leading to more job losses.
Furthermore, Booty reportedly claimed Redfall’s poor critical and commercial reception wasn’t connected to Arkane Austin’s shutdown. Braff also reportedly said that the shuttering of studios would help divert resources to Bethesda’s bigger franchises such as Fallout and Doom.
Along with Arkane Austin, Xbox closed Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Studios, and folded Roundhouse Games into ZeniMax Online Studios. Xbox had already cut 1,900 jobs at the start of 2024.
