Xbox's Hi-Fi RUSH Studio Tango Gameworks Revived, Acquired By PUBG Publisher

Yay! Also, what the *****. But mostly yay!

I am glad this all worked out in the end for Tango and I can't wait to see what else it makes!

I am glad that Tango Gameworks was able to survive.

But if possible, I would like to see a good development company like Tango Gameworks at Microsoft.
Ghostwire: Tokyo was a really great game.

President of Xbox should be forced to step down in shame with no package.

This is such awesome news! It's crazy that Microsoft allowed this to happen, seems like most companies like to hoard IPs even if they have no plans for using them. Really great to see!

You have no idea how happy this makes me!

I really hope that the sequel and the franchise becomes such a runaway success that Microsoft will be left in ridicule for almost axing both the studio and the IP.

@xboxjapanfan not sure what you mean? Xbox owned the studio and closed it. I’m glad to see these people will have jobs again. Keep meaning to pull the trigger on Hi Fi Rush on Steam Deck for £6.

Hi-Fi Rush is one of my favourite games ever. Ghostwire Tokyo was a really enjoyable game and the Evil Within series were amazing (terrifying) games.

I'm still of the opinion that Xbox shuttering Tango Gameworks was one of the stupidest decisions I've ever seen them make.

WOW. That is such a welcome surprise! Makes me so happy to see game studios get revived and saved alongside their IPs. Looks like Hi-Fi Rush may become a bigger IP now!

tango gameworks games didnt sell well and shinji mikami left the studio

@trev666 Yeah Mikami leaving is what really sent the studio's future into question in the first place. He took a lot of good talent with him. It's been sort of a shell of a studio without him.

People like to get mad at Microsoft because I guess that's the popular thing to do on the internet, but the reality is that if it wasn't for them, the studio probably would have been completely gone and lost forever. They basically kept it on life support until they pulled the plug, and their ownership is why it just got sold.

Hm well some people claimed a few months ago that Tango Gameworks is not the same studio as it was it was a few years ago. I guess only time will tell how this goes..

Also dont know much about korean studio culture or how much resources Krafton is able to pull into Tango Gameworks.

@oliverp Krafton shuttered Striking Distance after The Callisto Protocol did not perform at retail, so these guys as are not about running a non-profit, either.

@JayJ Yes. Similar to Redfall. Microsoft got blamed and somehow Arkane Austin and Bethesda took no heat from the media. All MS could have done different is cancel it. Sinking another year of development cost into it with no return would have been wasteful.

So a publisher know for closing down studios that don't do well commercially and a dev studio who have made games that review well but dont sell a lot.

Hmm I wouldn't say saved but Tango do have another chance but their heads are still in the chopping block.

This looks like an IP purchase that just happened to come with a dev studio.

from reading it they only got Hi fi rush none of the other previous tango gameworks IP

@theduckofdeath Yup, I think they just wanted to keep Tango together long enough to get Hifi Rush out, and after everything just sort of fell apart. Mikami even stated himself how he wanted to leave years before but he stayed around just to see their projects reach completion.

Fantastic news! Tango is such a great studio. Let’s go Hi-Fi Rush 2!!!!

First thing I did was check that it wasn't 1st of April. Now, we shall see what the future brings.

I hope things are ok for TGW after this acquisition. The worry is that unlike someone buying an active studio when you pick up a closed one the terms aren't always that great for the studio

@GamingFan4Lyf there was a rumor that Microsoft got pitched three projects before they announced Tango's closure. HiFi Rush 2, a new IP which was meant to be a RPG & Ghostwire Tokyo 2.

I wonder if the future partnership is similar to Toys for Bobs. Which will allow Microsoft funding for Ghostwire Tokyo 2 & Evil within 3.

Hi-fi Rush is amazing. Microsoft is gonna regret losing such a good developer.

@RiverGenie there is a big difference this time though. I bet a Krafton got offered a similar deal to which Toys for Bob got offered. The Microsoft partnership allows future investment & expansion of Tango Gameworks for future Ghostwire Tokyo & Evil Within 3 titles which will benefit future Krafton Tango projects also.

Really happy for them! Even more in the kind of screwed environment gaming dev is atm.

First thought, yay Tango is saved.

Second thought, shocked MS gave up IP

Microsoft making yet another awful business decision. Someone on the board or high up position is making these decisions and that needs to be looked at. They're slowly killing xbox and until it's addressed, things will continue to decline.
Really happy for the talented folks at Tango though!

Doesn't Microsoft own the IPs?

This is good news.

I refer everyone to my previous post and responses.

16Nic-Noc20th-CFri 10th May 2024
Hi Everyone.

I didn't think she sounded too convincing in this interview. When asked about the studio closures I thought she avoided the qustion rather than answered.

However could anyone please explain why the studios affected had to close rather than sold? Surely Tango Gameworks would of had interested parties.

reading that, it would seem that the Only IP they have actually 'let go' along with Tango Gameworks is Hi-Fi Rush.

