Gamer's World | Mourning the Loss of Tango Gameworks, Developer of Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush

I've written in past columns about the wave of studio closures, restructuring and redundancies that has swept through the game industry this past couple of years. But one high-profile case this month hit me especially hard: the closure of Tango Gameworks.

Originally founded in 2010 by legendary Resident Evil developer Shinji Mikami, Tango Gameworks developed well-received games such as The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo. Then, it found huge acclaim for the multi-award-winning action game Hi-Fi Rush in 2023. Tango Gameworks was acquired in late 2010 by ZeniMax Media, owner of Bethesda Softworks, which itself was acquired about a decade later by Xbox owner Microsoft.

Tango's Vision

Mikami founded Tango as a way to create games without the corporate pressure he felt at his previous employer, Capcom, while also fostering a new generation of game developers. 

I interviewed Mikami in 2012. At that time, Tango's first game codenamed Project Zwei, was still shrouded in mystery. I asked him what he thought his studio would be like in 10 years' time.

"I hope to release games that will sell and games that are unique, with a high level of quality," he told me. "That's the sort of studio I want to build. And for our young creators to make great games that become hits so that they become famous."

In 2013, he gave me a more specific hint as to his intentions. He singled out three of Tango's staff, including his protégée Ikumi Nakamura (who had previously worked on Okami and Bayonetta), art director Naoki Katakai, and design lead Shigenori Nishikawa as possible future directors at Tango. 

"If people with characters as strong as those three work together, there will be nothing but arguments!" he laughed. "So in future, I hope they will each have their own projects. I hope to find small projects to entrust to each of them soon."

Emergence of New Directors

In the end, Nakamura began her directorial debut at Tango with spooky action game Ghostwire: Tokyo. Her excited announcement of the project at E3 in 2019 and her improvised "Mite ne!" pose became an enduring meme online. But she eventually left Tango midway through production to launch her own studio, Unseen, while the game was finished off by others (including the aforementioned Nishikawa).

Instead, the next-generation director who truly emerged from Tango Gameworks was John Johanas. He directed The Evil Within 2 and its DLC expansion, before successfully pitching his own new idea: Hi-Fi Rush. This colorful, humorous, fun action game straddled the line between Japanese anime and American cartoons. It had a cool soundtrack featuring Nine Inch Nails and The Prodigy, and an engaging set of rhythm-based controls that let anyone channel the beat and feel like a badass. 

A Surprise Game: Hi-Fi Rush

A complete departure from the studio's horror-game pedigree, Hi-Fi Rush was announced in January 2023 and released the same day. It was a surprise release for a surprising game. And since Tango was now owned by Microsoft, the game launched as part of Game Pass, Xbox's all-you-can-play subscription service. That made it easily available to a wide range of gamers and quickly built an audience of some 3 million players.

Partly because it was available at no extra charge on Game Pass, Hi-Fi Rush was not a huge sales hit for Microsoft. But it was a fantastic game that was widely praised. It won trophies at prestigious events such as the CEDEC Awards in Japan, the Game Awards in the United States, and the BAFTA Games Awards in the UK. 

Acquisition and Closure

With this fresh victory in mind, what a crushing, gut-wrenching shock to hear on May 7 that Tango Gameworks was to suddenly close. In a restructuring effort aimed at redeploying its resources, Bethesda announced it would close Tango, along with embattled developer Arkane Austin (maker of beloved games like Dishonored and Prey, but whose latest game Redfall was a flop) and mobile game developer Alpha Dog Games. It will also absorb Roundhouse Studios team into its larger ZeniMax Online Studios.

Until now, the recent brutal run of downsizing has mostly been confined to companies in the West, so the shuttering of Tokyo-based Tango was a total surprise. But of course, while Tango was founded and operated in Japan, it fell foul of the whims of its Stateside owner.

The decision was frustrating on so many levels. While not a massive seller, Hi-Fi Rush was Xbox's most universally praised first-party game in years. It also seemed to prove the validity of a service like Game Pass, showing how a brand-new IP could find an instant audience among curious subscribers. 

Even Xbox's own head of marketing Aaron Greenberg praised the game's success in April 2023, saying, "Hi-Fi Rush was a breakout hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. We couldn't be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release."

A Huge Loss for Gaming

Microsoft has struggled these past few years to make the most of its many acquisitions, with disappointing online multiplayer games like Redfall and good-but-not-quite-killer titles like Starfield. Its mammoth 68-billion-dollar purchase of Activision Blizzard King is still riddled with question marks. 

