Former Arkane President: Microsoft Closing Arkane Austin Was ‘Not a Good Decision’
by
William D’Angelo
, posted 7 hours ago / 1,229 Views
Raphael Colantonio, the former Arkane president and founder, speaking with PC Gamer said Microsoft shutting down Arkane Austin was “not a good decision.”
“I think if you look a little bit, it’s obvious that Arkane Austin was a very special group of people that have made some cool things and that could pull it off again,” said Colantonio. “I think it was a decision that just came down to, ‘We need to cut something.’ Was it to please the investors, the stock market? They’re playing a different game.”
He added, “The only thing that I stand by is saying that the specific choice of killing Arkane Austin, that was not a good decision.”
Colantonio said that he doesn’t think recreating the magic of Arkane Austin is possible as it could take forever to do so.
“Recreating a very special group like that is, I would dare to say, impossible,” he said. “It takes forever. When you have that magic of Harvey [Smith] and Ricardo [Bare] etc that all come together, it’s a specific moment in time and space that just worked out this way, that took forever to reach.
“Those people together can really make magic. It’s not like, ‘Doesn’t matter, we’ll just rehire.’ No, try it. That’s what big groups do all the time. They try to just hire massively and overpay people to create those magic groups. It doesn’t work like this. So to me, that was stupid. But what do I know?”
Microsoft earlier this year announced it would be shutting down Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi RUSH and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and Mighty DOOM developer Alpha Dog Studios.
Tango Gameworks would be saved as the studio and the Hi-Fi Rush IP was acquired by publisher Krafton in August.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
