The Evil Within developer may be moving away from horror.
Tango Gameworks, the studio founded by legendary Resident Evil director, Shinji Mikami, is allegedly working on a new title called Hi-Fi RUSH, and it’s to be “announced (and/or) released soon.” This comes by way of user billbil-kun, an individual that has gained notoriety by consistently and accurately leaking the PlayStation Plus monthly games before they’re officially revealed by PlayStation.
Their reach clearly extends beyond PlayStation though, as recently, billbil-kun claimed that Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition would be coming to Epic Games Store on January 19. The game ended up dropping on Steam that day, with an Epic Games Store version confirmed for later in January. So, although this Tango rumor could prove false, it’s at least worth paying attention to.
billbil-kun further states that the announcement for Hi-Fi RUSH could happen in the upcoming Xbox Developer Direct that’s set to take place at 3pm ET, January 25. They claim that the game will have a standard and a deluxe edition and that it’s rated ESRB Teen.
Tango Gameworks is a Bethesda-owned studio, which means that it’s now an Xbox studio, following Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda in early 2021. The studio is best known for its two The Evil Within titles, but most recently, it released the action-horror game Ghostwire: Tokyo in March 2022, exclusively for PlayStation 5 and PC. Despite already being owned by Xbox at the time of release, the PlayStation exclusivity deal was made prior to the acquisition.
Similar to Deathloop, it’s expected that Ghostwire: Tokyo’s exclusivity will expire after one year, after which the title will likely become available on Xbox Series X|S. Subsequently, it’s assumed that Tango Gameworks’ next game, which could be this Hi-Fi RUSH project, will be Xbox and PC exclusive at launch, just like every new Bethesda IP (that wasn’t previously contracted by PlayStation) has been, such as Starfield and Redfall.
If this rumor is to be believed, Hi-Fi RUSH may be quite different from Tango’s usual fare, as, just by title alone, it doesn’t sound much like a horror game. This would match a prior sentiment expressed by Mikami wherein he said that he wanted the studio to work on games outside of horror. A report by VGC, which references a Famitsu interview, has Mikami saying the following, “of course, it’s nice to have fans think of us as a studio with a reputation for developing survival horror games. But we also want to be viewed as a studio that can create a wider variety of games.”
