In its announcement, Krafton has noted that Hi-Fi Rush will get updates to reflect this change in the game itself, likely replacing Bethesda’s logo at the beginning with Krafton’s. This update is slated to happen on December 4, and the company has said that it will bring no other changes to the core gameplay of Hi-Fi Rush.

Along with this, the Bethesda.net connection feature of Hi-Fi Rush will also be disabled from now until the release of the update. This means that players might encounter strange error messages when they try to play the title. However, players don’t have to worry about anything affecting their save data, game progress, achievements, or any other player information.

“Other unexpected issues may also occur during this period,” explained the company in its announcement. “We kindly ask for your understanding, and if you encounter any problems, please contact Krafton Customer Support for prompt assistance.”

Krafton had announced its acquisition of the Hi-Fi Rush IP along with its developer back in August 2024. The announcement came in light of Microsoft officially shutting the studio down as part of a larger set of lay-offs and studio closures, which also affected Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Studios and Roundhouse Games.

“As part of this strategic agreement, Krafton intends to collaborate with Xbox and ZeniMax to ensure a smooth transition and maintain continuity at Tango Gameworks, allowing the talented team to continue developing the Hi-Fi Rush IP and explore future projects,” said Krafton when it first announced the acquisition. “Krafton intends to support the Tango Gameworks team to continue its commitment to innovation and delivering fresh and exciting experiences for fans.”

Shortly after this announcement, Krafton also confirmed that other Tango Gameworks-developed IPs like Ghostwire: Tokyo and The Evil Within were not part of the acquisition. Rather, the rights to both titles remain under the ownership of Microsoft.

In the meantime, there have also been rumours about a potential sequel to Hi-Fi Rush. Krafton’s head of corporate development Maria Park had already confirmed that this sequel was in the works. She also noted that the sequel would offer “more dynamic” environments that give players more freedom thanks to “a more open world type of experience.”

Earlier this year, Tango Gameworks had also announced that it had opened up its new offices, as well as the fact that it was actively hiring more developers to work on a brand new game. While no details about this game were revealed, the developer confirmed that it was an “unannounced action game”. The new incarnation of the studio has has quite a few of the developers associated with it before Microsoft shut it down, including Jon Johanas, Masaaki Yamada, Kazuaki Egashira and Yosuke Ishikawa.

Along with its new website and offices, Tango Gameworks has also unveiled its new logo. In a post, the studio describes the logo as giving off a “hand-made” feel that it wants to impart into all of its projects. The studio has also described itself as one acting like a creative workshop.

“At our studio, not only do we want to make games that we feel no one else can, but we want to foster a space for creatives to grow, both by learning from their teammates, and by giving them chances to take on challenging tasks,” wrote the studio on its website. “Akin to a workshop, it can sometimes feel chaotic, but working together coalesces into a high-quality game that we believe makes them ‘hand-crafted.’”

This new incarnation of Tango Gameworks includes quite a few names that we’ve previously seen associated with the studio before its closure in 2024, including John Johanas as creative driector, Masaaki Yamada as lead game designer, Kazuaki Egashira as the head of the development department, and Yosuke Ishikawa as lead character artist.

Going by its recruitment page, the new Tango Gameworks seems eager to fill up quite a few spots in its development teams, with some of the roles the studio is looking for including senior applications programmer, senior system programmer, senior animator, senior character artist, and a cutscene manager, among many other open positions. The recruitment page also notes that Tango Gameworks and Krafton will be working on creating new IPs.

The opening of its new office and the new website going live comes a few months after former members of Tango Gameworks joined up with Krafton to found Tango Gameworks Inc. Along with this team up, Krafton had also acquired the IP rights for the studio’s name, as well as Hi-Fi Rush back in August 2024.

Microsoft had announced the closure of Tango Gameworks, alongside other studios like Alpha Dog Studios (Mighty Doom), Arkane Austin (Redfall), and Roundhouse Games back in May 2024. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in June 2024 that these studio closures were “hard decisions” that were made for “sustainable business”.

“The closure of any team is hard obviously on the individuals there, hard on the team,” Spencer said. “I haven’t been talking publicly about this, because right now is the time for us to focus on the team and the individuals. It’s obviously a decision that’s very hard on them, and I want to make sure through severance and other things that we’re doing the right thing for the individuals on the team. It’s not about my PR, it’s not about Xbox PR. It’s about those teams.”

