When Tango Gameworks revealed Hi-Fi RUSH at the Xbox Developer Direct a year ago, the announcement was received with a great deal of excitement - and it helps that the game itself was one of the very best of 2023.
As it turns out though, the original plan wasn't for a shadow drop on the same day as the event. Hi-Fi RUSH was actually supposed to be revealed all the way back at E3 2020, but that didn't happen when the show got cancelled. Microsoft's subsequent purchase of Bethesda also apparently delayed the announcement.
Here's what Hi-Fi RUSH Director John Johanas had to say about this in an interview with GamesRadar:
"We were looking at times to announce it so we wouldn't get overshadowed by something. We wanted to hype it but not get people too excited, or give too much of a chance to jump on it. And then that period just got shorter and shorter."
Fortunately, things worked out really well for Hi-Fi RUSH and its surprise release, although Johanas admitted that the team were "freaking out" on the day of the Xbox Developer Direct. There was ultimately nothing to be worried about, but he still wonders what the reception would have been like with multiple years' worth of hype behind it.
If you haven't tried Hi-FI RUSH yet, we can't recommend it enough on Xbox Game Pass! Pure Xbox fans recently voted it the third best Xbox game of 2023, and that's high praise indeed for a year that was absolutely stacked with great titles.