Steam Users Are Positively Review-Bombing Hi-Fi Rush Now Microsoft Has Closed Tango Gameworks

On Wednesday, Might 8, Xbox Sport Studios Matt Booty reportedly instructed Bethesda employees “we want smaller video games that give us status and awards” — only a day after Microsoft shut down Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks.

Tango Gameworks employees reacted to Booty’s reported assertion with social media posts expressing their clear exasperation on the state of affairs. John Johanas, inventive director at Tango Gameworks and director on Hi-Fi Rush, reacted to Booty’s quote in devastating style:

https://t.co/Cz2fW01QVc pic.twitter.com/ADV4ZTpIuP

— johnjohanas (@johnjohanas) May 9, 2024

Kazuaki Egashira, sport undertaking supervisor at Tango Gameworks, supplied their very own take:

Not sufficient?#HiFiRush #TangoGameworks pic.twitter.com/3OLhYAPbxU

— KazuakiEgashira (@ega1002) May 9, 2024

Hi-Fi Rush, which hit a peak of 6,132 concurrent gamers on Steam when it launched in January 2023, has seen an uptick in gamers on Valve’s platform since this week’s announcement, and it’s now the topic of a optimistic evaluation bombing marketing campaign by customers who’re hitting out at Microsoft’s closure of Tango Gameworks.

“RIP Tango Gameworks,” reads one evaluation. “Not less than they went out with a bang.” “Hi-Fi Rush was the most effective sport Xbox revealed in over a decade, it gained awards and was beloved by everybody,” reads one other. “Microsoft’s reply is to close them down, and it is crap. Hi-Fi Rush is price taking part in 1000%, please purchase this sport and expertise among the best character motion video games. I worry due to the licensed music it is going to get delisted sooner or later as a result of MS clearly does not care. Tango, Arkane Austin and everybody affected right this moment did not deserve this.”

On the time of this text’s publication, Hi-Fi Rush had had over 500 optimistic evaluations posted following the information of Tango Gameworks’ closure, a determine that’s more likely to develop into the weekend as extra Steam customers pile on. It’s not an enormous quantity relative to another evaluation bombing campaigns, however it’s a major shift for Hi-Fi Rush, which had tracked at optimistic evaluations within the single digits for months.

Restricted Run Video games, in the meantime, has indicated it nonetheless plans to launch Hi-Fi Rush’s beforehand introduced bodily model regardless of the closure of Tango Gameworks. Final week, Hi-Fi Rush’s long-rumored Nintendo Change port popped up in an age-rating from the ESRB. The sport launched on PlayStation 5 earlier this 12 months as a part of Microsoft’s multi-platform online game push.

Why did Microsoft shut Tango Gameworks? Xbox government Sarah Bond supplied a response in a current interview. IGN understands a pitch for Hi-Fi Rush 2 was rejected partially as a result of it was deemed too costly.

Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.