It's likely the other half have found new employment.
It was revealed that Tango Gameworks would be enjoying a happier ending last month, when the news broke that Krafton—publisher of PUBG—would be taking the studio in, saving as many developers as possible from its shock closure.
While Krafton wanted to “inherit the entire development team” (as per a statement from Krafton PR, shared by Stephen Totilo in both his GameFile newsletter and on Twitter) the publisher hasn’t managed to get the full breadth of talent it made the “acqui-hire” for. Here’s the full statement:
“KRAFTON plans to transfer approximately 50 development staff from Tango Gameworks to KRAFTON’s Japan subsidiary. These transferred staff will continue to work on new projects, including the expansion of the HI-FI RUSH IP, at KRAFTON.”
That’s almost exactly half of the studio’s previous size (via Genki_JPN on Twitter). Given Krafton’s explicit statement that it wanted to get the entire team transferred, it’s a reasonable assumption that most of Tango Gameworks’ former staff have found new employment—or, more pessimistically, ducked out of the industry entirely, which is not an impossible prospect considering just how grim things have been.
The deal, as Totilo writes, was “effective Aug 1″—leaving a roughly three-month gap between the initial closures, which took place in May, and the certain knowledge that Tango wouldn’t be closing its doors for good.
Tango Gameworks’ current website has several job listings available—animators and programmers, as well as sound, environment, and UI designers, plus VFX, character, and concept artists are all wanted at the studio. That’s a wide roster of talent, though whether Krafton intends to replenish its numbers back to the pre-closure times remains to be seen.
As per Krafton’s initial statement earlier this week, the studio appears focused on the Hi-Fi Rush IP in particular—which tracks. While Ghostwire: Tokyo didn’t do abysmally, Hi-Fi Rush captured more of the public’s imagination as an exciting and vibrant new IP and, in Aaron Greenberg of Microsoft’s own words: “was a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations”. Which, as you might imagine, makes Tango’s closure all the more perplexing.
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