Fans Positively Review Bomb Hi-Fi Rush in Wake of Xbox’s Closure of Tango Gameworks

Matt booty is ass Microsoft must be on drugs for shutting down tango.especially evil within.both games are excellent.no one is safe from x box.lies of p and the whole micro you so soft are bunch of liars.similar to a president of a country.mayor governor etc.they all lies.word up son

I mean Hi-Fi Rush was literally the best exclusive (former exclusive anyways) had since the 360. It should’ve been the #1 rated Xbox game on Steam regardless, maybe tied with Psychonauts 2 (also I swear if they go after Double Fine next it’ll be more over than it was before)

Yeah, that will help...

I am wondering if buying HiFi Rush is even a good thing right now? The money is no longer going to the studio but the corporation that killed it. Buying and playing this game feels like a wrong thing to do in the current context. Thanks Microsoft.

If only all of this support came in BEFORE the studio was closed. The game even had a weak launch on PS5.

@playstation1995 Matt Booty, Phil Spencer and Aaron Greenberg all need to go

Everyone on this PlayStation site crying foul for Tango, meanwhile I'm still mad about JAPAN Studio.

I know that this is a highly rated and beloved game, but didn't it under perform on Xbox and bombed on PS5 sales wise?

@Dman10 Define underperformed? It was a shadow drop into game pass and allegedly based on their own statements was a huge hit. We don't see engagement metrics, so we can only speculate if they lied when they said it was a hit or when they said it underperformed.

@RoomWithaMoose +1, Japan Studio was the soul of PS as far as I'm concerned.

@playstation1995 Even as someone who likes Xbox at least as is been since 2017, Even as someone that really likes Phil and has always believed everything good about Xbox will end when Phil leaves......I have NEVER been able to stand Booty.

@NEStalgia Exactly. Quoting Aaron Greenberg himself:

"Hi-Fi RUSH was a break out 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."

These are his exact words from a tweet on 21 April 2023. So any claims that it underperformed directly contradict previous statements on the matter. That is if we're assuming they weren't lying in the first place, which wouldn't be particularly shocking.

Edit: lol, I see this tweet was already included in the article. I should pay more attention.

@NEStalgia Game came out on 03/18/24, and per Sony, didn't even appear on April 2024 top downloaded list.
https://blog.playstation.com/2024/05/09/playstation-store-april-2024s-top-downloads/

And Microsoft has not been upfront about the number of game pass downloads and sales.

Microsoft closing this studio has been the ultimate braindead moment of the year.
Congratulations 🎉

@RoomWithaMoose
And I'm still mad about Evolution studios

I literally bought Hi Fi Rush whilst it was on sale recently but Microsoft shutting them down.
Literally just started playing it last night and it’s such an awesome game, both evil within game are awesome as well.
We’ll never get a sequel to hi fi rush now or a third evil within.
I’ve also heard that they shut down Arkane Austin recently as well

@RoomWithaMoose The closure of Japan Studio is genuinely some of the worst gaming news I have ever heard. Such a slap in the face for developers that made some of Playstation's best games.

I wonder if this is tied to how, without a solid sales figure for the title because of Gamepass, it's easy to just write the studio off.

There was a great article Kotaku ran the other day, "What's Even The Point Of Xbox Game Pass Now?" talking to this topic. If it doesnt insulate the studio from shutdowns, whats the point of it?

It's funny how a studio shutdown suddenly turns what was a good AA Xbox exclusive title into "the best game ever".

If Microsoft thought that studio was a good long term investment they would still be there, Microsoft have at least 4 AAA First Party exclusives this year and it's looking like they can now achieve this
yearly.

Now I can get behind a move like that from the gaming community. We definitely need more positive reinforcement, rather than constant outrage and overblown controversy.

Perhaps the steam reviews are also due to the fantastic humble choice bundle this month. I got this after playing it originally on game pass and still plan to get a physical copy on ps5 if that comes to fruition.

I'm really sad about Tango and hope the talent will reorganize in a similar constellation.

@RoomWithaMoose It's a big, big reason why I never bought a PS5. Still gutted that Gravity Rush is gone, and we won't get any more Team Ico games.

@Balie3000 Doesn't matter who is there. It's the microsoft culture that runs studios down. They just don't know how to manage them.

Sad when any creative game company gets stabbed in the back but this is far from being a M$ only problem of course.

Japan Studio - the ubiquitous Everybody's Golf is not appearing on a Sony console for the first time in its history.
Evolution - they finally got Driveclub in a good place but no MotorStorm going forwards?
Psygnosis/Studio Liverpool - Wipeout anyone? No, they were wiped out...

@sanderson72 Everyone laments the closing of Sony Japan, but nobody bought their games. I did, but probably you did not. I bought Gravity Rush 2 day one, did anyone else? I also bought Motorstorm 1-3, did anyone else? I feel like a lot of people complaining about their closing, didn't actually buy their games. I know Evolution made Motorstorm, but it still tracks.

