Following the news Krafton was saving Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks from being shut down for good, the PUBG publisher has confirmed its plans to "transfer approximately 50 development staff" from the studio to its Japan subsidiary.

This is roughly half the number of the studio's initial development staff, which was over 100. Gameranx reports this is because others have since found employment elsewhere, and as such there are a number of job openings at the studio.

In an update on social media platform X by Game File's Stephen Totilo, the reporter shared a statement from Krafton's PR, which said those 50 staff who are part of the transfer will "continue to work on new projects, including the expansion of the Hi-Fi Rush IP, at Krafton".

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PUBG publisher Krafton has acquired Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP from Xbox as part of a 'strategic agreement'.

The firm says it is working with Xbox to enable a 'smooth transition' so that the Tango team can "continue developing the Hi-Fi Rush IP and explore future projects".

Tango Gameworks was one of four Bethesda studios that Microsoft announced plans to shut down back in May. It was formed by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami in 2010, and was responsible for The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2 and Ghostwire Tokyo, before launching Hi-Fi Rush in 2023 to critical acclaim. Xbox acquired the studio in 2021 as part of its $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda parent company Zenimax.

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Tango Gameworks are back from the dead. The Hi-Fi Rush studio have been acquired - alongside the IP for future games in the rhythm action series - by South Korean company Krafton, who also own PUBG Studios and Striking Distance, among others. “This strategic move will include the rights to Tango Gameworks’ acclaimed IP, Hi-Fi Rush,” Krafton said in a statement today. I particularly enjoy the hand-rubbing, grinning use of the word ‘strategic’ here. Great news though.

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Tango Gameworks are back from the dead. The Hi-Fi Rush studio have been acquired - alongside the IP for future games in the rhythm action series - by South Korean company Krafton, who also own PUBG Studios and Striking Distance, among others. “This strategic move will include the rights to Tango Gameworks’ acclaimed IP, Hi-Fi Rush,” Krafton said in a statement today. I particularly enjoy the hand-rubbing, grinning use of the word ‘strategic’ here. Great news though.

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Nedávno bylo překvapivě oznámeno, že společnost Krafton kupuje studio Tango Gameworks, krátce poté, co bylo toto japonské studio začátkem roku uzavřeno společností Microsoft, a že součástí dohody bude také IP adresa Hi-Fi Rush, kterou společnost plánuje v budoucnu rozšířit.

Uprostřed oslav oživení studia a IP se však našlo mnoho těch, které zajímalo, zda i další vlastnosti vyvíjené Tango Gameworks změní majitele, a my v tom nyní máme jasno.

V prohlášení pro MP1st společnost Krafton potvrdila, že akvizice Tango Gameworks zahrnuje pouze Hi-Fi Rush, pokud jde o IP vyvinuté studiem. To znamená The Evil Within a Ghostwire: Tokio zůstane ve vlastnictví Microsoftu. Zda to znamená, že společnost hodlá s těmito vlastnostmi v budoucnu něco dělat, můžeme jen hádat, ale přinejmenším víme, že Tango a Krafton ne.

Co se týče Hi-Fi Rush, i když se pravděpodobně můžeme někdy v budoucnu těšit na pokračování, v krátkodobém horizontu by mělo být zajímavé sledovat, zda hra vyjde pro Nintendo Switch (nebo jeho připravovaného nástupce). Úniky informací před uzavřením Tanga společností Microsoft naznačovaly, že ano, stejně jako hodnocení PEGI.

Článek Krafton potvrzuje, že akvizice společnosti Tango Gameworks nezahrnuje hry The Evil Within a Ghostwire: Tokyo se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

Xbox's Matt Booty has spoken more on the closure of Tango Gameworks earlier this year, and, while he did not name names, it appears that a change in leadership at the Hi-Fi Rush studio was a factor in Microsoft's decision.

In conversation with Variety's Strictly Business podcast, the Xbox executive was asked about the closure of Tango Gameworks, and whether Microsoft had tried to seek another buyer for the studio.

