Hi-Fi Rush Becomes Highest Rated Xbox Game Days After Studio Laid-Off

thegamer.com:

Hi-Fi Rush has become the highest-rated Xbox game of all time on Steam thanks to fans positively review-bombing the game in response to Xbox controversially closing down Tango Gameworks.

Xbox's business plans, including the move to making its exclusives third-party and the buyout of Activision Blizzard, have been controversial and confusing for a lot of fans, but its latest move is one that seems hard to recover from. Just a few days ago, Xbox announced out of nowhere that it was closing down Tango Gameworks, the developer of The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush, alongside several other studios.

This year has been particularly brutal when it comes to layoffs and studios closing, but Tango Gameworks came as a massive shock to fans considering its latest release, Hi-Fi Rush, was beloved by fans and something that Xbox itself considered a success. The future seemed very bright for Chai and his creators, but Xbox's sudden and brutal cuts have prevented that from happening.

Over the past few days, Hi-Fi Rush fans have understandably been in despair, but it seems like the community has turned around and delivered a pointed message to Xbox about how beloved the game was. As pointed out by ResetEra user Dreamboum, Hi-Fi Rush fans have taken to positively review-bombing the game's Steam page to show just how much interest there was in it.

As of the time of writing, Hi-Fi Rush currently has an "Overwhelmingly Positive" review score on Steam, with 97 percent of its reviews being positive. That now makes Hi-Fi Rush the highest-rated game that Xbox and Bethesda have ever released on the platform alongside Dishonored, which also sits at the same score. Hi-Fi Rush was already positively reviewed, but now it's getting even more attention.

Hi-Fi Rush isn't the only example of review-bombing being used as a tactic by gamers over the past few weeks, as Helldivers 2's Steam page was swarmed with negative reviews after PlayStation announced a PSN sign-in was going to be mandatory.