Krafton's chief admits that they don't expect Hi-Fi Rush 2 to be profitable, but bought Tango Gameworks 'to maintain the legacy of their predecessors'.

Tango Gameworks has had a busy year. After releasing Hi-Fi Rush in June 2023, the company was shut down in May 2024 by Microsoft, only to be saved from oblivion a couple of months later by PUBG's publisher Krafton. In a recent interview with Game Developer's Changhan 'CH Kim', Krafton CEO Changhan Kim explained why the company bought Tango. He claims that it was not for money, but for the love of the games.

Kim said, "We wanted their legacy to be maintained." "Although their games were not a huge success, we saw a lot of creatives that were worth pursuing. We wanted to work with them because of this.

Kim said that the real goal of the purchase was to increase the diversity in Krafton's product line. Making videogames can be a risky, "hit or miss" endeavor, but having more project lines is a way to reduce risk, as one of them may work out.

"We can't buy Tango Gameworks on the basis of their financials, or their numbers. Right?" Kim said. To be honest, we don't believe Hi-Fi Rush 2 will make us any money. But it's a part of our effort. "We have to keep trying (to develop games in the spirit of taking on challenges)."

The short answer is that Krafton wanted to close the deal quickly to "minimize" the gap for Tango's employees. Kim said that acquiring all of Tango Gamesworks' games would "complicate" the deal, so Krafton decided to focus on Hi-Fi Rush, which is what gamers want.

Kim said that he didn't know how much Hi-Fi Rush made for Microsoft. He suspects it was not much. His own goal for the studio and in general is to "recoup production costs."

"The big hit should not be your goal," said he. "If you look at it this way, Hi-Fi Rush may have had a slight financial loss, but they are a team who should be encouraged to continue their journey and create something new. We want more teams like this under our umbrella."

I'm not a fan of videogame executives - quite the opposite, in fact - but this seems like a smart approach to game development. Yes, games have to make money eventually, but Krafton is currently raking in the cash. It announced record-level sales in August and operating profits.