Hi-Fi Rush creator praised "good situation in our studio" and freedom of risk-taking a month before closure
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the closure of a number of Bethesda studios, including Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks. Directed by studio creative director John Johanas, Hi-Fi Rush was lauded for being a smaller, original game that went on to win a BAFTA at last month’s awards.
Yet following the closure of Tango, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty told Microsoft employees: “We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,” as per internal remarks shared with The Verge.
That’s exactly what Hi-Fi Rush was. At the BAFTAs last month, Johanas told Eurogamer the game was “an intense labour of love” and there was a “good situation” at the studio due to the ability to take risks and own creative freedom.
“Last year we saw some of the best things produced, I think, in a long time, which is a mixture of massive innovation, massive scale, lots of teams coming together to make some of the biggest games to even the smallest games with huge impact,” said Johanas. “And we shouldn’t forget that those are teams that worked hard for years and years and years to make those games.
“For us, people still saw our game as a smaller game, but we worked hard on that for six years. It was an intense labour of love… I just want everyone to feel appreciated for the work they did.”
When asked what he’d change about the games industry, Johanas said he believes the games industry should be more open to taking risks – after all, that’s how Hi-Fi Rush was allowed to be created.
“We have a good situation in our studio, where we were granted a lot of creative freedom and were able to take risks,” said Johanas. “I know some studios are not afforded that opportunity.
“Because we’re able to take risks and try something new and different, we want to keep that but we also don’t want the risk to be at the expense of a job risk. You should be able to take creative risks but have the means to say if something doesn’t work.
