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Tango Gameworks staff spend last day at studio before closure

I hate every part of this. I hate that Microsoft got rid of their only Japanese studio, I hate that these guys are losing their job after putting out a fucking banger of a game, and I hate that their last day in the office was celebrated with fucking cheap dominos pizza.............
 
This one people should rage more than the dumb scalebound cancellation.
Agreed, all we ever saw of Scalebound was a mediocre CGI trailer. Heck, even Arkane Austin makes some sense after Redfall was a piece of shit. Tango makes no sense. Their last four games were all good to great
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
> Releases Bangers
> Said they are one of the major studios and a great asset to the brand and will be around for years to come
> Immediately fired a few months later

Fuck you, Microsoft. Christ you had one good studio and you fuck it all up.
 

Js562

Member
Damn shame I wanted The Evil Within 3. Hopefully some other Xbox dev teams pick it up.
 
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coffinbirth

Member
Explain to me what makes sense about keeping a Japanese studio, located in Japan, AFTER all the key veteran Japanese devs left? Likely no projects beyond concept art and design documents. All Indians, no Chiefs. What's even left worth salvaging? The writing was on the wall for Tango prior to Hi-Fi Rush's release, and when Mikami left and took his Capcom cronies with him was the day Microsoft started chiseling that tombstone. Hi-Fi Rush tanking on every platform under the sun surely couldn't have helped that already dire situation for the remnants of greenhorn staff that was left.

Like it or not, this was likely done to make room for acquiring another Japanese studio that is already fully staffed up and has buns in the oven. My money would be on Platinum. And before anyone rushes to their defense, lest we forget they quite publicly asked Microsoft to come over and fuck them recently, after all.
 
Explain to me what makes sense about keeping a Japanese studio, located in Japan, AFTER all the key veteran Japanese devs left? Likely no projects beyond concept art and design documents. All Indians, no Chiefs. What's even left worth salvaging? The writing was on the wall for Tango prior to Hi-Fi Rush's release, and when Mikami left and took his Capcom cronies with him was the day Microsoft started chiseling that tombstone. Hi-Fi Rush tanking on every platform under the sun surely couldn't have helped that already dire situation for the remnants of greenhorn staff that was left.

Like it or not, this was likely done to make room for acquiring another Japanese studio that is already fully staffed up and has buns in the oven. My money would be on Platinum. And before anyone rushes to their defense, lest we forget they quite publicly asked Microsoft to come over and fuck them recently, after all.
Hard Disagree. The founder wasn't even that involved in H-Fi Rush, or even The Evil Within 2, both which were excellent games. The game director of those, John Johanas, along with the devs who made those games were mostly all still there. I'm sure Microsoft had some justifications for getting rid of the studio, but the founder leaving was definitely not a death blow.
 

coffinbirth

Member
Hard Disagree. The founder wasn't even that involved in H-Fi Rush, or even The Evil Within 2, both which were excellent games. The game director of those, John Johanas, along with the devs who made those games were mostly all still there. I'm sure Microsoft had some justifications for getting rid of the studio, but the founder leaving was definitely not a death blow.
I was under the impression the core development team consisted of former veteran Capcom devs, engineers, level designers. etc. And the remaining staff were mainly art department and Zenimax support teams. Is this not the case?
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I was under the impression the core development team consisted of former veteran Capcom devs, engineers, level designers. etc. And the remaining staff were mainly art department and Zenimax support teams. Is this not the case?
It isn't. Many of those "core devs" were very hands off during Evil Within 2 and especially Hi Fi Rush to let the younger/less seasoned devs take control.
 

coffinbirth

Member
It isn't. Many of those "core devs" were very hands off during Evil Within 2 and especially Hi Fi Rush to let the younger/less seasoned devs take control.
I'm not refuting that, but rather if that core staff was remaining at the time of their closure. I was under the impression the core dev staff had it's mass exodus after Ghostwire shipped. I know there was scuttlebutt around what Mikami might be doing after his departure because people were saying he essentially took his team with him.
 
Like it or not, this was likely done to make room for acquiring another Japanese studio that is already fully staffed up and has buns in the oven. My money would be on Platinum. And before anyone rushes to their defense, lest we forget they quite publicly asked Microsoft to come over and fuck them recently, after all.

Huh? Why would MS need to dump a Japanese studio to make room for another?
 

Alebrije

Member
I hate every part of this. I hate that Microsoft got rid of their only Japanese studio, I hate that these guys are losing their job after putting out a fucking banger of a game, and I hate that their last day in the office was celebrated with fucking cheap dominos pizza.............
Dont be cruel with Microsoft, they have a lot of expenses like thier Davos meeting and other important stuff.

