Tango Gameworks has made a huge announcement to usher in the new year.
They made this announcement on Twitter:
“A New Start
Tango Gameworks studio has been reborn as Tango Gameworks Inc., proudly joining KRAFTON Inc.
We’re excited to continue crafting games that bring joy to players around the world.
Thank you for your continued support as we embark on this new journey!”
The newly incorporated game company’s creative director, John Johanas, also shared his own message on Twitter:
“2024 had some of the highest highs and the lowest lows I’ve ever experienced, but it’s a blessing to be working with my friends, the team at Tango, on what will likely be a busy 2025.
Truly a new start. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen and to everyone’s support!”
Indeed, Tango Gameworks and its game Hi-Fi Rush felt like it speedran five years of a game’s life cycle down to two years. While Hi-Fi Rush was stealth-dropped at the end of January 2023, it then received a port to PlayStation 5 in March 2024.
As one of four first-party Microsoft games that the company chose to bring to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, Hi-Fi Rush became subject to controversy among Xbox gamers, and not necessarily the gamers who played Hi-Fi Rush.
But that issue was nothing compared to when Bethesda chose to close the studio who made it, Tango Gameworks. After months of Microsoft Gaming leadership fielding questions about the closure, Microsoft shocked everyone when they announced they were able to broker the deal to sell the studio and Hi-Fi Rush to Korean game company Krafton.
Krafton is successful on their own, squarely on the heels of PUBG. Krafton had earlier attempted to expand their business with Striking Distance Studios, and its ill-fated first title, The Callisto Protocol.
As of right now, Striking Distance is seeing better critical reception for [REDACTED], though it isn’t clear how successful this smaller title is. And so we must acknowledge that there’s a lot of uncertainty around how both studios, owned by the Korean conglomerate but existing in other countries, will fare in the future.
We’re hopeful for both Striking Distance Studios and Tango Gameworks, and we hope Krafton can find their way to make great, successful games that will prove popular to play as much as they are for people to talk about them online. In this new year of 2025, they all have the opportunity for a fresh start.
