Hi-Fi RUSH felt like a huge hit for Xbox in early 2023, but even a critical darling like that didn't help Tango Gameworks survive at Microsoft. Of course, in the end the team was picked up by Korean publisher Krafton, so things have worked out okay - but the team's original founder thought they'd always be safe at Xbox.
Speaking in a new interview with IGN, Tango's legendary founder Shinji Mikami talked a little bit about the studio, and Hi-Fi RUSH of course. Mikami said that he thought the team — which he left in 2023 — "would be safe as long as they continued to make Hi-Fi Rush games". He says the game's success was one of the reasons he left.
"I had thought the studio would be safe as long as they continued to make Hi-Fi Rush games. That’s one of the reasons I left Tango Gameworks. So I was surprised when the studio was closed down.
Now Krafton has taken over the business, so I feel like it worked out well in the end. I was reminded that if you make a good game, someone will pick it up. The hard work of the Hi-Fi Rush development team led to a new chapter for the company. I think that for a development studio, making a good game is more directly related to survival than making a popular game."
Now, we're not sure we agree entirely with Mikami that critical success is more important than commercial success for studio survival, but either way, it is great to see Tango and the Hi-Fi RUSH IP stay alive in what's been a turbulent year for the Japanese developer.
Before Tango left Xbox, it did provide one last update for the popular rhythm action game, which we'll drop the details of down below. It's expected that Tango, alongside new publisher Krafton, will develop a sequel in the coming years.
What do you make of these comments from Mr. Mikami? Talk all about 'em down below.
[source ign.com, via gamesradar.com]
Comments 30
I'm of the opinion that smaller studios will offer more stability for employees and franchises in the future. Larger studios are having a difficult time gauging success, partially due to shareholder demand and partially because they're in new territory, eg: the line between success and failure on a streaming service is confused when the game is produced (or paid for) by the service provider.
I'm normally pretty positive about Xbox, but this one has to be one of the stupidest decisions they've made.
Were they expecting Call of Duty level of sales?
Nothings safe at Microsoft, not even the Xbox brand.
So no surprises there.
Unless you have a massive live service game you aren't safe at Microsoft. Phil Spencer has said multiple times since he took over that he doesn't see value in single player games.
Phil should’ve kept the ip and just let them work on future releases like crash and toy for bob
@Lup I can imagine it was because hi-fi rush for example has a low hourly completion rate for game pass compared to the majority of their games which is a live service product or a never ending bloated game like skyrim. They want people locked into games for a long time and staying subscribed that's for sure.
Why haven’t anyone questioned Phil about letting them go when Phil always wanted smaller studios or ip so what not they create another new studio and might close them down after a successful game. ? Why would anyone want to sign with Xbox now
This one hurt. I LOVED this game. I played through it in like one or two sittings. Told all my friends about it. Was fully expecting to have AT LEAST one more drop on Xbox game pass. If they do another I’d gladly buy the game.
Hopefully with this statement some people can stop spreading the fake news that Mikami left taking a big part of the studio with him and that’s why MS was “forced” to close down Tango.
That was debunked the same week the news broke but some people kept excusing MS with this lie.
@IOI The truth is that the founder of the studio and, some time later, the main producers (his successor included) had left the company. What the founder is saying here is that he thought that the team would be okay so he didn't feel guilty when he left. Of course, he should do what he feels like, but that doesn't change the facts. We don't know what would have happened after that if Microsoft didn't own Zenimax. Besides, it was reported that Microsoft kept what was left of the studio alive until it found a new owner. Moreover, this studio is Japanese, so they couldn't move people to other teams like they did with the Western developers. It's not as simple as, "Oh, they made a great game, let's get rid of them." Lastly, it looks like Microsoft didn't keep the Hi-Fi Rush IP but the others so the studio could make a Hi-Fi Rush sequel, as they were planning. Then again, all your comments about Xbox on Pure Xbox are negative, so you probably know all this already.
He seems to be suggesting that he knew Tango Gameworks was potentially in danger, which isn't too surprising considering none of their games had been massive hits before Hi-Fi Rush, more cult favourites.
I'll never understand the level of corporate greed that you'll sack an entire group of hard-working and talented people, just because their game didn't ship 50 million copies. This whole "We NEeD GrOwtH durrr!kmnfk!" is killing the gaming industry. What happened to just stable and reliable income?
@IOI Yeah agreed. Tbh this is on MS.
@UndyingInsurgent95
Shareholders and Fortnite.
I think this was planned before the acquisition of Bethesda. Would explain the shadow drop, they just wanted to get it out of the way so they can close them. It being actually good and public support was what they didnt anticipate. But they still went through with it.