"I won't get into the real sort of nitty gritty details on you know, what went into the decision, mostly out of respect for the people there, just because you know, there was a lot of work that went into delivering Hi-Fi Rush, which was a great game and you know did well for us," Booty began.

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Xbox boss Phil Spencer has commented publicly for the first time on recent Microsoft studio closures, stating he has to "run a sustainable business inside the company and grow".

Last month, Xbox made the shock decision to close a number of Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall developer Arkane Austin.

Now, in an interview with IGN, Spencer has finally addressed the closures.

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we look back on the start of this year's June hype cycle, the period formerly known as E3, now a potpourri of other events and announcement livestreams.

PlayStation got the ball rolling last night with its latest State of Play broadcast, which included a look ahead at its rather meagre first-party plans for the remainder of 2024: a moderately buffed-up port of Until Dawn, online shooter Concord, and the charming Astro Bot. But, as our Ian wrote earlier, even the cute robot has got some people (VR fans) disgruntled. Still, as a flat-screen game, surely more people will now play it?

And then there was Silent Hill Transmission or, this time around, basically just a longer look at the upcoming Silent Hill 2 and a chance for Konami to promote a load of tie-in tat. Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Victoria Kennedy and Vikki Blake to discuss.

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Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks has shared its first social media post since it was shut down by Microsoft last week.

In a message on X, the team thanked its followers for their "continued support". It then reaffirmed what Limited Run Games said last week - the planned physical editions of Hi-Fi Rush are still on the cards, despite the studio's change in circumstances. These editions were first announced back in February, for both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

Some of the replies to this post enquired about what will happen when the licensed music in Hi-Fi Rush expires, and while Tango itself has not responded to these questions, others have pointed out that buying physical copies of the game is the best way to ensure preservation.

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Hi-Fi Rush, developed by Tango Gameworks, is a colorful action-rhythm game that got a surprise release in 2023 and ended up being one of the best games of the year. But the studio behind it was recently closed by Xbox, making the game’s final update a somber farewell to fans.

Read more...

Physical copies of Hi-Fi Rush are still on the cards following the closure of developer Tango Gameworks earlier this week.

These physical copies of the rhythm-action game are coming from Limited Run Games, having first been announced back in February for both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

Following the shocking news that Microsoft was closing down the game's developer earlier this week, some wondered if these copies would ever actually be released. However, Limited Run has assured fans that, "unless we say otherwise, Hi-Fi Rush is a go!"

Read more

The 360 years feel like a lifetime ago. This week, Xbox stunned the industry by announcing it had closed three studios, and repurposed a fourth into another service game support team. This follows the 1900 people laid off across Xbox at the start of this year, and those Xbox employees quietly caught up in the 10,000 layoffs Microsoft made the year before. It has been a disastrous piece of PR self-sabotage, particularly with the reputations of these studios in mind.

Arkane Austin struggled with the uncharacteristic co-op, online shooter elements of Redfall, but before that made the excellent 2017 reboot of Prey and the first, fantastic Dishonored that led to the immersive sim's modern mini-revival. Tango Gameworks, Microsoft's only Japan-based studio that was led, until earlier this year, by horror legend Shinji Mikami, made The Evil Within games and the critically acclaimed, BAFTA-winning breakout Hi-Fi Rush. Roundhouse Studios was founded by the makers of the original Prey, but is now presumably destined to make different coloured leather boots for The Elder Scrolls Online. Alpha Dog made mobile games, an area where Microsoft has been specifically looking to expand. More broadly, for two console generations now, Xbox has floundered under a clear and obvious lack of inventive, attention-grabbing exclusive games. It just bought these studios in 2021.

If it weren't for the people involved, in 2024, these closures would almost feel routine. This is far from the end of Xbox, of course - in Los Angeles next month, it'll hold yet another make-or-break press conference, that maps out yet another plan for rescuing a lost generation. But be it through exasperation or exhaustion - or the wider industry's sheer, pent-up rage - this feels like something of a nadir. Xbox has spun its wheels for more than a decade, lurching from U-turn to U-turn, strategic reboot to strategic reboot, acquisition to acquisition, closure to closure. The good times have always felt just over the horizon. Project Scorpio will set the tone; Game Pass is the future; the Series X will have the games; Starfield will jump-start Game Pass now it's stalled. The growing sentiment today is that they'll probably never come.

