Hi-Fi Rush 2 to Have 'a More Open World Type of Experience' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 5 days ago / 5,472 Views
Publisher Krafton announced in August it had acquired developer Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP from Xbox. It ended up being a "last minute deal" and was done to maintain the legacy of Tango even if Hi-Fi Rush 2 doesn't make money.
Krafton head of corporate development Maria Park in an interview with GamesIndustry stated Tango wants Hi-Fi Rush 2 to be more open world even if it isn't completely open world.
"The team was working on Hi-Fi Rush 2 when we first met them," said Park. "They want to make sure [it] surpasses the expectations of the existing fans. For instance, some of the feedback about Hi-Fi Rush was that some people felt it was [just] going through factories, so now they want to give a more open world type of experience. I don't think it's going to be completely open world, but a more dynamic environment [that] you play in. Also, having more advanced technology applied to the rhythm action so that it feels more synchronised.
Park added, "I think the build that we looked at was about six months old when we went to meet with them. At the moment, because the IP acquisition is in progress, it's been on hold because all the related assets and tools will be transferred to Krafton from Microsoft. But yes, we'll continue working on it for sure. Like I said, we won't really rush to the market just to deliver a sequel. We want to make sure that the sequel is actually at a quality level that surpasses the community's expectations."
Park said the reason Krafton only acquired the Hi-Fi Rush IP from Xbox is due to the team already working on the sequel. This does mean the Ghostwire: Tokyo and The Evil Within IPs are remaining with Microsoft and Xbox.
Tango Gameworks "should be self-sustainable," according to Park. This is despite none of Tango's games selling over five million units.
"When we decided to integrate Tango into Krafton, we weren't expecting a huge commercial hit from the studio," said Park. "We have huge respect for the studio's capacity to create new IPs. Krafton's mission is to scale up the creative.
"Krafton has experience in making multiplayer and service-type games alongside expanding to different platforms. Tango primarily [makes] narrative-driven, single-player action-oriented games. With our expertise, we're hoping that we can bring Tango to larger markets or different platforms.
"In one of the new projects under development, the team told us that they wanted to make a co-op online game. But they don't have experience making an online multiplayer game. [Krafton's] live-service expertise [can] help bring it to the next level. We're not expecting the team to have massive success on their own, but we're really going to help and leverage our resources to grow together."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.