Tango Gameworks Inc. is a Japanese video game developer located in Tokyo. The company was founded in March 2010 by Shinji Mikami, who previously worked for Capcom. In October 2010, Tango was acquired by ZeniMax Media after facing financial challenges.
Tango developed several games, including the survival horror titles The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2, the action-adventure game Ghostwire: Tokyo, and the rhythm-based action game Hi-Fi Rush.
ZeniMax Media, Tango’s parent company, was acquired by Microsoft in March 2021. This made Tango the first Japanese studio in Microsoft Gaming’s development portfolio. In June 2024, Microsoft closed the studio. In August 2024, South Korean publisher Krafton announced an agreement to acquire the studio from Microsoft for an undisclosed amount. At the same time, Tango formed a strategic partnership with Microsoft.
History
Shinji Mikami worked for Capcom, a video game company, since 1989. He helped create several popular game series, including the Resident Evil horror games. Over time, Capcom became very large, and Mikami wanted to make games with ideas different from horror. He worked as an independent contractor, directing the action game Vanquish for PlatinumGames and producing the action-horror game Shadows of the Damned for Grasshopper Manufacture. Sega, another game company, asked Mikami to make a horror game for them, but he refused. On March 1, 2010, Mikami, who was 44 years old, and a team of 12 developers started a new company called Tango in Odaiba, Tokyo. He moved there from his previous office in Osaka. In May 2010, Shigenori Nishikawa, the director of MadWorld for PlatinumGames, joined Tango. The company began working on multiple projects, including a small team making a joke game featuring a cockroach standing on two legs and shooting a gun.
Their main project was Noah, a science fiction open-world survival-adventure game inspired by the 1984 movie Dune. In this game, Earth became mostly uninhabitable, and humans moved to other planets. One colony loses contact with others, and a research team is sent to find them. Soon after starting work on Noah, Tango faced financial problems. Mikami said, "something happened." Bethesda Softworks, an American video game publisher, helped by having its parent company, ZeniMax Media, buy the studio. This deal was announced on October 28, 2010. ZeniMax used part of the $150 million it had raised in private funding for the purchase. Mikami agreed to the acquisition because he believed Bethesda and ZeniMax would allow Tango to work independently. The studio was merged into ZeniMax Asia K.K., ZeniMax's Asia-Pacific branch in Tokyo's Aomi area, and reorganized as a division called Tango Gameworks. In November 2010, composer Masafumi Takada (formerly of Grasshopper Manufacture), artist Naoki Katakai, and programmer Shinichiro Ishikawa (both formerly of Capcom) joined Tango. By March 2012, the studio had 65 employees, and Mikami planned to grow the team to 100 members.
After ZeniMax acquired Tango, Mikami wanted the studio to develop multiple games at once. Noah was canceled, and work began on another major project, Zwei. This game originally involved a man and woman chained together hunting a vampire, with players controlling each character separately or together. Zwei was announced in April 2012. Over time, the game changed into a single-player survival horror game and was renamed The Evil Within, announced in April 2013. In August 2014, Tango moved from Aomi to the Shibaura district. The Evil Within was released by Bethesda in October 2014. It was the last game Mikami directed, as he stepped back to allow others to lead future projects. A sequel, The Evil Within 2, was announced at E3 2017 and released in October 2017. In June 2019, during Bethesda's E3 2019 press conference, Mikami and creative director Ikumi Nakamura announced Ghostwire: Tokyo, an action-adventure game with horror elements. Nakamura left Tango in September 2019 after nine years.
ZeniMax Media, Tango's parent company, was bought by Microsoft for $7.5 billion in March 2021 and became part of Microsoft Gaming. Through this deal, Tango became Microsoft's first development studio in Japan. In March 2022, Tango released the mobile game Hero Dice and shut it down five months later. At the Xbox and Bethesda Developer Direct on January 25, 2023, Tango announced Hi-Fi Rush, a rhythm-action game released the same day. In February 2023, Bethesda Softworks announced Mikami would leave Tango Gameworks soon. He later started a new studio called Kamuy.
In May 2024, Matt Booty, Microsoft Gaming President of Game Content and Studios, announced plans to close Tango Gameworks. This was one of four studios Microsoft managed, including Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Studios. Fans and journalists criticized the decision, especially because Hi-Fi Rush, a critically successful game, was developed by Tango. The studio closed on June 14, 2024.
On August 12, 2024, South Korean publisher Krafton announced it had bought Tango Gameworks for an unspecified amount. The deal began on August 1, and about 50 of the original 105 staff members returned to the company, while others found new jobs. Krafton confirmed it would continue developing Hi-Fi Rush and explore future projects. Rights to The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo remained with Microsoft, which planned to work with Krafton and Tango on future Hi-Fi Rush projects. On January 1, 2025, Tango Gameworks became officially incorporated as Tango Gameworks Inc. to join Krafton. On June 2, 2025, Tango updated its branding and website, stating its new brand design focused on creating games that feel "hand-made" and emphasized a creative workshop-style studio.