After news broke last month that PUBG publisher Krafton was buying the studio and saving many developers from a shocking closure, it was clear that Tango Gameworks was coming to a happy ending.

Although Krafton wanted to “take over the entire development team” (according to a Krafton PR statement shared by Stephen Totilo in his GameFile newsletter and on Twitter), the publisher did not fully expand the breadth of talent it “acquired” could not. Here is the full statement:

“Krafton will be transferring approximately 50 development staff from Tango Gameworks to Krafton's Japanese subsidiary. These transferred staff will continue to work at KRAFTON on new projects, including the expansion of the HI-FI RUSH IP.”

That's almost half the studio's previous size (from Genki_JPN on Twitter), and given Krafton's stated desire to transfer its entire team, most of Tango Gameworks' former staff have either found new employment or, more pessimistically It is reasonable to assume that most of the former Tango Gameworks staff have either found new employment or, more pessimistically, have left the industry altogether.

As Totilo writes, the deal was “effective August 1,” and there was a gap of roughly three months between the initial closure in May and the certain knowledge that Tango would not close its doors for good. [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]