What you need to know
- Tango Gameworks' critically-acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush first launched on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC back in January 2023.
- The game was ported to PlayStation 5 in March 2024, with a physical launch for Xbox and PlayStation being planned in collaboration with Limited Run Games.
- Microsoft recently shuttered Tango Gameworks, alongside Arkane Austin and Alpha Dog Games.
- Despite this closure, Limited Run Games indicates the physical launch of Hi-Fi Rush is still happening.
There's a small bit of good news for anyone still interested in physical copies of games.
Following the recent news that Microsoft was shutting down three Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, some players naturally assumed there would no longer be a physical release for the critically-acclaimed title. Limited Run Games responded on Twitter to one such user who noted the announcement of was still up and that the team had forgotten to take it down.
Did we forget it, though? Unless we say otherwise, Hi-Fi Rush is a go!May 9, 2024
Anyone who was looking forward to grabbing a physical copy of Hi-Fi Rush should still be able to do so in the future when Limited Run Games opens up preorders, even if the timing is now made extremely awkward.
Limited physical presence
As more and more players opt to simply buy games digitally or download through services like Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft has been excluding Xbox games from initial physical launches more and more in the last few years. Alongside Hi-Fi Rush, Obsidian Entertainment's Grounded and Pentiment were also launched as digital-only experiences, with both games also getting a later physical presence through Limited Run Games.
The upcoming Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 from Ninja Theory is likewise a digital-only game at launch. While nothing has been confirmed, it wouldn't be surprising to see this game also get a physical release further down the road.
Analysis: One last push for a beautiful game
I'm glad that players will still have an opportunity to grab a physical copy of Hi-Fi Rush in the future if they want. With the presence of so much licensed music combined with the removal of the team that could've updated the game to default to the in-house compositions instead, the sad reality is that Hi-Fi Rush will probably eventually be delisted from storefronts, though it's not impossible that Bethesda and Microsoft could figure something out to relicense it, like has happened in the past with games like Quantum Break.
Even so, Hi-Fi Rush and Tango Gameworks deserved better. It's one of the best Xbox games of not just 2023, but the last decade. Hi-Fi Rush was widely-praised and commercially successful, becoming a "break out hit" according to Aaron Greenberg , GM of marketing at Xbox. The team was reportedly in the process of pitching a sequel when the news of the closure came.
I never want people to lose their jobs, but business realities mean that sometimes things happen. That isn't and shouldn't have been the case here, and it's black eye that'll remain forever.
For anyone that hasn't played it yet, I'd highly encourage you to check out Tango's swansong, which is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5.
