One of the characteristics of the internet that we have all learned to love and hate at the same time is that it doesn’t forget anything. For example, in the past few hours some photos have resurfaced that show Phil Spencer and the Xbox team visiting Tango Gameworks to celebrate the success of Hi-Fi Rusha game launched by surprise at the beginning of 2023 that had a great resonance in the industry, or so it seemed, so much so that players started asking for more launches of the genre.
Microsoft herself defined it as a success on several occasions and Spencer’s visit to the development studio was seen by most as the fulfillment of Xbox’s dream of finally having a high-level Japanese software house. Instead, we all know how it ended, given that yesterday the closure of four Xbox Game Studios was announced, including Tango Gameworks, to general dismay.
Photos and their effect
One of the photos published at the time by tipster Genki on X showed a celebratory poster of Hi-Fi Rush, which had raised the possibility that a hypothetical sequel was already in development.
It must be said that Genki himself commented on the photos in the last few hours, speaking of a “tweet that has aged very badly”. In fact, the discordance between those images and reality was not lost on several commentators, who linked them to what Jim Ryan, the former head of PlayStation, recently did with London Studios. In this case several months have passed, given that Spencer’s visit dates back to September 28, 2023, but the principle is the same. Above all, the symbolic perception they communicate is the same, that is, that of extreme cynicism on the part of the managers of the largest companies.
It must be said that it is not obvious that at the time Spencer had already decided to close Tango Gameworks. It is more likely that the Japanese study was sacrificed at the altar of the more recent ones financial results, which show growth only thanks to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In short, Tango may have been closed to appease the discontent of shareholders. Of course it is fair to say that ours is only a hypothesis.
