While Tango Gameworks has started to rebuild itself after the studio was shut down last year by at-the-time owner Microsoft, the developer now has its website up and running. The studio made the announcement with a post on its official website, alongside the announcement that its offices are officially open, and that it is hiring developers to work on a new unannounced action game.
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.