Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, has implied during an interview with the Variety Strictly Business podcast that the closure of Tango Gameworks was primarily down to a change in leadership at the studio.
The executive didn’t name Tango Gameworks outright, but when asked why The Evil Within developer was shuttered, Booty suggested that leadership changes were to blame. He also indicated that its remaining setup wouldn’t have guaranteed future successes despite how well Hi-Fi Rush performed.
I won’t get into the real nitty-gritty details on what went into the decision, mostly out of respect for the people there, just because there was a lot of work that went into delivering Hi-Fi Rush, which was a great game and did well for us.
I think the thing to be considered is that for us it’s as much a forward-looking situation as much as it is looking back at one certain game. There are a lot of things that go into success for a game – what leadership do you have, what creative leadership do you have, is the team the same team that shipped something successful previously?
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We have to look at all of those things together and ask ourselves, are we set up for success going forward? And while there may have been factors or situations that previously led to success, they may not all still be in place as you look at what you’re doing going forward.
Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami founded Tango Gameworks back in 2010 but departed the studio last year prior to its closure in May 2024. During his time at Tango, Mikami-san headed up The Evil Within and its sequel, and also served as executive producer on Ghostwire: Tokyo.
[Source – Strictly Business Podcast]
