Tango Gameworks staff spend last day at studio before closure

[John Elden Ring]

At the beginning of May, Microsoft announced that it would close Tango Gameworks- sending shockwaves through the gaming industry. Today, the Japanese studio behind acclaimed titles including Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush closes its doors for the final time. Tango Gameworks’ employee Takeo Kido took to X to document the studio’s final day and confirmed that ZeniMax Asia K.K. is also closing.
Kido worked on the visual effects in The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush. His series of photo posts on X give a glimpse into Tango Gameworks office in Tamachi, Tokyo. It seems that employees ordered in pizzas on their last day.





Post Translation: (Top): Reception- this 808 plushie is not in good shape. (Bottom): The Bandai Namco Future Research Center is very close by. Construction on the building started around the time we moved to Tamachi.

The shock of the seemingly successful studio’s closure reverberated through the video game industry, with fans, industry professionals and even other studios sending messages of support and condolences. For example, New Blood Interactive’s billboard in Los Angeles paid tribute to recently closed studios including Tango Gameworks in the hours before Summer Game Fest kicked off last week. We previously reported on how Tango Gameworks devs were expressing regret at the studio’s closure while encouraging more people to play Hi-Fi Rush. It seems like the team really poured all their passion and creativity into what would be Tango Gamework’s last ever award-winning game.

Tango Gameworks was part of Microsoft-owned ZeniMax Asia K. K. and was located inside their office. The whole of ZeniMax Asia K.K, which published games under the Bethesda Softworks brand, has been shut down.

 

[Sircaw]

The good news is, I imagine it won't be long till most of them are picked up, they are a talented bunch of people and should easily find another studio,

I hope the severance pay was massive, too.

but yer, fuck you Microsoft!

 

[Bryank75]

Heartbreaking.

Talented people, get them on Team Asobi or somewhere cool...

 

[ToTTenTranz]

I wonder if they tried selling the studio beforehand, or Microsoft was afraid of letting the world know that other publishers could have done wonders with this studio.

 

[2spooky5me]

The unlimited budget of Xbox, am I right, folks?