In the meantime, check out our review of Hi-Fi Rush from back when it first came out. The rhythm-based action game is currently available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Though receiving extensive acclaim for Hi-Fi Rush in 2023, with Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg remarking that the company “couldn’t be happier” with its launch, Tango was shut down in 2024 alongside Arkane Austin and Alpha Dog Games by Microsoft. It was subsequently acquired by Krafton alongside the Hi-Fi Rush IP, with the company touting the sequel as more of an “open world type of experience.”

While it won’t be a fully open world, Maria Park, Krafton’s head of corporate development, said there will be more “dynamic” environments for players to explore. Further details on a release date are unknown, and while Tango was working on a six-month-old build before meeting Krafton, the latter is keen to take its time. “We want to make sure that the sequel is actually at a quality level that surpasses the community’s expectations,” said Park.

Hi-Fi Rush is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out our review of the PS5 version.

pic.twitter.com/XyTkKcFyzF

— Tango Gameworks (EN) (@TangoGameworks) January 1, 2025

For starters, there’s Ghostwire: Tokyo, Tango Gameworks’ first-person action-adventure open world title, which takes players to a haunted verson of Tokyo, where you’re charged with hunting and dealing with all manner of supernatural entities as part of your attempts to save the city.

Another major title for subscribers to look forward to is Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged, Milestone’s acclaimed arcade racer, which launches last October. Finally, there’s also Death Note Killer Within, a multiplayer social deduction game for 10 players set in the Death Note universe, which publisher Bandai Namco has confirmed will be available day one via PS Plus at launch.

All three games will be available starting November 5 for subscribers of all PlayStation Plus tiers, which means you have until November 4 to claim October’s games.

Of course, it’s safe to say that the rhythm action sequel is probably a ways off yet, though interestingly enough, some brief details on what it will be like have emerged nonetheless. Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry, Maria Park – who is Krafton’s “head of corporate development” – stated that Hi-Fi Rush 2 is indeed in the works, and that Tango Gameworks is looking to make it “a more open world type of experience” compared to the first game. As per Park, though the game is unlikely to be fully open world, it will let players traverse and explore “more dynamic” environments.

“Yes, the team was working on Hi-Fi Rush 2 when we first met them,” she explained. “They want to make sure [it] surpasses the expectations of the existing fans. For instance, some of the feedback about Hi-Fi Rush was that some people felt it was [just] going through factories, so now they want to give a more open world type of experience. I don’t think it’s going to be completely open world, but a more dynamic environment [that] you play in. Also, having more advanced technology applied to the rhythm action so that it feels more synchronised.”

Park went on to explain that Tango Gameworks currently has a six-month-old build of the sequel in place, and though work on it had paused due to the studio’s closure and subsequent sale to Krafton, that work will soon resume.

“I think the build that we looked at was about six months old when we went to meet with them,” she said. “At the moment, because the IP acquisition is in progress, it’s been on hold because all the related assets and tools will be transferred to Krafton from Microsoft. But yes, we’ll continue working on it for sure. Like I said, we won’t really rush to the market just to deliver a sequel. We want to make sure that the sequel is actually at a quality level that surpasses the community’s expectations.”

In a statement to MP1st, Krafton confirmed that its acquisition of Tango Gameworks only includes Hi-Fi Rush as far as IP developed by the studio are concerned. That means The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo will remain under Microsoft’s ownership. Whether that means the company intends to do anything with those properties in the future is anyone’s guess, but we do know, at the very least, that Tango and Krafton will not.

As for Hi-Fi Rush, while we can presumably look forward to sequels at some point in the future, in the short-term, it should be interesting to see whether the game releases for Nintendo Switch (or its upcoming successor). Leaks prior to Tango’s closure by Microsoft suggested that it would, as did a PEGI rating.

It’s been announced that Korean publisher Krafton (PUBG, The Callisto Protocol) has expanded its portfolio by acquiring Tango Gameworks by Microsoft, with the studio and its employees set to be brought back into commission.

Krafton has, additionally, also acquired the Hi-Fi Rush IP. Other Tango IP – The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo – will seemingly remain under Microsoft’s ownership, and the availability of all Tango Gameworks titles on Game Pass will remain unaffected. That said, Krafton says it intends to expand the Hi-Fi Rush IP.

