The CEO of Krafton has said that the company acquired Tango Gameworks to maintain its legacy, admitting that even though it’s working on a sequel to the celebrated Hi-Fi Rush, the game is probably not going to be a big money-maker.
Speaking with Game Developer, Changham Kim made it clear that creativity was behind its decision to acquire the former Microsoft-owned developer, and was not driven by financial gain. Tango Gga
We wanted to maintain their legacy. Although they did not have a big success in their games, we saw many creatives worth pursuing. That’s why we wanted to work with that organisation.
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Kim noted that the deal has not yet been finalised, and therefore wasn’t able to provide a figure on the acquisition itself. He did, however, state that it was “not too expensive, or too cheap either.”
We can’t acquire Tango Gameworks based on their financials or their numbers, right? We don’t think Hi-Fi Rush 2 is going to make us money, to be frank. But it’s part of our attempt. We have to keep trying [to develop games] in the spirit of challenge-taking. Tango Gameworks are creative. They want to try something new, and we want to do more of that. [Making] video games is really a hit or miss industry, and that is risk taking. But having more project lineups is actually a way to mitigate risk, because one of them might work out.
Tango Gameworks was formed by Shinji Mikami back in March 2010 and was later acquired by ZeniMax Media in October of that year. Ownership then shifted to Microsoft a few years ago when the company acquired ZeniMax, bringing numerous developers under its umbrella in the process. In a move that was heavily criticised by gamers and press alike, the Xbox format holder decided to shutter Tango earlier this year.
[Source – Game Developer]