“This Was One of the Rare Opportunities,” Says Krafton Regarding Tango Gameworks Acquistion

It's been a short time since the South Korean publisher Krafton decided to save Tango Gameworks, acquiring the studio in August after Microsoft decided to shutter it just a few months prior. While Krafton has acquired Tango Gameworks, the only IP they acquired along with it was Hi-Fi Rush, which happened to be a BAFTA-winning rhythm game that reached three million players. The decision to shutter Tango Gameworks came as a huge surprise to many, especially after making a game as successful as Hi-Fi Rush. Tango Gameworks is also responsible for The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo, but unfortunately, those IPs were not acquired by Krafton.

Krafton now has a dozen studios under its belt, which includes Bluehole Studio, Neon Giant, PUBG Studios and now, Tango Gameworks as it's 13th acquisition. However, they aren't planning to stop there with acquisitions, and want to continue to expand their library.

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In a discussion with GamesIndustry.biz, Maria Park, the head of Corporate Development over at Krafton it was explained how the acquisition came to be and what it meant for Krafton as well as for Tango Gameworks. Park explains that in an attempt to diversify their portfolio, they have met with 200 to 300 studios in the last quarter alone in an attempt to find new developers to invest in. As a result, this led to the acquisition of Tango Gameworks, where they immediately flew over to Tokyo to meet with Tango.

While with most acquisitions, a lot of the staff are either axed or left of their own free will, Krafton has made efforts to keep on as many of the pre-existing staff from the company as possible. Out of 100 Tango employees, at least 70 to 80 are moving over to work at Krafton, with some of the positions being backfilled. However, they expect that the numbers will end up at around 100 by the end of the year or the beginning of 2025.

In the interview, it's stated that Tango was already working on