Arkane Lyon director reacts to Xbox closing four studios, calls it a “gut stab”

The video game industry has just received another hard knock:the closure of four Bethesda studios, among which is Arkane Austin, creators of Prey and Redfall. Dinga Bakaba, game director at Arkane Lyon and head of games like Dishonored 2 and Deathloop, and now the head of Blade, was quick to react.

The director of Dishonored, harsh with the leadership of Microsoft

Bakaba has posted a thread on Twitter/X reacting to the terrible news in which he has been really emphatic. “This is absolutely terrible. Permission to be human : to any executive reading this, friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry, and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them create value for you” he said. And he continued.

“Don’t throw us into gold fever gambits, don’t use us as strawmen for miscalculations/blind spots, don’t make our work environments darwinist jungles. You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before. For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again, and it’s a fucking gut stab. Lyon is safe, but please be tactful and discerning about all this, and respect affected folks’ voice and leave it room to be heard, it’s their story to tell, their feelings to express.”

This news comes after the almost 2,000 layoffs that occurred in the month of January, which also affected Bethesda, as well as members of Activision Blizzard and other Xbox Game Studios teams.