The gaming landscape in 2024 is a volatile one. Studio’s are either laying off employees or closing seemingly every day. No one feels safe. So when a good story comes out of the industry like Krafton purchasing Tango Gameworks from Microsoft before it gets shut down, it’s a brief moment to celebrate. 

When Microsoft announced earlier this year that they were shutting down Tango (as well as Arkane Austin, Roundhouse Games and Alpha Dog Studios) the industry was a bit shocked. Tango by all accounts had been a good studio since being officially acquired as part of the Bethesda deal in 2021. Hi-Fi Rush, the studio’s first game under the Xbox banner received high praise from critics, gamers and even Xbox themselves and yet Microsoft was deciding to shutter the studio.  

While we got some PR speak about why the studio was being shut down, we never really did hear the real reason. Many speculated it was because long time Tango studio head Shinji Mikami was leaving the studio. Without it’s leader Microsoft perhaps didn’t see a direction for the studio. Others thought that despite what Xbox was saying publicly about Hi-Fi Rush that it wasn’t that happy with the results of the game internally. Whatever the reason I’m not sure we will ever know, but regardless it was a terrible thing for the studio and gaming in general. 

So when it was announced late lastnight that Krafton Inc, creators of the PUBG game was purchasing Tango it was a sigh of relief from gamers. Tango had been saved. Why they only purchased the studio and 1 IP. Hi-Fi Rush, and not Ghostwire Tokyo and The Evil Within is interesting, but it’s clear they have plans for more Hi-Fi Rush. Perhaps Xbox has plans for the other 2 IP’s and maybe we even see a collaboration at some point between the two companies to revisit those games. Time will tell. 

A Rare But Welcome Move

But what needs to be focused on for now, is how Microsoft ultimately did the right thing by selling off the studio. We can debate that the studio should have never been shuttered in the first place, and that’s a fair debate to have. But far too often in gaming, and business in general, large companies simply close these studios down. When Microsoft bought Bethesda it was largely for the other Bethesda studios such as Bethesda Softworks and ID Games. Tango was simply part of the package. The easy thing to do was shut down the studio and retain the IP.  

Embracer Group has bought tons of studios only to close them as have many others. A lot of the time it is all about acquiring the IP’s rather than the studios. The Saints Row IP is much more valuable than Volition as a studio by example. It’s in many ways a backwards way of thinking, but it’s the reality these days. And part of it is fear. These companies would rather let a studio and IP sit on the shelf than sell it off to another company and see that IP then flourish. Microsoft is guilty of this as well so I’m by no means letting them off the hook here, but it still should at least be applauded that they did sell off rather than close. 

Which makes me wonder why they didn’t try to sell off before announcing the closure in the first place. Surely not announcing the studio closing and only announcing a sale would have been better PR. Perhaps they did try but only to other big publishers and Krafton didn’t even know it was available until after the closure announcement. Maybe we find out the whole story some day.

Hopefully both Microsoft and others can continue this trend. I’m sure studios like the aforementioned Volition could have worked with another publisher. The problem likely was the Saints Row IP. Even Arkane Austin could have had value elsewhere.

Regardless, the important thing here is that Tango lives. Those passionate employees get to keep their job and build the game that they love. I’m at least thankful for that.