It's another tough period for the video game industry this week with Xbox announcing the immediate closure of four teams - including its Japanese studio Tango Gameworks, responsible for Hi-Fi RUSH and multiple other IP over the years.
Past and present developers have been sending their messages to these teams and now the studio founder, who left Tango Gameworks early last year, has chimed in with a few words. It does the job - describing how many tied to the studio likely feel about this shock news right now:
@shinji_mikami - Tango closed. Sad.
Mikami's departure was originally announced in February last year after the studio wrapped up Hi-Fi RUSH, which was met with critical acclaim. Ghostwire: Tokyo at the time was still technically a PlayStation 5 console exclusive. In his official departing statement, he noted how Tango was now in the capable hands of the team's younger generation and asked fans to continue supporting the studio.
Hi-Fi RUSH had surpassed two million players by March 2023, and it wasn't long after this that Xbox's Aaron Greenberg said the game was a "break out hit" for the team, following a rumour the title "didn't make the money it needed to make".
In March of this year, roughly a year after Mikami moved on, it was discovered he had set up a new company.
How do you feel about the closure of Tango Gameworks? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 26
Xbox in shambles. Sad.
i think a.i. has taken over microsoft. naw a.i. can't be this stupid can it?
It’s disappointing. This Xbox generation so far for me personally has been a big disappointment. It started with Halo stumbling out of the gate. I couldn’t believe what was suppose to be a flagship AAA franchise was so mishandled. The writing was on the wall. They don’t know how to manage this division of Microsoft anymore. More studios will shut down and more will unfortunately lose jobs because Microsoft just sees sales figures from studios and not human beings.
The days of the 360 are over. No studio will want to take a chance in making creative new games for Xbox cause they’ll get the boot. Unless it’s rare for some reason. They can make a game for years without knowing what it is yet and get Microsoft’s full support.
I thought one of xbox’s goals was to break into the Japanese market? They aren’t gonna do it by closing Japanese studios.
Porting Hi-Fi Rush was probably more of an ultimatum than a test.
@Thwomp_Stomper This Gen has had some resl massive highs (BG3 and Elden Ring) but overall this has been a terrible gen. We have all this from MS, Sony have barely put stuff out and have made some pretty bad moves, endless layoffs, endless failed live services, barely any current gen only games and too many broken AAA games. Thank god the Indie scene and the AA space have been on top form at least.
If he hadn't left, would it have been a different story or would it still shut down?
They punish a great Studio for making a beloved game, Is too bad Tango couldn't get cozy with the Microsoft higher ups like 343 did 😐. Those guys get to pump out garbage after garbage are rewarded, I've never see the Halo franchise so dead and irrelevant.
@DennisReynolds True. I feel like both companies are out of touch with the core audiences they have. And Nintendos over there on cruise control until its next console 😂 just my opinions tho.
That being said we still had some great games so far this gen like the ones you mentioned.
I don’t see how you can base results on sales when it’s an Xbox exclusive offered Day One on GamePass! 2 million sounds like a nice number, but obviously not in GamePass dynamics.
Rough period for game developers everywhere.
Industry consolidation is great.
What an absolutely terrible decision. If anything, i'm inclined to believe they will announce more studio closures in next month showcase rather than games.
@lacerz it’s probably that the games aren’t getting more people to sign up/stay signed up.
Most information has shown that GP (and Plus) has been relatively flat in terms of growth recently.
2million is great for that kind of game.
Mikami must be absolutely furious. He spent years nurturing the younger talent at Tango so that he could confidently leave it in good hands. Now it's gone. Nice one, Microsoft.
@Olliemar28 sounds like when he left he possibly took a lot of the staff with him? According to twitter right now at least… so potentially he contributed to its closure?
@lacerz Even worse when Aaron Greenburg said this after release
How can we take ANYTHING they say at face value? If they say Hellblade 2 has done really well does that mean they are shuttering them next year? Sad times.
I'm not going to go into how disgusting and poorly made this decision is again.
It does however seem like it was made at the very last minute. With Hi-Fi Rush just releasing on PlayStation and the Redfall update planned at the end of this month, it looks like this was a shock for almost everyone.
He left and took a lot of people with him. Maybe who should have stayed if he loved the studio so much.
@HotGoomba Shingi took the majority of the talent at Tango when he started his new studio, he's the one to blame for gutting the Dev Studio
@themightyant
That’s the thing! Hellblade released on PS4 and PC in August 2017 and Xbox One in April 2018. It didn’t hit one million copies sold until June 2018. Hi-Fi Rush had over two million players engaged (it’s all about player engagement, right?) within 3 months.
Outside of Greenberg’s comment, Todd Vaughn of Bethesda called Hi-Fi Rush “one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years” which adds more questions to the shuttering of Tango.
Now the question becomes, what does success look like?
@endlessleep
Heh, it only took them a day to prove you right about more closures. Sadly.
The one unique Japanese studio they owned gets shut down..
At this point someone in MS wants to kill Xbox as a brand to give space to Microsoft Gaming
Im not seeing many posts from the consolidation cheer leaders any more? Many of us called this BS out when they made their offer, but were burnt down in the comments sections of sites like these by those wanting free games at any cost...
It seems as though the Xbox is slowly going away. That seems to be the plan.
Rather than closing it would have been nice to see Microsoft set them loose on their own with a startup budget.
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