Hi-Fi Rush was supposed to be announced years before, but then Microsoft chose the surprise release

In a recent interview published by GamesRadar, the director of Hi-Fi RushJohn Johanas, revealed that thesurprise exit of the game had not been in the plans from the beginning, and that in truth the Tango GameWorks team thought it would announce the game years before of its actual launch.

The solution of “shadow drops“, which was released alongside the announcement that caused such a stir in the gaming world, actually matured over time, once it became clear that the timeframe would be increasingly tighter.

The question was difficult to interpret, because Hi-Fi Rush is a very particular game and a production of different workmanship from the typical triple A titles that one might expect from first party teams, although the intermediate productions have now been decidedly cleared, so it was necessary balance the expectation.

The idea was to create hype but not too much

Tango GameWorks' idea was to create some hype over time, but at the same time she had to be careful to gauge expectations a bit, so that people wouldn't get the wrong idea about the size and features of the game in question.

“We were looking for the right time to announce it, so that it wouldn't be overshadowed by other things,” explained director Johanas, “We wanted to create some hype but also try to Don't make people too emotional“he said.

“In the meantime, however, the advance period was becoming increasingly restricted“, reported Johanas. Evidently, at some point the distance between the possible announcement and the launch of Hi-Fi Rush must have become so narrow that it was more profitable to experiment with the surprise launch, thus taking advantage of the disruptive effect that could emerge from the shadow drop exit.

The fact that the game was made directly available on Xbox Game Pass then did the rest, amplifying the surprise effect with the possibility of downloading and playing it directly for a large number of people in the minutes immediately following its presentation.

The experiment was definitely successful: thanks also to the high quality of the game, the fact of being able to experience it directly without any mediation from critics or promotional initiatives proved the initiative right, as we also reported recently in the special on the pleasure of surprise that it is derived from Hi-Fi Rush.