Microsoft says it needs Xbox games like Hi-Fi Rush after closing Tango

Because that makes sense

Tango Gameworks

Microsoft’s head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty said the company needs more Xbox games like Hi-Fi Rush, a day after closing the studio that made Hi-Fi Rush. Booty made the remarks during an Xbox town hall meeting, and The Verge received recordings of that comment, among others.

“We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,” Booty reportedly said.

The thing is, Hi-Fi Rush was a smaller game, a passion project from Tango, and it won several awards, most recently a BAFTA for animation.

Booty also suggested that Xbox wasn’t finished closing studios or laying employees off yet, as the company struggles with the realization that it has too many people spread across too many projects at too many studios. Yes, those are the same studios Microsoft spent well over $70 billion acquiring over the last half a decade, including Activision Blizzard.

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier said that his sources told him Arkane, one of the studios Xbox closed, recently pitched a first-person immersive sim – the kind of thing Arkane does best – and Tango had raised the possibility of a Hi-Fi Rush sequel. Both projects are exactly the kind of games that could’ve won awards and prestige.

That leaves Microsoft with iD Software, Bethesda, and a small handful of others outside Activision Blizzard, all known for taking several years to make a single game. Hence why we think Xbox desperately needs leadership changes, and soon.