@Ralizah Gravity Rush bombed. Team Ico took 10 years to make Last Guardian, it also bombed.

MS sucks, but more blame goes to the morons who didn't buy Evil Within 2. It sold horribly and is a fantastic game. Blame gamers, sometimes they are the problem.

@Sifi MS is dog doodoo. I get part of what you said, but MS is in huge trouble as a gaming company. Good thing they print money on AI tech that will never pan out.

Rumour is that Tango tied their devs bonuses to the success of the game. MS took one look at how successful it had become, realised that the Devs were going to get rewarded for their hardwork, and they'd miss out on that extra cash, so they killed the studio as that was cheaper than paying bonuses...

@cuttlefishjones I doubt it. I love Evil With 1 and 2. Ghost Wire is a 7 but its cool. Tango never made money, ever. Bethesda was bought for Starfield, Fallout and Elder Scrolls, with Doom as a bonus. The other studios were always going to be axed.

Eh I couldn't careless what happened to Hi-Fi Rush to honestly.

@Deoxyr1bose Ori might have something to say about that, but both are still incredible titles.

Kinda ironic that the two/three biggest Xbox-published games aren't even Xbox exclusives. It's like if Mario and Zelda were available on PlayStation and PC.

@Colt22 I understand why Sony dissolved them. Doesn't mean it didn't substantially detract from the appeal of the brand for me. Sony is almost in Microsoft territory for me when it comes to first-party releases now.

I think XBox is on a crash course to go the way of Sega and dissolve into just a game developer. All the signs are there and honestly I would love that. Hoping the current XBox is the last machine we see.

@Colt22 True.... most didn't buy Japan Studios actual games. Anyone saying otherwise is just a liar.

The fact is that most of their important titles (the ones that actually sold) were co-developed games, and not actually developed by them.

No one bought Gravity Rush I and II, but now the loud minority cry about wanting more... figures. Same as Puppeteer and The Last Guardian. Most aren't even aware a game series called Everybody's Golf exist. Knack II and I were made fun of and most didn't buy them. And the list goes on...

@Balie3000 think you need to go higher up the chain than Phil, to upper ms board. Previously ms execs probably didn't pay too much notice of xbox as it didn't really cost that much and game pass was growing like mad increasing revenue, but now gamespass has hit the ceiling with very little growth left and then add to that the amount spent of Activision, put Xbox under the spot light, and now they board is looking very closely at Xbox. Probably thinking at how to up the money intake and they probably don't care about the games or gamers or the devs.
What ever they are doing or planing with Xbox or whatever they calling it now, its most likely not going to be good for gamers, probably end up with just one traditional console costing 1000 bucks and more expensive games.

@InvaderJim I don't agree with this. The PS1 and PS2 were the golden age for Sony and they had very little competition. The PS1 outsold the N64 and Saturn combined by tens of millions. The PS2 sold at least double the sales of the Xbox, Dreamcast and GameCube combined, IIRC. The Xbox sold so badly it lost MS $5 billion.

The 360 was the worst selling console of its generation yet was the closest they came to outselling Sony and all that did was encourage Sony to copy Xbox with things like paid online and achievements. It was also a generation where countless Japanese franchises hit a nadir via trying (badly) to cater to Western trends. The PS4 saw off the XB1 and Wii U, but the Switch then competed genuinely with it, same with PS5. And through all of that the PC gaming world went from strength to strength. And what happened to PS is that it basically became a budget PC with less games and a fixation on cinematic corridor sims as first-party games.

In short, Sony did better and had way more identity and way more legendary games under a lack of strong competition. When they had some competition they just became bland and felt the need to appeal to generic American tastes more.

@InvaderJim I know what it seem like now, but a few years back all the heads of Xbox were left to do what they wanted and Phil Spencer was given a seemingly blank cheque to gobble up studios and grow the business. He has now screwed it up by making investments that haven't bore much fruit yet and by leaving some studios to mismanage themselves, making games that missed a console launch, took too long and were less than stellar. There's nothing that comes close to what the PS studios are pumping out. Also the PR from those three guys I mentioned have just been bad over the years. Phil especially talks in such circles sometimes with the most non-informative, fugazi talk I have ever heard. I agree the guys up the chain also need to go, but regardless, all the execs involved need to be replaced.

@Colt22 Without Japan Studio, we lost "Everybody's Golf" which is enough of a tragedy for me. Didn't quite gel with Gravity Rush on the Vita so no, I didn't buy GR2.

I have Motorstorm 1, 2 and 3 on the PS3 and Arctic Edge on the PSP/Vita. I think Motorstorm Pacific Rift sold quite well, hence Apocalypse being green lit.
Driveclub's difficult birth (it wasn't ready when Sony demanded it got released) was the one title that killed Evolution, even though it evolved in the Studio's death throes into a fine title. Trouble is, we'll never get Evolution back and so those titles are probably consigned to history.

The people running MS including Phil really have lost the plot now