Krafton will take on about half of the staff at Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks.

Last month, it was revealed that Tango Gameworks's sad story would have a happier ending. Krafton, the publisher of PUBG, had taken the studio on, saving as many developers from its closure as possible.

While Krafton hoped to "inherit" the entire development team (as per a Krafton PR statement, shared both by Stephen Totilo on his GameFile Newsletter and on Twitter), the publisher hasn't been able to get all the talent it "acquired" for. Here's the complete statement:

"KRAFTON plans on transferring approximately 50 development staff from Tango Gameworks into KRAFTON's Japan-based subsidiary." These staff will continue working on new projects at KRAFTON, including the expansion HI-FI RUSH.

This is almost exactly half the size of the previous studio (via Genki_JPN, Twitter). It's reasonable to assume that, given Krafton's statement that they wanted the entire team transferred, most of Tango Gameworks former staff have either found new employment or, in a more pessimistic view, have ducked out of this industry altogether, which isn't impossible considering how bad things have been.

Totilo writes that the deal was "effective August 1" -- leaving a three-month gap from the initial closures in May and the certainty that Tango would not be closing for good.

Tango Gameworks has posted several job openings on its website. The studio is looking for animators and programmers as well as sound designers, environment and UI designers as well as VFX, concept, and character artists. This is a large list of talent. It remains to be seen if Krafton plans to bring its numbers up to pre-closure levels.

According to Krafton's first statement made earlier this week the studio seems focused on the Hi-Fi Rush IP, which tracks. Ghostwire: Tokyo did not do badly, but Hi-Fi Rush was a more exciting and vibrant IP that captured the public's attention. In Aaron Greenberg's words, "was a breakthrough hit for us and our player's in all key measures and expectations". As you can imagine, Tango's closing is all the more puzzling.