Read more

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the closure of a number of Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks. Directed by studio creative director John Johanas, Hi-Fi Rush was lauded for being a smaller, original game that went on to win a BAFTA at last month's awards.

Yet following the closure of Tango, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty told Microsoft employees: "We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards," as per internal remarks shared with The Verge.

That's exactly what Hi-Fi Rush was. At the BAFTAs last month, Johanas told Eurogamer the game was "an intense labour of love" and there was a "good situation" at the studio due to the ability to take risks and own creative freedom.

Read more

Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks were reportedly in the process of pitching sequels to two much-loved titles - namely Hi-Fi Rush 2 and a potential new Dishonored game - when Microsoft made the shock decision to close the studios, and more Xbox cuts are said to be on the way.

That's according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier who, citing sources familiar with the matter, says Arkane had been looking to return to its roots following the release of last year's critically panned multiplayer shooter Redfall, and had pitched a new single-player 'immersive sim' - "such as a new entry in the Dishonored series" - to Xbox executives.

Tango Gameworks, meanwhile, was also in the pitching process, hoping to make a sequel to last year's critically acclaimed rhythm-action hit Hi-FI Rush - a game Microsoft previously called "one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years".

Read more

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the future of Xbox after the announcement Microsoft is shutting a swathe of Bethesda game studios. Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall once seemed primed to benefit from being available via Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's much-touted subscription service often seen as the best reason to own the company's console. Now, the studios behind both are gone forever.

Last year, Microsoft's marketing mouthpiece Aaron Greenberg declared Hi-Fi Rush "a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations". Redfall, meanwhile, despite being less-favourably received, had a multiplayer roadmap and a promise of single-player, with hope the Game Pass audience would still prop it up.

But Microsoft's reasoning for closing Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin - to focus on bigger bets - suggests Game Pass is no longer a place where creativity can reign without fear of being too niche, and where fun-if-a-bit-mid multiplayer games can't be supported long enough to receive updates just days from completion.

Read more

Hi-Fi Rush is one of eight games available as part of the Humble Choice subscription this May.

The rhythm-action game was developed by Tango Gameworks, which was sadly closed by Microsoft yesterday.

The full list of Humble Choice games for May is as follows:

Read more

Yesterday, Xbox released a post for a new Fire Vapor Special Edition wireless controller, proclaiming it was time to "Feel the Burn". On any other day, this would not have raised any eyebrows particularly. The controller headlining the announcement featured a fiery-theme with burnt orange colours, so the introduction made sense when you read it in total isolation.

However, yesterday was far from just another day at Microsoft, as the company left many reeling when - just hours before it published this controller blog post - it announced it was closing a number of Bethesda studios, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft's controller announcement was met with criticism due to its timing and insensitive nature. "That's how you know when a company is tone deaf," came one reply to the initial post.

Read more

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has rallied around Xbox boss Phil Spencer following Microsoft's shock decision to close four of its game studios - including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks - saying, "I know this hurts him as much as anyone else."

Ybarra made the comments on Twitter/X amid widespread condemnation of Microsoft's move and as anger over the closures continued to grow. "I see a lot of shots at Phil over today's Xbox announcements," he wrote on social media. "I get it. But knowing him as a human, I know this hurts him as much as anyone else. I can't speak for all of the leadership there, but I do know him and I do know what he is likely going through."

"I'm not trying to defend the decisions," Ybarra continued. "I think we all get ourselves into situations that are tough and unexpected (certainly I have). It's part of the job, as is the accountability for the outcomes. But he's a good human and he cares deeply for the creative process and developers. That's my first hand experience in working closely with him for 8+ years and knowing him for 24+."

Read more

Arkane Lyon boss Dinga Bakaba and others from across the industry have reacted to today's news of devastating closures at Bethesda.

Earlier today, news broke that Microsoft is making huge cuts at Bethesda, including closing Redfall studio Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks, and Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games.

