Shuttered Xbox Dev Tango Gameworks to Be Revived, Hi-Fi Rush IP Acquired

Not exactly an inspiring studio to be revived by but I’m glad the devs have work again. There must be plenty who worked directly with Mikami, will be interesting to see his influence on the studio but with a fresh team.

…finally, a good ending to this story.

Hopefully Microsoft sells all their IPs as they have consistently dropped the ball for the last decade.

Great news! I loved Ghostwire: Tokyo. Hopefully we get more from that IP

What was the point of MS acquiring Zenimax? They close down 3 studios and sell one, id software stays multiplatform, Starfield is bad/mid, The next Elder Scrolls is years away, and Redfall was awful. People rightfully clown on Sony's acquisition of Bungie but MS's acquisition of Zenimax hasn't been going so well either.

@Leechmonger_DeS
Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax has been significantly more worthless than the Bungie deal was. Like it or hate it, at least Destiny makes money.

@Leechmonger_DeS Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 money.

This is wonderful, but also really unusual. I'm glad that they're back, but this is some circumstances I wouldn't have ever guessed.

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

I’ll be curious to see how this actually pans out but today…I celebrate 🥳

This is absolutely great news! the studio was too talented to be shut down like that

@PegasusActual93 Ha Ha yeah ok. You have proof to back up that statement? Let’s just be happy that these people landed on their feet. Bethesda and Bungie are completely different studios that are going in opposite directions.

@GamingFan4Lyf and likely more than Destiny, given ESO’s incredible loot boxe…er, surprise mechanics.

@cburg
Being sarcastic is seriously uncalled for as I have done nothing to provoke that crap so knock it off, Destiny has been going for 10 years now so obviously somebodies buying it.

This is legit the best gaming news in the whole year, this almost guarantees a sequel which I hope becomes such a success that MS will be in ridicule for almost axing both the studio and the IP.

I’m gonna buy the first game on PS5 and eventually the sequel too. Would be funny if they decide to skip Xbox out of spite lol

I was happy until I read Kraftons name. They just recently made news for removing nearly three months of dev time for Callisto Protocol.

@PegasusActual93 Zenimax makes Microsoft a lot of money. Bungie (so far) hasn't done so for Sony.

I'm really pleased if this means that Tango can make more games like Hi-Fi Rush.

Well that's a nice surprise! Good for them here's hoping they can remind Microsoft of what they lost.

That feel when everyone associates Tango with Hi-Fi Rush and it's your least favourite their game.

That's great news. The studio was set up to inspire new creative minds, MS closing it down was really **, glad it's coming back.

I’m a bit wary of Krafton but other then that this is a nice surprise. Would be funny to see a Hi-Fi Rush sequel release on all consoles save for Xbox lol.

@Leechmonger_DeS Yeah. Because success of Bethesda merger was surely on Tango Gameworks. /s

Look. I loved The Evil Within 2 and Hi-Fi Rush. But can we stop pretending that Tango was main moneymaker in Zenimax? Hi-Fi Rush came onto PS5 this year and didn't even fit in TOP 20 in month of release. The Evil Within 2 was a commercial flop. GhosWire wasn't that great and wasn't selling that well.

Microsoft bought Zenimax for huge IPs like Doom (new Doom game is coming out next year if you didn't notice), The Elder Scrolls (which is in production), Fallout (Fallout 76 still makes huge amount of money), TESO (which still makes huge amount of money) and next MMO game from ZOS. Not to mention Arkane which is working on Blade. And Indy is coming out this year. Also, Starfield is so unsuccessful, that BGS is not only releasing new expansion this year, but also planning new expansion for 2025

It's like pretending that Microsoft bought ABK for Toys for Bob and Crash Bandicoot. No, they did not. They bought ABK for Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch and Candy Crush. Toys for Bob and Crash Bandicoot just happened to be in same package. And TfB isn't even in ABK anymore.

Trying to even compare it to Bungie is honestly hilarious, especially after recent report that Marathon is not looking that great and fact that Bungie was loosing money.

@__jamiie "Zenimax makes Microsoft a lot of money. Bungie (so far) hasn't done so for Sony"

Has Sony or Bungie confirmed that or are you surmising based on the recent layoffs?

