Phil Spencer continues to dance around Hi Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks' closure, says he has 'to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love'

The Xbox Games showcase has, altogether, been a pretty good showing from Microsoft—Game Pass is going to be getting a new Doom, Gears of War is making a comeback, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard got a trailer. I mean, the tone's sort of off, and the characters are introduced like bootleg Borderlands bad guys, but I've still got my fingers crossed tight. A wonky trailer isn't an indication of much other than a slightly-scuffed marketing effort.

Despite all that, however, a spectre's lingering over the entire event: the closure of a number of studios including Arkane Austin (Dishonored, Prey) and Tango Gameworks earlier in the year. While Arkane Austin's fall might seem to logically—if cruelly—follow on from the flop that was Redfall, Tango Gameworks' shutdown seemed to catch many off-guard.

Hi-Fi Rush was a success by almost every metric, something heads at Microsoft itself have even stated themselves. The hard and altogether baffling pill that individual devs have had to swallow is that, somehow, making a good game that sells well «will no longer keep you safe in this industry».

It doesn't help that said closures followed a massive $68.7 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard (which itself oversaw sweeping layoffs at the company). It's easy to put red strings on a corkboard and believe that studios like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks are simply footing the bill for bigger, juicer brand names.

Fortunately, Xbox has had plenty of interviews to explain its rationale, including maybe some insight into the departure of Shinji Mikami before Hi-Fi Rush's release. Insight that could, potentially, explain that there were reasons to close the studio unrelated to profit. Unfortunately, absolutely no-one high up seems to be prepared to give an actual answer.

Last month, president of Xbox Sarah Bond rambled on about the issue for a bit, and now it's CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer's turn to say basically nothing. During a talkwith IGN, interviewer Ryan McCaffrey provides