But Hi-Fi Rush was an unmitigated critical hit — which Xbox sorely needed. Just as the team at Tango was reportedly proposing a sequel, down came the axe — just like that. Xbox upper management made a series of confusing statements in the days that followed. Many gamers found their confidence in the Xbox brand and its future badly shaken as a result.

So this is how it ends…

Unfortunately I don’t quite have the words…

But at least thank you to everyone who supported us. https://t.co/jJs8qd1hcr— johnjohanas (@johnjohanas) May 7, 2024

It's also sad because Hi-Fi Rush was proof-positive of Mikami's founding principle for Tango Gameworks: to foster and expose new talent. Mikami left Tango shortly after the release of Hi-Fi Rush, in hindsight a portent of things to come. However, his hands-off approach allowed Johanas and his team to make a game that was completely unexpected and to reach a whole new audience outside of the horror world.

Tango closed. Sad.— 三上　真司 (@shinji_mikami) May 7, 2024

Talent Tossed Aside

For me personally, despite an almost numbing string of similar stories over the past two years, I found this particular studio closure really hard to take. In 2012, I was one of the first to interview Mikami about his exciting new venture and to tour their fresh new studio building. 

I followed Nakamura as she rose to prominence, and covered her departure from the studio with a pair of fan Q&A videos for IGN Japan. I worked with the Ghostwire: Tokyo team to produce an in-depth video discussing their game's production for the China Game Developers Conference.

And I had known Johanas long before he assumed his director role. I had seen him at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco just weeks before the news, beaming with pride for his game. The idea that he and his talented team were tossed aside in the name of cost-cutting by a 3 trillion-dollar megacorp is really, really depressing.

What it Means for Creatives

Beyond that, it was a reminder of how creative endeavor and commerce can be as oil and water. If you can create an unbridled hit and still be closed down in support of the bottom line, what's the point in even trying? Who is truly safe?

As someone who has worked in a creative career his entire adult life, with 25 years of survival in the ever-unstable media landscape, my skin has grown thick. But this was a stark reminder of how cruel and unfair these decisions can be.

For over twenty years London Studio has been home to some exceptionally talented and wonderful people in the games industry. As we close the doors, and all go forward to new adventures, we wanted to say a heartfelt thank you, to all our past and present, players and colleagues… pic.twitter.com/gXe4MnU6SI— PlayStation London Studio (@LondonStudioHQ) May 21, 2024

More Closures

Also this month, PlayStation closed its storied London Studio. With over two decades of history, London Studio was PlayStation's flagship UK studio. It worked on pioneering games like the PlayStation 2 megahit karaoke game SingStar, PS3's augmented reality novelties EyePet and Wonderbook, and iconic virtual reality title PlayStation VR Worlds for PS4. 

EyePet was a particular favorite in my home when my daughter was still a toddler. It brought her hours of joy as she interacted seamlessly with a cute pet that appeared in our living room via the PS3's motion-sensing PlayStation Eye camera — a real feat of magic and delight.

Bethesda's move came just three years after PlayStation closed Japan Studio, the company's oldest studio, where I worked for a year or so from 2014. It was PlayStation's key developer of quirky, unique games like Ico, Patapon, and Gravity Rush, as well as hugely popular second-party games like Bloodborne and Everybody's Golf. The studio's closure signaled PlayStation's refocusing on games with more mainstream appeal. 

While games like Spider-Man, God of War, and The Last of Us are of course global smash hits, the loss of local flavor provided by developers like Japan Studio and now London Studio make PlayStation a less eclectic platform.

Looking Ahead in Uncertain Waters

Let's end on a more positive note. While tremors continue to rattle the Western game industry, in Japan in May, Nintendo announced its acquisition of Shiver Entertainment from the troubled Embracer Group. 

Shiver is best known for its work porting major games from much more powerful consoles such as Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat 1 to the less powerful Nintendo Switch. This is something of a miracle. As with many Japanese game companies, Nintendo is sparing with its acquisitions. This strategic purchase of a partner with technical chops may be less flashy than Sony buying Destiny developer Bungie or Xbox getting hold of the Call of Duty franchise. But as Nintendo reportedly prepares to announce a successor to its popular Switch console, it seems like an extremely sound choice.

Will the distressing news of job losses and closures continue throughout 2024? Sadly, yes — I have no doubt. But as I said, I'll end on a positive note — or at least as close to one as I can manage: Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. In the face of such overwhelming misery, it can be hard to believe it, but what else can you do?

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Author: Daniel Robson

Daniel Robson is the chief editor of videogame news site IGN Japan. Read his series Gamer's World on JAPAN Forward, and find him on X (formerly Twitter).