In May 2024, Microsoft’s Xbox team announced that they were shutting down multiple Bethesda studios, including Tango Gameworks and Redfall’s Arkane Austin, which was met with shock and anger by the fans and developers. This move happened due to repetitive closures and layoffs this year in the video game industry.
Tango Gameworks was founded in 2010 by horror veteran Shinji Mikami, who left the studio last year before the announcement of studio closure. It was the developer studio behind Hi-Fi Rush, the game that hit two million players a month after release and received very positive reviews from the public.
There is some good news for the Hi-Fi Rush enthusiasts: The owner of PUBG: Battlegrounds, Krafton, has announced that they have acquired Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP from Xbox, meaning that the studio is no longer shut down.
In a press release, Krafton shared, “As part of this strategic agreement, KRAFTON intends to collaborate with Xbox and ZeniMax to ensure a smooth transition and maintain continuity at Tango Gameworks, allowing the talented team to continue developing the Hi-Fi RUSH IP and explore future projects.”
According to the company’s statement, this move won’t affect the existing game catalog of The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire: Tokyo, or the original Hi-Fi RUSH game.
The South Korean company said that this move is its “first significant investment in the Japanese market.”
Many reports also suspect that, apart from Hi-Fi Rush, the publishing company has no interest in making further The Evil Within and Ghostwire games, or it hasn’t bought those IPs yet.