Bakaba, Arkane Lyon's studio and co-creative director, described the decision as "absolutely terrible" in an irate thread on X, formerly Twitter.

Read more

Xbox has today announced stunning cuts and studio closures affecting a slew of development houses under the Bethesda banner.

Redfall and Dishonored developer Arkane Austin will close, and its online co-op vampire shooter will not be updated further.

Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks will also close. Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games will close and see its game switched off on 7th August.

Read more

Physical copies of Hi-Fi Rush are still on the cards following the closure of developer Tango Gameworks earlier this week.

These physical copies of the rhythm-action game are coming from Limited Run Games, having first been announced back in February for both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

Following the shocking news that Microsoft was closing down the game's developer earlier this week, some wondered if these copies would ever actually be released. However, Limited Run has assured fans that, "unless we say otherwise, Hi-Fi Rush is a go!"

Read more

The 360 years feel like a lifetime ago. This week, Xbox stunned the industry by announcing it had closed three studios, and repurposed a fourth into another service game support team. This follows the 1900 people laid off across Xbox at the start of this year, and those Xbox employees quietly caught up in the 10,000 layoffs Microsoft made the year before. It has been a disastrous piece of PR self-sabotage, particularly with the reputations of these studios in mind.

Arkane Austin struggled with the uncharacteristic co-op, online shooter elements of Redfall, but before that made the excellent 2017 reboot of Prey and the first, fantastic Dishonored that led to the immersive sim's modern mini-revival. Tango Gameworks, Microsoft's only Japan-based studio that was led, until earlier this year, by horror legend Shinji Mikami, made The Evil Within games and the critically acclaimed, BAFTA-winning breakout Hi-Fi Rush. Roundhouse Studios was founded by the makers of the original Prey, but is now presumably destined to make different coloured leather boots for The Elder Scrolls Online. Alpha Dog made mobile games, an area where Microsoft has been specifically looking to expand. More broadly, for two console generations now, Xbox has floundered under a clear and obvious lack of inventive, attention-grabbing exclusive games. It just bought these studios in 2021.

If it weren't for the people involved, in 2024, these closures would almost feel routine. This is far from the end of Xbox, of course - in Los Angeles next month, it'll hold yet another make-or-break press conference, that maps out yet another plan for rescuing a lost generation. But be it through exasperation or exhaustion - or the wider industry's sheer, pent-up rage - this feels like something of a nadir. Xbox has spun its wheels for more than a decade, lurching from U-turn to U-turn, strategic reboot to strategic reboot, acquisition to acquisition, closure to closure. The good times have always felt just over the horizon. Project Scorpio will set the tone; Game Pass is the future; the Series X will have the games; Starfield will jump-start Game Pass now it's stalled. The growing sentiment today is that they'll probably never come.

Read more

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the closure of a number of Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks. Directed by studio creative director John Johanas, Hi-Fi Rush was lauded for being a smaller, original game that went on to win a BAFTA at last month's awards.

Yet following the closure of Tango, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty told Microsoft employees: "We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards," as per internal remarks shared with The Verge.

That's exactly what Hi-Fi Rush was. At the BAFTAs last month, Johanas told Eurogamer the game was "an intense labour of love" and there was a "good situation" at the studio due to the ability to take risks and own creative freedom.

Read more

Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks were reportedly in the process of pitching sequels to two much-loved titles - namely Hi-Fi Rush 2 and a potential new Dishonored game - when Microsoft made the shock decision to close the studios, and more Xbox cuts are said to be on the way.

That's according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier who, citing sources familiar with the matter, says Arkane had been looking to return to its roots following the release of last year's critically panned multiplayer shooter Redfall, and had pitched a new single-player 'immersive sim' - "such as a new entry in the Dishonored series" - to Xbox executives.

Tango Gameworks, meanwhile, was also in the pitching process, hoping to make a sequel to last year's critically acclaimed rhythm-action hit Hi-FI Rush - a game Microsoft previously called "one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years".

Read more

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the future of Xbox after the announcement Microsoft is shutting a swathe of Bethesda game studios. Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall once seemed primed to benefit from being available via Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's much-touted subscription service often seen as the best reason to own the company's console. Now, the studios behind both are gone forever.

