After the devastating news of Microsoft’s decision to close multiple studios in May, we got a uncommon dose of positive gaming news for 2024 when PUBG publisher Krafton immediately purchased the studio and rights to Hi-Fi Rush.
Now, talking to Game creator on the reasons behind the “last minute deal,” Krafton CEO Changhan “CH” Kim painted an intriguing picture, suggesting that it wasn’t about trying to acquire a franchise and studio that the publisher was certain would make it a tidy profit, but rather about adding more original to its portfolio so that it would be better positioned to attempt to achieve development success.
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“We wanted to maintain their legacy,” Kim said of acquiring Tango. “Although they didn’t have much success with their games, we saw a lot of creative projects worthy of attention. That’s why we wanted to work with this organization.” “Because Hi-Fi Rush fans really want to see sequels, we negotiated with Tango’s parent company Gameworks to acquire that IP as well,” he added.
Openly saying that some of Tango’s previous titles “may not have even broken even” and that the deal to buy the studio was “neither too expensive nor too cheap,” the CEO noted that “trying to expand our portfolio” was one of the reasons Krafton made the effort to buy the studio.
Trying to achieve stardom through creativity and not limiting every game to the obligation to make money for the publisher unless it loses money. That’s certainly an admirable approach in theory, even if all this talk about Krafton openly admitting it just bought something that it’s not 100% certain will make a profit in the near future is a strange thing to come out of the mouth of a gigantic CEO, especially in 2024.
What do you think of Kim’s approach, and would you buy a sequel to Hi-Fi Rush? Let us know below!