Regardless of what some may have thought, Hi-Fi Rush didn't seem to sell well when it was released on other platforms and no doubt, Microsoft themselves would know how 'popular' it was on Game Pass, how many actually played and of those, how many actually played more than the first few levels.

Not only that, this was a Studio that had lost its head, its creator and visionary - that would be like buying Kojima's Studio (maybe to get Kojima himself in) only for Kojima to quit months after.

It was their only Studio in Japan - and that too would complicate Logistics and support. When everything else is North America or Europe, Tango was the other side of the world. I'm sure MS also now will get some 'funds' from selling Tango and/or its IP(s) to Krafton too

@oliverp Yes, as others have said Shinji Mikami (founder) and producers had left the company. Before Mikami left, he didn't want to be involved in the new projects, including his own IP's sequel The Evil Within 2. When Microsoft announced its closure, all that Shinji said was, "Sad."

My conclusion is that Shinji and the others had disagreements and that more key people left after him because they didn't reach agreements either. No wonder Microsoft saw the future of the studio uncertain. I also believe that the physical distance made more difficult to sort things out and move people to other studios like they did with the western studios.

@Banjo- Oh good analysis man Seems accrurate to me.

Well, let's see of they can continue to deliver the goods, or if the best talent had already left the building.

The good news? Sequels will get made.

The bad news? And I could see Krafton keeping the IPs and shuttering the studio.

That's great news!

Good that Microsoft decided the deal to sell the studio and the IP instead of keep it in limbo forever.

Hopefully they will do the same with Quantum Break and offer it to Remedy, since Microsoft seems to have no interest in making a sequel.

Excellent news. MS really fumbled with Tango.

Krafton does not have a good track record. So I'm not hopeful. Tenscent being involved doesn't help either.

That's awesome, and also the most bizarre thing that I've seen in a while. So MS buys them with Zeni, then has a hit with them, then shuts them down when they want to make a sequel, then, months later.....we hear reports that they've SOLD them?! How did they close them and then sell them? After the staff already scrambled and presumably left?! And they sell the HiFI Rush IP, the hit IP that did so much for them so they said with it? And Bethesda is on board in transitioning the sale....

I'm happy Tango's not dead (assuming anyone was still left at Tango after they were told they were closing?), but what just happened?

I'll be fair to Phil, I assume this is what he meant by being quiet about it to make sure to do what's best for the employees etc...apparently they were finding a buyer for their announced closed studio. But it's still just so weird. Why not just sell the studio instead of announcing they're closing it then announcing they sold it? Once again I imagine an internal conflict with the head eating the tail again.

Wouldn't be surprised if they go hero shooter or some other live service trope with Hi Fi.

But everyone wins in this scenario. Xbox gets something for the studio that they never wanted.

This is the most Microsoft thing I've ever seen. It's really gonna be something when Hi-Fi Rush 2 is a PS5 exclusive.

@JayJ That's a fair point. I don't see why Microsoft would have just let the IP go though. Giving away a critically acclaimed new game series like Hi-Fi Rush makes no sense to me.

@cragis0001 I could see that making sense, especially if divesting tango and funding dev through a separate stream looks better on its financials

@NEStalgia They probably shut them down and then sold off the assets so they could stop paying anyone that was let go while they found a buyer. which would be a pretty scummy thing to do as it seems no one at the studio was aware they were going to sell the Studio and all the IPs after. I can't think of anything else that would make sense in this instance. I can't really imagine after closing the studio they suddenly decided "we might as well sell them" since it's still so soon after they had to have planned to do it that way.

@Zenszulu Even that doesn't make sense because if they were selling the studio, that means including the talent, and if they shut them down while secretly planning to sell, by the time the buyer would get to the table the talent and therefore studio would be gone. And based on the filings, only Hifi Rush was included, not Evil Within or Ghostwire, so MS kept those (or so it seems.) Why tell the studio you're closing them, but keep paying them, then secretly out of nowhere announce you sold the studio and IP? Why not just find a buyer and then announce you sold the studio and avoid the massive PR fail?

The whole thing is weird. My gut feeling is that it's still part of the internal war going on. Corporate probably said to shut it down so they announced they're shutting it down. Then, remember Phil's answer during the SGF IGN interview about this: " I haven't been talking publicly about this, because right now is a time for us to focus on the team and the individuals. It's obviously a decision that's very hard on them and I want to make sure through severance and other things that we're doing the right thing for the individuals on the team. It's not about my PR, it's not about Xbox PR, it's about those teams."

At the time the quote seemed like weirdly out of character corporate babble. Now in hindsight it seems like he was keeping quiet while shopping buyers and that quote was an endrun around that. I get the sense he was hiding that effort from corporate more than from the audience.

Obviously SOMEONE had to be shopping a buyer because it doesn't pop up out of nowhere months later with an IP transfer after the studio heads have already lamented the closure publicly.

