Former Arkane Studios President Says Microsoft Closing the Studio Was ‘Stupid’ and ‘Not a Good Decision’

Microsoft shut down Redfall and Prey developer Arkane Austin in a sudden, devastating move earlier this year, and the studio founder has now called the move “stupid” and “not a good decision.”

In an interview with PC Gamer, Arkane Studios founder and current head of WolfEye Studios Raphaël Colantonio was asked about the move. Colantonio, who left Arkane in 2017 to found WolfEye, had some thoughts to share:

“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,” he said “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.”

PC Gamer asked Colantonio if he knew why Microsoft had made the decision to shutter the Austin studio. Colantonio didn’t claim to know — he’s been gone from the company since well before Microsoft acquired it, after all. The most logical theory, people have speculated, is due to the struggles of Arkane Austin-developed Redfall, but Colantonio didn’t float that in the interview.

“The rules that they play, we might not understand them. It’s a different thing. It’s hard to know why they did what they did…The only thing that I stand by is saying that the specific choice of killing Arkane Austin, that was not a good decision.”

The interview continued with Colantonio expressing that recreating a similar team to Arkane Austin would be “impossible” or, at best, would “take 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?”

Arkane Austin was closed alongside Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Games. Arkane Lyon remained intact, and Tango Gameworks was acquired a few months later by Krafton. In a letter to staff at the time, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty said the cuts were due to a “reprioritization of titles and resources” at the company. Microsoft had previously announced plans to cull 1,900 staff from its gaming workforce. The company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, received a $30 million pay raise last year.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].