Last week, we reported on Krafton reforming Hi-Fi Rush’s studio into Tango Gameworks, Inc. Today, Tango and Krafton have taken another crucial step forward.
As reported by Automaton Media West, Krafton is launching a new office for Tango, to be based in Tokyo. Now, we may need to get more details on this later, since Krafton was also founded in Tokyo. While it was originally located in the artificial island of Odaiba, by the time it was closed the studio shared photos of their headquarters in Shibuya. Both Odaiba and Shibuya are part of Tokyo.
Since Krafton rehired half of Tango’s original staff, who were apparently as many people who were still available to rehire, they are probably all still based in Tokyo. We also know that that Shibuya office was closed for weeks by the time that Krafton brokered the deal with Microsoft to acquire Tango and their IP Hi-Fi Rush.
Automaton also noted some of the executives who returned to the studio. Colin Mack, an industry veteran who was executive producer for Hi-Fi Rush, is now the studio head. Subsequently, John Johanas and Kazuaki Egashira returned to their roles as creative director and development director, respectively.
Tango Gameworks Inc. has rejoined the small but significant group of smaller video game studios in Japan. While it’s true that many of these studios have been around for years, doing outsourcing work for bigger companies, some of this new generation of smaller studios hope to become famous in their own right, by making original games.
Among those smaller studios are Unseen Studio, headed by Ikumi Nakamura and working on Kemuri, Clovers, who are making the Okami sequel and is headed by Hideki Kamiya, and Soleil, Ltd., FKA as Valhalla Studios, and the developer of Wanted: Dead.
Tango is now in a strange position between their peers, as their franchise saw most of its success in the West. It isn’t as unusual that they have a lot of non-Japanese staff, as developers big and small have had to adapt to the global gaming market.
But now, Krafton, who has become quietly dominant with their live service franchise PUBG, wants to extend their wings and also be part of the industry outside live service. Between Tango Gameworks and Striking Distance Studios, the developer of The Callisto Protocol and [REDACTED], Krafton seems to have found new goals and dreams to attain, for themselves and their developers.