@naruball Ehh. Pete Parsons said that Bungie was loosing money. That's main reason for deep cuts. So yeah. It's pretty obvious.

Korean game industry killing it rn.

• amazing new AAA franchise form shiftup
• amazing new f2p shooter from Nexon
• reviving a beloved studio and critically acclaimed game.

My question is, how many staffers can Krafton get back who were integral to HFR and GWT?

This is amazing news they're a great studio and hopefully this means we might one day get The Evil Within 3

@Type_Trubbish Microsoft kept GhostWire and The Evil Within IP's. They only gave Hi-Fi Rush to Krafton

@Godot25 pretty sure that was before the release of the latest expansion. So we don't know if they're currently making money. The layoffs were decided before the release of the expansion.

@naruball Yeah. I mean...it's not that hard to understand
Bungie was loosing money, because they employed 1,3k employees, while only having D2 as moneymaker. They were loosing money month after month. Also, employees told Bloomberg that sales of expansions were dropping every year. So it's not like The Final Shape somehow rescued Bungie.

But if you shed 30% of your studio wages, it will obviously get you out of the "loosing spree" hole.

But it's not like this will get Bungie out of troubles. Playerbase already dropped significantly since release of The Final Shape. Marathon is reportedly in rough shape and Bungie will no longer make big expansions for Destiny 2, because they finally realised that without good onboarding experience for new players, Destiny 2 is doomed long term.

@Godot25 but again, we don't know how well the expansion did, even if the previous ones kept selling worse and worse. So, Bungie could very well have made money and to say that it hasn't is simply a guess.

@PegasusActual93 it seems you've triggered a certain crowd. In terms of revenue I suppose they can't be compared but in terms of being a flop of an acquisition so far they both definitely can be compared. Lay offs, closures and low scoring games/DLC that haven't lived up to the hype.

@naruball Devs said to Game File that Final Shape could never bring as much money as was needed to avoid layoffs. Which probably tells you everything you need to know.

Also, expansion is already 33% off just two months after release on Steam. Which is unusually soon for Destiny expansion.

That's a pretty unusual and unexpected development, but a welcome one. I do wonder how much of the team they've managed to keep together and what we can expect from them without Mikami's creative leadership. But for now, a talented and creative studio lives on to fight another day, and that can only be celebrated in this industry.

@CrashBandicoat From wording it seems like that Microsoft kept paying Tango staff until they got this deal through

They should make an exclusive banger and cut MS out because of their dick move.

Happy for the devs, I hope Krafton will respect their creative freedom.

Playstation exclusives coming!!!

God, I needed this news. All this industry BS is so bleak. It's actually cut down how much I listen to podcasts.

Excellent, they should now make games and release them on all platforms bar PC and Xbox.

@Leechmonger_DeS Well they now own Doom - one of the biggest names in video gaming history - as well as Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Dishonoured etc as well as all the Publishing rights for those games.

They may have bought Zenimax as a 'job lot' - a bundle and wanted all the above, but the rest were not 'important' to them - even less so when they added ABK group of Studios. With Mikami gone from Tango, that maybe like acquiring Kojima Productions to have 'Kojima', only for Kojima to leave soon after.

1 studio was a support studio to Zenimax Online so got merged, MS has numerous Austin based studios to so maybe decided to close one to ensure they are well staffed. 1 was set up to make 'mobile' only games - now they have King for that and Tango was logistically difficult as their only Japanese Studio.

However, since acquiring ABK, they have opened 2 'new' Studio's - 1 in Austin (Infinity Ward Austin - so maybe some of Arkane staff were moved) and another in Poland (Elsewhere Studios). Not only that, they have also created a new team at Blizzard to make games as well...

The fact is that if you buy Fallout 3 for example, because MS own the Publishing rights, the IP etc, they'll get money from that same as if you buy Doom or Wolfenstein, Quake or Dishonored, Prey or Skyrim. Those are MS owned IP's. Halo is an MS owned IP too despite Bungie, its creators, now at Sony. IP's and Publishing is where the 'money' is - not Studios. 3rd Party Studios can also be 'hired' to work on IP's...

The fact that MS is negotiating instead of just selling them away means raises some eyebrows, but overall good news for Tango.