Was pretty odd....didn't like that game to much...but obviously other did....also Ghostwire was a decent game
His statement seems silly. You don't get assururances in M&A unless it's in writing as part of the contract. Buying a company for their IP and then closing or selling it off in pieces is pretty common. They also got gobbled up right next to the ABK acquisition.
That is not to say it was the best thing to do from a PR point or view. We all know MS has a terrible time with PR and optics, even on good decisions.
As for the previous owner, if you sell your company you don't really get to complain about what happens to it in the future.
@Banjo- It’s ridiculous to be defending Microsoft at this point. And yes, as a customer I haven’t agreed to MANY of their recent decisions, just because I own an Xbox I should be a blind fanboy you keeps defending and excusing every decision they take? That’s BS.
If you have a problem with that just ignore or report my comments.
@IOI You are confusing defending with simply stating the facts.
@UndyingInsurgent95 I think the problem with the gaming industry goes beyond "corporate, we need growth" mantras. The problem is the game industry runs entirely on borrowed money. A lot of borrowed money. With 5-10 year dev times these days, they're a generation late to finding out they overestimated sales and borrowed waaay too much money, and then they depend on the market being much bigger than it was previously to justify the amount borrowed and reassure financiers. So they've been spending more and more. There's only two ways to make the money and promised margins to investors back. Charge a lot more, or get a lot more customers. The latter failed. The former is failing and causes the inverse of the latter. Thus industry implosion.
Should of made TEW3.
@TheSimulator Unfortunately when Microsoft approaches a studio to buy them, it will be the people at the top of said studio who have the final say and will be the ones who benefit the most from being bought. The Devs below them won't have a say in the matter.
I guess some niche AA game that no-one really wanted to 'buy' let alone 'Play' despite being 'free' with Game Pass wasn't enough to save them. MS obviously wasn't interested in a 'Hifi Rush 2' or the Studio they bought for Horror games no longer making horror.
When Mikami, the studio creator as well as creator of Resident Evil, Evil Within etc left Tango, that creative vision and driving force of that Studio has gone. Its clear that the 'new' Tango under 'new' management is Hifi Rush, kiddy 'cartoon' games now instead.
It was barely played on Game Pass - and when sold 'everywhere', barely sold. Sea of Thieves for example and even the 'old' Fallout games were more popular based on Sony's sales charts.
Maybe MS bought Tango because they wanted Mikami and his great mind, wanted the creator of Resident Evil but when he left, Tango became a 'different' Studio, a 'Hifi Rush' Studio and MS don't want/need a Studio making AA niche games that won't sell enough or bring people to Xbox/Game Pass...
Saying you don't like Hi-Fi Rush because it looks "kiddie" only makes you sound like a tool.
@LX_FENIX Since when did Phil say that? Phil has green light multiple single player projects…
Like I said before I think Microsoft were excited at the prospect of owning a Japanese studio. They said it many times. But once the Bethesda acquisition was announced. The only Bethesda studio to not put out a statement that they looked forward to being part of the family was...Tango Gameworks. Then the producer of Ghostwire Tokyo who Mikami said would be perfect to run the studio when he retires leaves. To be fair I said it be a hard studio to manage due to Xbox's niche popularity in Japan. The original prospect of your games being exclusive to less than 1% of your home audience always made it a hard sell to its workers. I guess by the time Microsoft decided to go 3rd party with certain titles it was to late. Good people were gone. Mikami even said it himself that he thought they'd be safe making HiFi Rush sequels. I don't believe he believes that. He may have got assurance from Phil before Microsoft fully took over. But he also made it clear he was leaving to retire but is creating a new studio.
@cragis0001 Right, but some people just gobble the click bait down and don't even think. That would be his second own studio and if he makes a new horror game, it would be his third horror IP after Resident Evil and The Evil Within.
@Banjo- it be interesting to see what Ghostwire Tokyo's director Ikumi Nakamura new studio is making also. As if both Mikami & Nakamura make similar games to what they did at Tango. It would prove they left due to both Bethesda & Microsoft involvement.
@EdgarTheBug
I'm not sure that's true. There's other single player games on the service that are small and that includes Hellblade 2. That's a short game with little replayability.
It also had extremely low sales on PC compared to Hi Fi Rush.
Getting rid of Tango was a stupid decision of Microsoft's.
@BAMozzy The game reached 3 million players. Also according to SteamDb, it sold between 674.5 k to 1.50 M.
In comparison, the "gritty and realistic" Hellblade 2 had less players and only sold between 79.7 k 133.6 k.
Hi Fi Rush was more successful and most likely turned a profit unlike the expensive multimillion tech demo of Hellblade 2. Just face the facts, getting rid off Tango was just another stupid decision of MS on a long list of stupid decisions.
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