It's another feather in the "weird Xbox decisions" cap for sure, and probably another outward display of the raging internal war in the organization. Now we have guerilla warfare with internal organizations and owned IP!

@LX_FENIX Or better yet, when they pay to get HiFi Rush 2 as a Game Pass Day 1 launch title and dump a bunch of cash into it. Because you know they will. It was Game Pass's biggest game, don't you know! THAT would the most Microsoft Microsoft decision possible.

I struggle to understand the business sense behind Microsofts handling of Tango Gameworks.
I guess we know far too little detail, or MS are as stupid as they appear.

Microsoft finds a new way to make fools of themselves every day lol

@NEStalgia I am not saying it makes sense in the general way but in the fact that it seems like the only logical way they have went about it for some reason. The whole thing just makes them look bad for costing people jobs from a studio that they went on to sell not to long after. Even if it is an internal dispute it makes no one involved look good in how it was handled. Phil saying it is not about PR was only saying that because he knew it made him look bad and this actually makes him look worse.

Why would they give the ip up …

@TheSimulator maybe they are not. Maybe Microsoft Gaming is acquiring Krafton 😂🤣

@x3King84 from a business standpoint it’s silly they could’ve done with how they did with crash and toy for bobs that Xbox own the ip but will hire toys for bob to make future insallments.. Xbox could’ve made a anime show , merch from this ip … I really don’t get the reason to give up the ip which weakens game pass since they won’t have future releases unless they pay ??? Seems silly

@TheSimulator I guess they’ve gone all in on big money franchises now like Call of Duty. I understand that as they need to make zillions back. What seemed disingenuous though was when someone at Xbox I think said that Hi Fi was a Game Pass gem or something? And then Booty coldly pulled the trigger. Call of Booty style (we doing that?)
I guess Microsoft just doesn’t have the time for this type of game with little returns? Crazy it was an Xbox exclusive too and well thought of.
On the plus side it’s such a nice story that the studio is back open as many people seemed upset that it closed and Hi Fi died with jobs lost. I’ve actually bought the game today on the Deck for £6!

Very happy to see someone who will treat these IP better.

Great news! While there are FAR too many games releasing across all platforms in 2024, actual talented teams like Tango deserve to continue making great games.

Glad it's not dead. MS really fumbled this one.

I don't understand why are people bitching about it.
It's honestly good. Microsoft clearly wasn't interested in Tango, but they at least found a company that is interested in Tango.

Hi-Fi Rush 2 will be on Xbox.

Fine.

Only bad thing about this whole situation was their stupidity to announce closure of studio and dealing with PR disaster, while they found buyer few months later. It would be preferable to first find a partner and announce a sale. Like with Toys for Bob.

So let me get this straight.

Microsoft has one of its best new IPs in YEARS just fall into their lap. It's exactly the kind of thing that has been missing from their portfolio and pretty much everyone loves it.

So they immediately shut the studio down, and now they've sold off the IP as well.

How do ANY of these people still have their jobs?!

Like Disney to Avalanche (Disney Infinity/Cars 3, died, made Hogwarts Legacy even if many good games licensed or otherwise in the past ah the Tak games) and Warner Bros picking them up. Or maybe like Telltale ended up then returned too?

Krafton does the same to revive Tango because Bethesda/Microsoft don't care. Got to love some companies priorities of 'we seek this' yet while Ninja Theory/Double Fine have different conditions for theirs got funding prior so now their new games are a different case but even still under Bethesda Tango got screwed over badly.

Anything can happen here so while I'm excited I'm also skeptical because they could make ANYTHING here with what they have to do no under Krafton of supporting them then making a new game, it's very much possible.

Arkane has their other studio so it's still something even if Bethesda wanted Redfall because of course force a studio to make a trending product, they struggle to make it 'distinct or NOT DISTINCT as intended' as not all are going to end up like Hogwarts Legacy and land it well enough (Avalanche also being a studio that never made an open world before or other factors related to that game design so HL could have also flopped especially being a licensed game) and of course whatever happened to the mobile studio that made the last Doom mobile game or the other assist studio for Zenimax being the case there.

The expectations are just so hilarious to look at with some companies no wonder gaming sucks they go 'eh make that' even though it's far different from what they make or are good at making and get screwed over by business models and other factors. If they had to make something no Ghostwire or not Hi Fi Rush or not Evil Within, like some studios have it tough sometimes because of idiots from the higher ups.

Now whether they make their own games or are a support for Krafton for MP or a solo PUBG related game who knows but it's still cool they get to stay alive because other companies don't care.

@lechugajr it will. Plus it benefits all. As if HiFi Rush 2 doesn't do well. Both Tango & Krafton can turn to Microsoft as they can fund future Evil Within & Ghostwire Tokyo titles. But if not they can put source them to other Japanese teams. Could you imagine Kojima making a future Evil Within or Ghostwire Tokyo as an example.