Hi-Fi Rush 2 and a new Dishonored game were some of the projects at Tango and Arkane before Xbox closed them down

Not to cause any bloodshed, but the more details are revealed about the closure of Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, the more incomprehensible the news becomes. In the last few hours, Bloomberg has unveiled that both studios were working towards new games in their respective IPs, and the news hurts even more if true.

According to the publication, in Tango Gameworks, where around 150 people, “was in the process of pitching a sequel” to Hi-Fi Rush. Or what is the same, the studio was planning and rehearsing the sales pitch with which they were going to justify to Xbox a hypothetical Hi-Fi Rush 2. The classic presentation in which the success of the previous one and the improvements and innovations that could be incorporated into the new one are discussed.

Probably, the developer, who is also responsible for Ghostwire Tokyo and of the The Evil Within series (which they had hinted at a third installment), didn’t expect them to have too many objections to the pitch given how much Microsoft executives had been bragging about the success of Hi-Fi. Ironically, Matt Booty (the head of Xbox studios), had the audacity to tell the rest of the employees that the brand still needs “smaller games” that give them”prestige and awards” during a town-hall meeting the day after closing the studio.

For their part, Arkane Austin was looking to return to its roots with a new single-player immersive sim, as well as a new Dishonored entry. The studio of about 100 people approximately, recently suffered the blow of being mandated to create Redfall, about which Matt Booty said this last June: “The plan is for Arkane to remain open and working on saving Redfall.” Pete Hines, vice president of Bethesda, commented the same in November: “We do not abandon a project just because it started badly”.

But before Redfall, Arkane Austin was one of the most promising and talented studios of the scene, having helped Arkane Lyon in previous installments of Dishonored and having signed that tremendous sleeper hit called Prey.

As if the loss of both projects were not enough, bad news accumulates for Microsoft fans. Today it was also leaked that Perfect Dark is in serious trouble, that Xbox is raising the price of Game Pass, and even that they still don’t know whether to add Call of Duty to the service. When will Phil Spencer clarify the situation?