Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and extra “gone however not forgotten” online game studios had been honored by a Los Angeles billboard forward of this week’s main summer time showcases.
Noticed by Stephen Totilo on X/Twitter, the digital billboard was created by writer New Blood Interactive within the wake of brutal trade lay-offs and studio closures.
“Gone however not forgotten,” the billboard reads, earlier than itemizing affected studios and their 2024 cut-off dates: Arkane Austin, Roll7, Tango Gameworks, Volition, and Sony’s London Studio. It additionally shouts out “everybody laid off, downsized, and made redundant.”
“We love you. We miss you. We hate cash.”
An digital billboard from New Blood Interactive in downtown LA mourns the closure of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Roll7, Sony’s London Studio, Volition and extra
“Gone however not forgotten” pic.twitter.com/1zCeD4KEEw
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 7, 2024
“Thanks on your nice video games from your mates at New Blood,” it added. “We love you. We mss you. We hate cash.”
Microsoft shut down Redfall developer Arkane Austin alongside Hello-Fi Rush and Ghostwire Tokyo developer Tango Gamework in Might 2024 in a transfer met with shock and anger by trade friends and followers. Xbox proprietor Microsoft posted a 17% enhance in income and $21.9 billion in revenue in its newest monetary earnings report. Xbox executives have blamed the transfer on the online game trade’s lack of development and a must prioritise different video games and studios.
OlliOlli World developer Roll7, in the meantime, was seemingly shut down by Take-Two Interactive in the identical month regardless of its CEO Strauss Zelnick refusing to substantiate this in an interview with IGN and dodging follow-up questions. Final month IGN reported on how the closure of Kerbal Area Program 2 developer Intercept Video games and Roll7 are a component of a bigger transfer by Take-Two to both unload or shut down the whole lot of its indie label, Non-public Division.
The embattled Embracer Group shut down Saints Row developer Volition in 2023, whereas Sony shut down its London Studio in March 2024 amid layoffs affecting 900 employees throughout the PlayStation enterprise.
The billboard will likely be seen by many nonetheless within the online game trade because it looms over downtown LA within the lead as much as a quantity of summer time occasions, together with Summer season Video games Fest, a showcase that includes a number of excessive profile bulletins within the place of defunct online game occasion E3. Microsoft is ready to host an Xbox showcase adopted by a Name of Responsibility Direct, the place it should unveil Black Ops 6.
Xbox and PlayStation are each confirmed as SGF companions, although Nintendo, as standard, is a no present. As for what to anticipate, a LEGO recreation based mostly on Horizon: Zero Daybreak, Sonic X Shadow Era, what’s seemingly a console model of Amazon’s New World, and Civilization 7 have all leaked.
Picture Credit score: Stephen Totilo on X/Twitter
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll discuss The Witcher all day.