On June 14th, the gaming world took a sudden loss when Microsoft officially closed down Tango Gameworks. For nearly fifteen years, Tango excited fans with its fun games, including 2023’s Hi-Fi Rush and the Evil Within series. Originally, ZeniMax Media would take over the video game developer when sudden financial issues pushed it into their hands in October 2010.
Due to Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media, Tango Gameworks would become the first Japanese video game company in its gaming development portfolio. With the sudden closure, fans and critics alike would bash Microsoft’s decision as Tango had garnered success with their games.
History of Tango Gameworks
Tango Gameworks was founded in March 2010 by Shinji Mikami and twelve other developers in Odaiba, Tokyo. At its start, Tango would begin developing multiple projects. One project, in particular, was scheduled to take six months to develop and was considered a “joke game.” Its gameplay would center around a two-leg standing cockroach shooting guns.
With that said, Tango’s first official project, Noah, was a sci-fi survival-adventure game with open-world elements modeled after the 1984 film Dune. The game’s setting was an uninhabitable Earth where humans relocated to other planets. Its gameplay followed a team of researchers who were tasked with the search and rescue of a colony of humans who lost contact with the other colonies.
During the game’s early development stage, Tango would suddenly begin struggling with financial issues. Luckily, the video game publisher from America, Bethesda Softworks, would offer help by letting ZeniMax become Tango’s parent company. According to Mikami, he agreed to the deal as he felt that both ZeniMax and Bethesda offered more independence for Tango’s video game development.
The Krafton and Tango Gameworks Deal
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In addition to Tango Gameworks, Microsoft would shut down three other Bethesda gaming studios. These studios include Roundhouse Games, Arkane Austin, and Alpha Dog Games. A statement issued by Microsoft said that the reason for these shutdowns was to create more space to increase investments in other parts of their portfolio while remaining focused on their priority games.
However, Krafton Inc. announced they would bring Tango Gameworks back on August 24th. In an agreement made by both companies, Tango would remain in a partnership with Microsoft despite their previous departure. Moreover, Krafton’s acquisition of Tango Gameworks included the rights to Hi-Fi Rush and plans to explore future video game projects and further develop the property as a whole.
South Korea’s Krafton Inc.
Krafton Inc. is a video game publishing company in South Korea and was founded in March 2007 by Chang Byung-gyu. The publishing company would become the parent company for Bluehole, which Chang also founded around the same time. Primarily, Bluehole is known for its combat-based, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), including 2017’s battle-royale game, PUBG: Battlegrounds.
Overall, the company produced various popular video games, such as 2022’s survival horror, The Callisto Protocol, and 2024’s turn-based strategy game, Moonbreaker. What’s more? Chang’s $2.9 billion net worth makes him one of the few South Korean gaming billionaires.
The Game-Changing Acquisition
Conversely, the agreement reached by both developers didn’t include the purchase costs or any other games made by Tango. Specifically, the rights to their Evil Within series and 2022’s action-adventure game, Ghostwire: Tokyo, would remain with Microsoft. Despite this news, Microsoft plans to work with Tango Gameworks and Krafton to develop future games. Furthermore, Microsoft would help Tango to transition over to Kraften, while providing support for future Hi-Fi Rush games.
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