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We were caught completely by surprise when Tango Gameworks announced Hi-Fi Rush (opens in new tab) back in January, and not just because it came completely out of nowhere. The bigger surprise was that it’s a colorful, cartoony rhythm action game from a studio best known for The Evil Within (opens in new tab) and Ghostwire: Tokyo (opens in new tab) games—not exactly cheery, upbeat stuff. But a recently discovered Easter egg could indicate that the studio will soon return to more familiar territory.
A screen that appears during a late-game cinematic that plays ahead of Track 11: The Needle Drop features a not-too-subtle fictional news snippet: “Sequel to popular survival horror game franchise announced.” It’s only visible for a second or two, and the text is quite small compared to the rest of the visual, but it’s definitely there. You can see it yourself in this video (opens in new tab) (via GamesRadar (opens in new tab), timestamped to the appropriate moment), or you can just look at it directly below.
The Evil Within is the only Tango Gameworks game to which that description applies: It is both a survival horror game and, by dint of there being two of them, a franchise. The studio’s previous release, Ghostwire: Tokyo, is vaguely horror-ish but much more an action game, and so far there’s only one of them so the “franchise” label doesn’t really apply.
Another point worth noting is that Hi-Fi Rush is directed by John Johanas (opens in new tab), whose big-budget directorial debut was The Evil Within 2. Many other staff who worked on the survival horror game moved over to this one. The second Evil Within also left the doors wide open for a continuation of the story, though of course they all do.
The bigger question at this point is whether this is a tease, or just a throwaway reference in some flavor text. Personally, I think it has to be significant: As far as I know there’s been no real indication that The Evil Within 3 is in development, but it’s a successful and recognizable title from a major game studio, which makes a sequel all but inevitable. Even if there’s nothing cooking right now, it’s a good assumption that one day there will be, and when it happens we’ll all be able to point back to this moment and nod knowingly.
And surely Tango Gameworks wouldn’t intentionally wind fans up with an Easter egg like this if it had absolutely no intention of making a new Evil Within game… would it? I’m pretty confident the studio isn’t going to drop that bomb in an email reply, but I’ve reached out to ask just in case.
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