Half of Tango Gameworks’ original team set to transition post-acquisition

Tango Gameworks has transferred half of its staff to Krafton’s Japan subsidiary after being acquired by the South Korean publisher. The acquisition will see 50 staff members from Tango transition to Krafton’s subsidiary in Japan. Krafton also made its future plans for Tango Gameworks public after the acquisition was finalized this August.

Krafton Inc., a South Korean video game publisher behind the popular PUBG games, announced on its blog that it had acquired Tango Gameworks for an undisclosed amount. When it announced the acquisition, Krafton stated that it planned to transfer 50 of the 100 development staff members to its Japan subsidiary. Krafton also stated that it intended to acquire all the staff from Tango during the acquisition but succeeded in getting only half of the development team.

 Krafton saves Tango Gameworks in acquisition

Krafton shared some details with investors on its acquisition of Tango Gameworks! via @stephentotilo

– Deal was effective August 1st
– With the studio closed, Krafton did an "acqui-hire" (Acquisition with the primary focus of getting talent)
– "We wanted to inherit the entire… pic.twitter.com/xMW6o63eoZ

— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) August 15, 2024

Tango Gameworks is a Japanese video game developer founded by Shinji Mikami under Capcom in 2010. The developer is known for horror games such as The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2 and Hi-Fi Rush, a rhythm-based action game. Tango was acquired in 2012 by ZeniMax Media after the developer faced significant financial troubles. In March 2021, Zenimax sold Tango to Microsoft for US$7.5 billion, enlisting the game developer as part of Microsoft Gaming.

Under Microsoft, Tango Gameworks released several games, including Hi-Fi Rush in 2023. Hi-Fi Rush marked the end of Shinji Mikami’s involvement with Tango Gameworks, as the founder left to create another new studio named Kamuy. In May 2024, Microsoft announced it planned to close down Tango Gameworks and three other game development studios. 

Microsoft’s decision resulted in fan criticism, as Hi-Fi Rush was a popular game that enjoyed much success. Hi-Fi Rush won many awards, including the Best Animation award at the BAFTA Games Awards, a Game Developers’ Choice award for ‘Best Audio,’ and ‘Best Audio Design’ at The Game Awards. The game also has “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews on its Steam profile.

On August 12th, Krafton announced that it had acquired Tango Gameworks from Microsoft for an unspecified amount. The announcement stated that the acquisition had gone into effect as Krafton’s first entry into the global game market. Krafton’s acquisition of Tango Gameworks also included the rights to Hi-Fi Rush, while the rights for The Evil Within games and Ghostwire: Tokyo remained with Microsoft.

Krafton expounds on Tango Gameworks’ future

After acquiring Tango, Krafton made its future plans public in a press release. Krafton said that Tango’s game catalog would not be affected, as the company planned to continue collaborating with Microsoft and Zenimax. Krafton also put up notices looking to fill the open positions at Tango Gameworks. 

“Krafton’s acquisition of Tango Gameworks is a bold move! I’m excited to see how they’ll revamp Hi-Fi Rush. The gaming industry desperately needs innovative rhythm-based action games like this.”

–HanaTheGuid

In a press release, Krafton stated that it would grow its business by discovering or developing original games and growing a service around them. The company added that it would identify original games and IPs through in-house development, M&As, and minority investments. Krafton’s statement also highlighted plans to release more new titles using reinforcement learning and large language models (LLM) in the second half of this year.