Hi-Fi Rush was one of the best surprises in recent gaming memory by being shadow launched after Xbox and Bethesda’s Direct last month, Hi-Fi Rush was released to critical acclaim. Considering the surprising nature of the game’s launch, it might be hard to think of it as something that had been in the works for years. Still, it was in development when Xbox Game Studios bought Zenimax, which could have affected development quite severely.
But in an interview with Ungeek game director John Johanas said that “[oppkjøpet] didn’t really have any effect on the development of the game. When we made the game and the platforms weren’t decided yet. We only made it on a PC, and we didn’t know what other platforms it would be on. We also didn’t know what the future consoles were going to be at the time. Then the acquisition happened, which made it a little easier for us as we could focus on what platforms it will be released on to help us polish the experience.”
To a large extent, it seems that the experience with Xbox Game Studios was a positive one, and it has paid off, as we can see with Hi-Fi Rush’s huge success.
