The Death and Revival of Tango Gameworks
In another timeline, this entry would have been filed in this post’s companion piece as one of the biggest disappointments of 2024. In May, Microsoft announced it would be closing four developers under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella. Among them was Tango Gameworks, the team behind the beloved surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush. According to Microsoft’s own metrics, the rhythm-based action game did well, even as a day-one Game Pass offering. And yet, it wasn’t enough to save the studio from the claws of corporate greed.
However, the story has a happy ending. In August, PUBG publisher Krafton acquired the studio and the Hi-Fi Rush IP, bringing back old talent to work on the next entry in the series. A lot of game developers lost their jobs in 2024, and thousands of people are still looking for work as the industry eats itself alive. But in all that darkness, there was one bright spot for a studio whose work had been widely celebrated just a year before its demise. -Kenneth Shepard