“As part of this strategic agreement, Krafton intends to collaborate with Xbox and ZeniMax to ensure a smooth transition and maintain continuity at Tango Gameworks, allowing the talented team to continue developing the Hi-Fi Rush IP and explore future projects. Krafton intends to support the Tango Gameworks team to continue its commitment to innovation and delivering fresh and exciting experiences for fans,” Krafton’s press release reads.

Shortly before Tango Gameworks’ closure by Microsoft, Hi-Fi Rush was released for PlayStation 5. Leaks earlier in the year had suggested that the rhythm action game would release for the Nintendo Switch (or perhaps its successor) as well, something that a PEGI rating in April indicated, too. It remains to be seen whether Krafton intends to follow through on those supposed plans.

Hi-Fi Rush is currently available on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

“The closure of any team is hard obviously on the individuals there, hard on the team,” Spencer said. “I haven’t been talking publicly about this, because right now is the time for us to focus on the team and the individuals. It’s obviously a decision that’s very hard on them, and I want to make sure through severance and other things that we’re doing the right thing for the individuals on the team. It’s not about my PR, it’s not about Xbox PR. It’s about those teams.”

Spencer went on to talk about needing to make decisions like this in order to run a sustainable business. While studios like Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks have now been shut down, Microsoft still has plans to grow its business moving forward.

“In the end, I’ve said over and over, I have to run a sustainable business inside the company and grow, and that means sometimes I have to make hard decisions that frankly are not decisions I love, but decisions that somebody needs to go make,” he continued. “We will continue to go forward. We will continue to invest in what we’re trying to go do in Xbox and build the best business we can, which ensures we can continue to do shows like the one we just did.”

Microsoft announced the closure of a number of studios back in May. The list of studios affected included Roundhouse Studios, Alpha Dog Studios, Arkane Austin, and Tango Gameworks. When it made the announcement, head of content and studios at Xbox, Matt Booty, stated that the closures were made due to a “reprioritization of titles and resources”.

Interestingly, several fans of games made by these studios took to the game’s Steam store listings to review bomb the titles with positive reviews, encouraging more players to play games like The Evil Within, Hi-Fi Rush, and Ghostwire: Tokyo.

Underpowered Xbox Series S

Releasing a more economical variant of its current current-gen console line-up seemed like a shrewd consumer-first move by Microsoft in 2020. After all, for a significant price drop you could still enjoy some of the Xbox Series X’s marquee features on Series S, such as Xbox Velocity Architecture, DirectX Raytracing, and Quick Resume. It’s those downgrades that are starting to stifle the Series S’s place in market now we’re in 2024 – less processing power and lower max resolution the principal features that’re starting to become a headache for developers and players alike.

Originally released only on PC and Xbox Series X/S, Hi-Fi Rush got released on the PS5 earlier this year. There are also indications that the game will eventually make its way on to the Nintendo Switch, to the extent that it has already been rated by PEGI for release on Nintendo’s platform.

Hi-Fi Rush puts players in the shoes of Chai, who, along with a team of fellow rebels, takes on an evil megacorporation that makes extensive use of robots. Along the way, Chai gets turned “defective”, essentially linking just actions to the rhythm of the music he’s listening to.

The game features fast-paced third-person combat in the vein of Devil May Cry and the older God of War titles, with the twist that attacking enemies and dodging attacks to the rhythm of the background music is more beneficial to the player. The title features a soundtrack with music by artists ranging from Nine Inch Nails to The Black Keys.

For more details, check out our review of Hi-Fi Rush on PS5.

Hi-Fi Rush Update 9 patch notes:

PS5 & PC

• (Track 01) After reducing QA-1MIL to zero health, a collision issue would occur where players would fall out of the geometry. Chai will now properly fall to the ground, instead of into the abyss.
• (Track 01) Fixed an issue during the latter half of the 2D area whereby the camera would not follow Chai when the elevating lift falls.
• (Track 02) Corrected a defect whereby if you touched Rekka during her electric charge, your final Rank would not correlate with the Chorus score.Some issues would occur when trying to use Macaron’s Gravity Well while Rhythm Parrying an enemy. Well, this is now fixed!
• (Track 03) Cutscenes previously would not play correctly if a Health Tank was consumed during the fight with the HG-0G. Feel free to block a few more hits with your face because this bug is fixed!Fixed various text issues.

All Platforms

• (Track 01) We also QA’d some other issues during the QA-1MIL fight, particularly around transitions between phases.
• Fixed even more text bugs! They just don’t stop!
• Drink prices adjusted in Vandelay vending machines to reflect local currency conversion.