I hope Krafton realizes Tango's worth more than MS ever did.

Krafton was a hero.
I just couldn't see it

Also, Evil Within games are HIGHLY underrated. We need more horror games like those

@CrashBandicoat I hope that isn't true. They really should try and differentiate themselves from Sony...and also the third person Sony walk and talk game is not for me, so I am biased.

@Godot25 No, Krafton just posted their financials and they got Evil Within and Ghost Wire Tokyo as well.

Krafton? Isn't that the publisher for Callisto Protocol and PUBG?

And did they got all Tango's IP or only Hi-Fi Rush?

But the fact Krafton can acquired Tango after MS closed down the studio just showed MS never give a flying ratass for Tango in the 1st place.

But again, good news for Tango. Now they can continue making Hi-Fi Rush sequel, Evil Within 3, Ghostwire 2, or a new IP without clueless MS higher ups breathing on their neck.

Cool.i want to see more evil within games.word up son

@MrMagic If you are talking about this slide https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GUxgwXhWwAAUBVp?format=jpg&name=medium

There is nowhere where it says that they acquired GhostWire and The Evil Within IP's. It's just summary of their previous work.

Also, PR statement from Krafton only mention rights to Hi-Fi Rush.

https://www.gamespress.com/en-US/KRAFTON-Strengthens-Global-Presence-Through-Strategic-Integration-of-T

But if you want to deny official company statement, then be my guest

Kinda sucks that they only have the Hi-Fi Rush IP, I mean the game is fine, but it's hardly my favorite game from Tango.

@Godot25 Yeah I hadn't seen or read their press release. I had just saw that slide talking about acquiring new Ip and the integration of Tango and all 3 IP listed so I they assumed acquired them all.

@PuppetMaster only hifi rush, the rest stay with ms

hopefully sony does the same for ready at dawn , and brings them back

@Godot25 Exactly!

@PegasusActual93 Triggered a little?

Nice, I hope they can make AA games like hifi rush with modest budget rather than going all in on AAA gaming 😃

@naruball I was basing it off the cuts, the statements about them losing money and the fact that Sony paid $3.6 billion for them. I think it's safe to assume that they haven't made any money for Sony.

@twitchtvpat That's unfortunate.

@__jamiie I was going to say that, it's hard to imagine Bungie have generated $3.6 billion in profit in a matter of two years. That's a monumental task, and they wouldn't need to lay people off if they were that successful.

Sounds like good news. I wish the folks at Tango all the best and look forward to their future game titles.

@cburg
Theres a thing called etiquette, you know being polite? I know thats lost on you and thats why nobody likes you but thats an expectation.

Better than MS, I guess.

@MidnightDragonDX

Krafton is known for primarily making games for PC and mobile devices because in Korea PC and mobile gaming is far more popular than consoles. In my opinion, it is better if Tango makes more games for mobile devices than for consoles, because mobile gaming would bring more profit to Krafton than consoles.

@PuppetMaster

For those who prefer consoles, it would be better if Sony bought the Tango rather than the Krafton

@CielloArc

I would prefer Tango to make games primarily for mobile devices rather than consoles because it is common knowledge that mobile gaming brings more profit than consoles.

@LikelySatan

Krafton will primarily release games for PC rather than consoles because in Asia PC will always be more popular than consoles which will never be on par with PC.

@WhiteRabbit

PlayStation is not as popular as Xbox in Asia, eg Japan, China, Korea. Consoles are practically dead in those countries.People in Asia, eg China, Korea, Japan are only interested in PC and mobile gaming.

@WhiteRabbit I don't know where he got his info about consoles are dead in Asia or Xbox is more popular than PS in Asia.

But here in my country, the biggest country in South East Asia, there's no official release for Xbox and big retail only imported a few units from Singapore / Malaysia. On the other hand, a big portion of gaming market are dominated by PS (has an official release & service center) and Nintendo (doesn't have official release / service center) because they're a lot cheaper than PC gaming. Although PC gaming is quite popular and more popular than Xbox for sure because AMD and Intel has official service center in here.

@MegaMan1 are you replying to something I said?

@PegasusActual93 i think Indiana Jones, Elder scrolls 6 fallout 5 and doom will do more then ok