It's been just over a month since the former Xbox-owned studio Tango Gameworks was acquired by South Korean publisher Krafton, and the head of corporate development (Maria Park) has been speaking about the move this week.
Park touched on a number of topics during the interview, including how "incredibly accommodating" Xbox boss Phil Spencer was in helping the Tango Gameworks team during the transition - here's a bit of what she said about this:
"Also, the opportunity to take over the IP from Microsoft. It's very unusual for them to sell the IP even in case of a studio shutdown. We spoke with Phil Spencer directly and we have their direct support. He has been incredibly accommodating to the needs of the Tango team."
The exec also confirmed during this chat that Krafton only took over the Hi-Fi RUSH IP from Microsoft and not the likes of Ghostwire: Tokyo and The Evil Within, which remain part of Xbox (for now at least!).
Speaking of Hi-Fi RUSH 2, we've already heard about how a new game is planned for the future, and Park revealed that Krafton saw a six-month old build of the title when first meeting with Tango Gameworks. The project is currently on hold for the time being though, as the publisher is still working through the IP acquisition with Microsoft:
"At the moment, because the IP acquisition is in progress, it's been on hold because all the related assets and tools will be transferred to Krafton from Microsoft. But yes, we'll continue working on it for sure. Like I said, we won't really rush to the market just to deliver a sequel. We want to make sure that the sequel is actually at a quality level that surpasses the community's expectations."
There's a whole lot more to discover in this chat over at GamesIndustry.biz if you're interested, especially about Hi-Fi RUSH 2 and what Krafton hopes to achieve with the sequel.
Ultimately, we're just grateful that Tango Gameworks has found a new home, and we're definitely interested in playing a follow-up to one of last year's very best Xbox titles. It's nice to see Phil Spencer getting praise along the way as well!
How excited are you for Hi-Fi RUSH 2? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 10
Nice to read something positive happening in the gaming industry every now and then 😅
There is everyone happy? Can y'all shut the ***** up about Tango and Hi-Fi? They'll be just fine.
Microsoft still are morons for shutting down and then selling off the studio
@Balie3000 savour it. Tomorrow we'll be returning to regular daily news on layoffs, crunch and sexual harassment.
There are more comments in news where Phil Spencer is a bad person.
Aww what a nice heart warming story , trillion dollar company buys a company , makes a big deal about it ,welcome to the xbox family , closes company and sacks everyone , but you can keep the one game you made , what nice guys ms are 🙄
Phil does not own Microsoft. He is a businessman but he is also nice and a gamer and I know what I am saying. Not even developers are usually this nice, even some indie developers have shown their true colours every now and then and I have also seen that. This industry has become much more toxic since social media exploded. You only have to read the comments sections like @fbnaulin implied. Sometimes, 99% of the comments are speculative and negative.
I have been saying this about Tango for months. The founder of the studio and, some time later, the main producers, his successor included, had left the studio before Microsoft decided to let them go. I am sure that Zenimax would have done the same if it was not part of Microsoft. Tango became headless.
Microsoft could have done what others do, buy, take everything away and sell out, but they kept what remained of the studio safe until another publisher was interested in them. They also agreed to sell the IP so Tango could continue what they started while working for Microsoft. It's important to remember that Tango is Japanese, so Microsoft could not move people to other teams like with the Western studios.
I have played all of their games but Ghostwire Tokyo, but it is on my play later list. I will always be interested in what Shinji Mikami does and although I don't understand why he founds studios and IPs and then leave, it's not my business and who knows, it has been suggested that there were strong disagreements amongst team members. As a (classic) Resident Evil fan, I will always be thankful and interested in his career and whereabouts.
I don't know what really happened, but given that the only studios that were closed were related to Bethesda Softworks, it probably forced ZeniMax to make a decision on the bill for the failure of Starfield and Redfall.
Tango Gameworks was a really good development company, and I wish they would have stayed under the Xbox if possible, but I hope they continue to make good games at their next location.
Based on everything played out it seems clear to me that Tango did great work, but they had the unfortunate reality of a being a US based company's singular Japanese studio. That never really made much sense to me even when Zenimax was independent. Like Seattle isn't exactly close to Japan and it's not like they had a hub of dev studios anywhere near Tango like in Europe. It was this lone dev studio run by an American company. Xbox had recently been ramping up support and collaboration between studios and that wasn't hugely an option for Tango (at least not easily). Even with online tools, there's logistical issues. Like Washington state literally has a 16 to 17 hour time difference with Japan.
I think the only paths forward was them either massively building up their presence and foothold in Japan (with more studios, management, etc) which they honestly should (in the east in general) but that realistically ain't happening overnight. Closing the studio was seemingly a no choice move. And we got an interview where Matt Booty said they had and were exploring other options surprisingly straight up (that last interview with him was shockingly actually pretty straightforward and transparent if you listened; like he didn't dodge much and gave fairly clear answers). It makes a lot of sense that a great studio ended up being bought by a publisher physically much closer to it.
I'd expect Microsoft is working things out so they'll continue to be great partners in the future. They do still own the rights to everything else and the new parent company is one they've had great relations with in the past (like with PUBG). Hi Fi Rush 2 might even still be a game pass day one. They seem to understand how good of a dev studio tango is, but also just acknowledged business wise it didn't make a ton of sense. Again, maybe in the timeline where they bought Sega instead of ABK as some people keep wistfully saying. Then they could just have Tango work with Sega. But in our reality Tango was a singular studio out really far from every other studio which would have made supporting them difficult and getting support from them difficult.
@xboxjapanfan I don't think it's quite that "this game failed, we need to shut things down." but the industry overall has been in a state of downsizing and when you really look at it what happened it: The second Arkane studio which has 1ish games to their name (it seems like Prey was a joint effort so then it's really just Redfall) and was otherwise support got shut down and it also had a ton of controversy with articles coming out about it's studio have internal turmoil (as in the devs wanted Redfall to get scratched and the studio head kept pushing it and pretending like everything was okay), a support studio which just got absorbed into the main game it supported, a mobile game studio, and the sole studio halfway around the world which ultimately got transfered over to a parent company based much closer to it with other studios nearby. Part of it had to have been growing pains. Like post aquistion, it's inevitable and part of it had to have been the downturned industry (companies that hadn't just grown 3 sizes and spent 70 billion was closing studios), but the choices overall just seemed like ones that didn't make a ton of sense for Xbox or even really for Zenimax.
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