66803247-0-image-a-11_1674250853615.jpg
 
I was under the impression the core development team consisted of former veteran Capcom devs, engineers, level designers. etc. And the remaining staff were mainly art department and Zenimax support teams. Is this not the case?
I think you are right about that, but I never saw anywhere where the team all left when Mikami left, and again he hadn't been directing game development for Tango for at least 6 years. I just know that John Johanas is going to end up somewhere else making great games and Microsoft is going to end up with egg on their face again.
 

v1oz

Member
What makes this more frustrating is how Microsoft didn’t help build this studio at all but simply killed it off.

It was founded by Mikami just 14 years ago and then bought by Bethesda, only for them to be acquired by Microsoft. Tango Gamework’s fate was thus sealed.

I really hate when those big corporations mess with smaller studios only to cause them to shut down in the end.
It's revenge for Mikami refusing to support the OG Xbox.
 

Fbh

Member
Playing Hi Fi Rush right now and it's such a shame they got shut down after delivering such a gem. It has easily been my favourite MS published game in the las 10 years.


> Releases Bangers
> Said they are one of the major studios and a great asset to the brand and will be around for years to come
> Immediately fired a few months later

Fuck you, Microsoft. Christ you had one good studio and you fuck it all up.

What's funny is that even with this, people in the future will still use arguments like
"B...but Phil Spencer/Hermen Hulst/Some other executive said this in an interview!!".
You'd think by now people would have caught on to the fact that most of these executives talk out of both sides of their mouth and just say whatever will be better received in whatever specific context they find themselves in at the moment
 

MacReady13

Member
This is what happens when you release a fantastic game and train your Xbots to NOT actually buy the fucking thing but to rent it! And yet Microsoft still called it a success then shut them down! Madness. Yet the showcase is on and what does everyone say? We get COD and Doom and Perfect Dark for FREE on game pass!!! And people wonder why we have had the largest number of developers losing their jobs in the 1st 6 months this year than any previous year! Just keep feeding the beast that is game pass and shit like this will continue to happen...
 

Chuck Berry

Gold Member
Nothing shows "We're sorry we had to do this, but we truly respect your artistry and all of your hard work through the years" like some cheap ass fuckin Dominos.

I guess they should feel fortunate they got some napkins to go with those sad ass lookin pies.
 
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Power Pro

Member
I know there are people who would laugh at this, but this was the last straw for me. Not only has Microsoft had a shitty generation in my opinion, but this closure was what led to me just selling my Xbox. Never played the damn thing, and the only developer they had with a good track record of putting out some quality games under their banner they shut down. Fuck Microsoft. I know a lot of people liked their showcase, but it looked like shit to me honestly also. Everything looked like the same damn type of game, while a team like Tango added some much needed variety.
 

Oppoi

Member
Dominos pizza for a japan based studio is only adding insult to injury. This has to be personal. What exactly happened here?
 
Dominos pizza for a japan based studio is only adding insult to injury. This has to be personal. What exactly happened here?
Dominos in Japan is not the same as America. It’s a premium pizza outlet where you can get esoteric toppings and premium desserts.
 

Audiophile

Member
Don't get why you close a whole studio who are fully set up to make games. See if you can sell them on...just shuttering the whole thing is a dick move.
 
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STARSBarry

Gold Member
Makes no sense whatsoever.

It does when your goal is to win a console war, it's called loss leading and it fucking works if you know what your doing.

The issue is Microsoft didn't, they needed their exclusives to be better or on par with Sony so that consoles sold and they got their returns from the cut of third party games they sold on their platforms. You also can't just keep funding the Same AAA blockbuster over and over, you need to expand your library's breadth (something Sony is starting to fail at) by taking risks on games like Gravity Rush, Shadows of the Collosus etc, games that might not sell much but give you a much wider catalog of high quality games to draw people in "look at all these different things you can play."

Hi-Fi Rush was one of those titles... and from all accounts it made money too, even with gamepass, so why? It fucking sucks.
 
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Kappa

Member
Not sure why people are so surprised. Its the same reason why Sony closed japan studio. Cause they do is burn money on flops. People are so delusional
 
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kiphalfton

Gold Member
I would shit on the floor... if I knew management wouldn't just make it somebody else's problem (custodial staff, carpet cleaning service, etc.).
 

nial

Gold Member
Not sure why people are so surprised. Its the same reason why Sony closed japan studio. Cause they do is burn money on flops. People are so delusional
SIEJ restructured its game development division, MS closed the whole Zenimax Asia company. Sony can have a game like Astro Bot 3 years after the whole debacle, for MS that's something that will never come back (and it looks like they don't even care, anyway).
 

RickMasters

Member
Agreed, all we ever saw of Scalebound was a mediocre CGI trailer. Heck, even Arkane Austin makes some sense after Redfall was a piece of shit. Tango makes no sense. Their last four games were all good to great
And even then I think Arkane Austin deserved another chance. Prey was excellent. Had they been able to make redfall the way they wanted instead of forcing them to make a GAAS, that game would not only have been to the quality that arkane austin is capable of but they would never have been shuttered. Absolutely MS fault.
 
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