Last year, Microsoft's marketing mouthpiece Aaron Greenberg declared Hi-Fi Rush "a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations". Redfall, meanwhile, despite being less-favourably received, had a multiplayer roadmap and a promise of single-player, with hope the Game Pass audience would still prop it up.

But Microsoft's reasoning for closing Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin - to focus on bigger bets - suggests Game Pass is no longer a place where creativity can reign without fear of being too niche, and where fun-if-a-bit-mid multiplayer games can't be supported long enough to receive updates just days from completion.

Read more

Hi-Fi Rush is one of eight games available as part of the Humble Choice subscription this May.

The rhythm-action game was developed by Tango Gameworks, which was sadly closed by Microsoft yesterday.

The full list of Humble Choice games for May is as follows:

Read more

Yesterday, Xbox released a post for a new Fire Vapor Special Edition wireless controller, proclaiming it was time to "Feel the Burn". On any other day, this would not have raised any eyebrows particularly. The controller headlining the announcement featured a fiery-theme with burnt orange colours, so the introduction made sense when you read it in total isolation.

However, yesterday was far from just another day at Microsoft, as the company left many reeling when - just hours before it published this controller blog post - it announced it was closing a number of Bethesda studios, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft's controller announcement was met with criticism due to its timing and insensitive nature. "That's how you know when a company is tone deaf," came one reply to the initial post.

Read more

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has rallied around Xbox boss Phil Spencer following Microsoft's shock decision to close four of its game studios - including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks - saying, "I know this hurts him as much as anyone else."

Ybarra made the comments on Twitter/X amid widespread condemnation of Microsoft's move and as anger over the closures continued to grow. "I see a lot of shots at Phil over today's Xbox announcements," he wrote on social media. "I get it. But knowing him as a human, I know this hurts him as much as anyone else. I can't speak for all of the leadership there, but I do know him and I do know what he is likely going through."

"I'm not trying to defend the decisions," Ybarra continued. "I think we all get ourselves into situations that are tough and unexpected (certainly I have). It's part of the job, as is the accountability for the outcomes. But he's a good human and he cares deeply for the creative process and developers. That's my first hand experience in working closely with him for 8+ years and knowing him for 24+."

Read more

Arkane Lyon boss Dinga Bakaba and others from across the industry have reacted to today's news of devastating closures at Bethesda.

Earlier today, news broke that Microsoft is making huge cuts at Bethesda, including closing Redfall studio Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks, and Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games.

Bakaba, Arkane Lyon's studio and co-creative director, described the decision as "absolutely terrible" in an irate thread on X, formerly Twitter.

Read more

Xbox has today announced stunning cuts and studio closures affecting a slew of development houses under the Bethesda banner.

Redfall and Dishonored developer Arkane Austin will close, and its online co-op vampire shooter will not be updated further.

Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks will also close. Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games will close and see its game switched off on 7th August.

Read more

People had strong feelings, to put it mildly, after Xbox shuttered Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and other studios, and we share some of our own. Also,PlayStation finally relented on a requirement that PC players maintain a PSN account, but not before colossal fan uproar, and as the dust started to settle, we had…

Read more...

Physical copies of Hi-Fi Rush are still on the cards following the closure of developer Tango Gameworks earlier this week.

These physical copies of the rhythm-action game are coming from Limited Run Games, having first been announced back in February for both Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

Following the shocking news that Microsoft was closing down the game's developer earlier this week, some wondered if these copies would ever actually be released. However, Limited Run has assured fans that, "unless we say otherwise, Hi-Fi Rush is a go!"

Read more

The 360 years feel like a lifetime ago. This week, Xbox stunned the industry by announcing it had closed three studios, and repurposed a fourth into another service game support team. This follows the 1900 people laid off across Xbox at the start of this year, and those Xbox employees quietly caught up in the 10,000 layoffs Microsoft made the year before. It has been a disastrous piece of PR self-sabotage, particularly with the reputations of these studios in mind.

