Update: Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has since clarified that Hi-Fi Rush was a "break out hit" for Xbox.
Jeff Grubb has clarified that he doesn't "know how Microsoft measures success" and that he was just trying to say Hi-Fi Rush didn't make the money it was expected to make.
Original story follows.
Tango Gameworks' Xbox exclusive Hi-Fi Rush didn't sell particularly well in spite of its immense critical reception, according to a well-known industry insider. This rare bit of granular insight into the commercial performance of a Bethesda-published game goes against the fairly widespread view that Hi-Fi Rush was a major success.
The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo developer released its latest title on January 25 out of the blue. The decision to shadow-drop Hi-Fi Rush during the Xbox and Bethesda Developer_Direct broadcast generated quite a bit of buzz, not least because games that gather rave reviews rarely arrive out of nowhere.
Yet that positive publicity might have come at the expense of underwhelming sales, according to reporter Jeff Grubb. Speaking during an April 20 episode of his podcast, the established industry insider said Hi-Fi Rush "didn't make the money it needed to make," citing unnamed sources. Grubb speculated that this lackluster performance could be attributed to the fact that Hi-Fi Rush was available on Xbox Game Pass from day one. Though the launch itself was unexpected, the game's immediate addition to the subscription service was a given, as Tango Gameworks is owned by Microsoft subsidiary ZeniMax Media.
While this insider account did not go into any more details concerning the commercial performance of Hi-Fi Rush, the claim of lackluster sales does suggest that the game's publisher might be reluctant to try surprise releases in the near future. For context, it was Bethesda's idea to shadow-drop Hi-Fi Rush.
Given that state of affairs, the success of Hi-Fi Rush—or lack thereof—won't necessarily result in any major changes at Xbox Game Studios. This is in part because Microsoft has a fairly hands-off approach to how it manages it developers, so its subsidiaries don't really have a unified publishing strategy that's detailed enough to provide a rule book for things like surprise releases. Secondly, Xbox already teased more surprises in the vein of GoldenEye 007 and Hi-Fi Rush that are planned for the second half of 2023.
That notwithstanding, this newly surfaced insider account further underlines how Xbox Game Pass can cannibalize game sales. Microsoft itself recently admitted as much during its ongoing back-and-forth with regulators over its pending Activision Blizzard acquisition. Yet the company also insists that day-one Xbox Game Pass launches don't necessarily lead to lower revenues for third-party publishers. Besides various forms of monetary compensation, Microsoft previously argued that Xbox Game Pass also offers increased visibility to its partners, which can potentially result in more long-term sales.
Hi-Fi Rush is available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.