It's been such a year/four years in the video game industry, so full of mergers and closures and layoffs, that we've conditioned ourselves to flinch reflexively at any kind of announcement that's made from the business side of things. Imagine our surprise, then, when an email landed in our inboxes tonight with news that seemed...good?
The email, a press release, said that Krafton (publishers of PUBG) had bought both Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP from Microsoft, saving both from the dustbin of history. Here's the meat of it:
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. KRAFTON intends to support the Tango Gameworks team to continue its commitment to innovation and delivering fresh and exciting experiences for fans. There will be no impact on the existing game catalog of The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and the original Hi-Fi RUSH game.
This integration reinforces KRAFTON’s dedication to expanding its global footprint and enhancing its portfolio with innovative and high-quality content. The addition of Tango Gameworks represents a strategic alignment with KRAFTON's mission to push the boundaries of interactive entertainment.
That's about as good as it gets, right? The studio is saved, and there's even explicit mention made of both Hi-Fi Rush's continuity and work on future projects (Tango also being well-known for Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo).
Now, none of us know how this will shake out in the longterm, hence the asterisk in the headline. Maybe the next Hi-Fi Rush game will be an exploitative mobile release, maybe Tango and Krafton leadership will clash, there's an infinite number of ways this whole thing can go bad.
But there are also ways it can go well. Like if Krafton looked at Tango's past, looked at Hi-Fi Rush, looked at how stupid and callous Microsoft has been with its recent closures and figured, huh, we can buy a really cool studio on the cheap and get to own some really cool video games going forward if we just leave these guys alone to do their thing.
Something Microsoft could have also realised, but then, their line must always go up, no matter the cost. Hopefully things go better for Tango now they're owned by quite literally anyone else.