Arkane Austin struggled with the uncharacteristic co-op, online shooter elements of Redfall, but before that made the excellent 2017 reboot of Prey and the first, fantastic Dishonored that led to the immersive sim's modern mini-revival. Tango Gameworks, Microsoft's only Japan-based studio that was led, until earlier this year, by horror legend Shinji Mikami, made The Evil Within games and the critically acclaimed, BAFTA-winning breakout Hi-Fi Rush. Roundhouse Studios was founded by the makers of the original Prey, but is now presumably destined to make different coloured leather boots for The Elder Scrolls Online. Alpha Dog made mobile games, an area where Microsoft has been specifically looking to expand. More broadly, for two console generations now, Xbox has floundered under a clear and obvious lack of inventive, attention-grabbing exclusive games. It just bought these studios in 2021.

If it weren't for the people involved, in 2024, these closures would almost feel routine. This is far from the end of Xbox, of course - in Los Angeles next month, it'll hold yet another make-or-break press conference, that maps out yet another plan for rescuing a lost generation. But be it through exasperation or exhaustion - or the wider industry's sheer, pent-up rage - this feels like something of a nadir. Xbox has spun its wheels for more than a decade, lurching from U-turn to U-turn, strategic reboot to strategic reboot, acquisition to acquisition, closure to closure. The good times have always felt just over the horizon. Project Scorpio will set the tone; Game Pass is the future; the Series X will have the games; Starfield will jump-start Game Pass now it's stalled. The growing sentiment today is that they'll probably never come.

Read more

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the closure of a number of Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks. Directed by studio creative director John Johanas, Hi-Fi Rush was lauded for being a smaller, original game that went on to win a BAFTA at last month's awards.

Yet following the closure of Tango, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty told Microsoft employees: "We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards," as per internal remarks shared with The Verge.

That's exactly what Hi-Fi Rush was. At the BAFTAs last month, Johanas told Eurogamer the game was "an intense labour of love" and there was a "good situation" at the studio due to the ability to take risks and own creative freedom.

Read more

Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks were reportedly in the process of pitching sequels to two much-loved titles - namely Hi-Fi Rush 2 and a potential new Dishonored game - when Microsoft made the shock decision to close the studios, and more Xbox cuts are said to be on the way.

That's according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier who, citing sources familiar with the matter, says Arkane had been looking to return to its roots following the release of last year's critically panned multiplayer shooter Redfall, and had pitched a new single-player 'immersive sim' - "such as a new entry in the Dishonored series" - to Xbox executives.

Tango Gameworks, meanwhile, was also in the pitching process, hoping to make a sequel to last year's critically acclaimed rhythm-action hit Hi-FI Rush - a game Microsoft previously called "one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years".

Read more

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the future of Xbox after the announcement Microsoft is shutting a swathe of Bethesda game studios. Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall once seemed primed to benefit from being available via Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's much-touted subscription service often seen as the best reason to own the company's console. Now, the studios behind both are gone forever.

Last year, Microsoft's marketing mouthpiece Aaron Greenberg declared Hi-Fi Rush "a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations". Redfall, meanwhile, despite being less-favourably received, had a multiplayer roadmap and a promise of single-player, with hope the Game Pass audience would still prop it up.

But Microsoft's reasoning for closing Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin - to focus on bigger bets - suggests Game Pass is no longer a place where creativity can reign without fear of being too niche, and where fun-if-a-bit-mid multiplayer games can't be supported long enough to receive updates just days from completion.

Read more

Hi-Fi Rush is one of eight games available as part of the Humble Choice subscription this May.

The rhythm-action game was developed by Tango Gameworks, which was sadly closed by Microsoft yesterday.

The full list of Humble Choice games for May is as follows:

Read more

Yesterday, Xbox released a post for a new Fire Vapor Special Edition wireless controller, proclaiming it was time to "Feel the Burn". On any other day, this would not have raised any eyebrows particularly. The controller headlining the announcement featured a fiery-theme with burnt orange colours, so the introduction made sense when you read it in total isolation.

However, yesterday was far from just another day at Microsoft, as the company left many reeling when - just hours before it published this controller blog post - it announced it was closing a number of Bethesda studios, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft's controller announcement was met with criticism due to its timing and insensitive nature. "That's how you know when a company is tone deaf," came one reply to the initial post.

Read more

Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has rallied around Xbox boss Phil Spencer following Microsoft's shock decision to close four of its game studios - including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks - saying, "I know this hurts him as much as anyone else."

Ybarra made the comments on Twitter/X amid widespread condemnation of Microsoft's move and as anger over the closures continued to grow. "I see a lot of shots at Phil over today's Xbox announcements," he wrote on social media. "I get it. But knowing him as a human, I know this hurts him as much as anyone else. I can't speak for all of the leadership there, but I do know him and I do know what he is likely going through."

"I'm not trying to defend the decisions," Ybarra continued. "I think we all get ourselves into situations that are tough and unexpected (certainly I have). It's part of the job, as is the accountability for the outcomes. But he's a good human and he cares deeply for the creative process and developers. That's my first hand experience in working closely with him for 8+ years and knowing him for 24+."

Read more

Arkane Lyon boss Dinga Bakaba and others from across the industry have reacted to today's news of devastating closures at Bethesda.

Earlier today, news broke that Microsoft is making huge cuts at Bethesda, including closing Redfall studio Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks, and Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games.

Bakaba, Arkane Lyon's studio and co-creative director, described the decision as "absolutely terrible" in an irate thread on X, formerly Twitter.

Read more

Xbox has today announced stunning cuts and studio closures affecting a slew of development houses under the Bethesda banner.

Redfall and Dishonored developer Arkane Austin will close, and its online co-op vampire shooter will not be updated further.

Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks will also close. Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games will close and see its game switched off on 7th August.

Read more

Ah, it feels like only yesterday that Microsoft shut down Tango Gameworks, creators of Hi-Fi Rush, and now here's Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, telling Microsoft staff at an internal townhall meeting that "we need smaller games that give us prestige and awards" - a sentence we might plausibly lengthen to "...like Hi-Fi Rush".

See, these are the kinds of glacial changes of focus and ponderous shifts of strategy you often get at very large videogame publishers such as Microsoft. Trends are cyclical and corporations are sort of just these massive, sleepy hamsters, trundling around the wheel to rediscover practices and projects they once deemed bad for business. Hang on, let me go look up "yesterday" in the dictionary and fetch some sellotape - my brain appears to have exploded.

Read more

When I asked Tango Gameworks creative director John Johanas whom he'd give Hi-Fi Rush's Best Audio trophy away to at this year's GDC Awards, he said he'd split it between the game's audio team and "the person who taught me everything I know" - Shinji Mikami, Tango's founder and one of the erstwhile Capcom and Platinum big brains behind Resident Evil, Vanquish and much more besides. I confess, I found this response annoying - partly because I was hoping Johanas would bring up some obscure indie composer I could then namecheck at parties, and partly, because I have spent years waiting for Tango to escape Mikami's shadow after essentially announcing themselves as a Mikami fan project back in 2010.

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Like us, you’re probably still reeling from Tuesday’s news that Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango and Prey’s Arkane Austin are getting shuttered by Microsoft. According to Bloomberg, these closures were just a part of a “widespread cost-cutting initiative” that’s still underway. All signs point towards more cuts to come, basically. ZeniMax studios seem to be the main target.

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Microsoft are shutting down multiple game studios including Redfall developers Arkane Austin and the creators of Hi-Fi Rush, Tango Gameworks. The news was delivered via an email to staff from Xbox boss Matt Booty which has since been seen by IGN. Booty calls the decision a "consolidation of our Bethesda studio teams, so that we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP."

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This past week started with a shock, as Microsoft announced it was closing a number of studios including Tango Gameworks, responsible for the very well-liked Hi-Fi Rush, leading many to wonder just what a studio has to achieve in this day and age to be deemed successful enough to exist. Also, one of the most…

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It has been a very bad week for Xbox Game Studios. On Tuesday, May 7, Microsoft announced it would shut down three studios: Redfall developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush creators Tango Gameworks, and Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog Games. On top of this, Roadhouse Games is being absorbed into Elder Scrolls Online developer…

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