After 12 years, Shinji Mikami has revealed plans to leave Tango Gameworks.
Bethesda senior vice president Todd Vaughn revealed this news in a company email sent to Zenimax employees. As reported by TrueAchievements, this is what the letter said:
“I am writing today to let you know that studio head Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months. Mikami-san has been a creative leader and supportive mentor to young developers at Tango for 12 years through his work on the Evil Within franchise, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and of course, Hi-Fi Rush.”
Shinji Mikami is one of the most important and illustrious game developers in history. If Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideki Kojima can trace their work in the games industry to the 1980s, Mikami is part of a comparatively newer generation, having entered the industry in 1990.
Starting in Capcom in 1990, Mikami would stay under the Japanese giant for over a decade. His career defining work under Capcom would be 1996’s Resident Evil, a watershed moment in survival horror games, and one that would launch one of Capcom’s most successful game franchises.
Mikami would also helm key roles in the development of Resident Evil 2, the Gamecube remake of the first game in 2002, and Resident Evil 4. The franchise’s success would also lead to Mikami working on spinoff series Dino Crisis, as well as a new original franchise that would point to his future career trajectory, stylish action game Devil May Cry.
In 2004, Mikami would be given free reign to start his own studio within Capcom, named Clover Studio. Clover would be comprised of some of the best development staff under Capcom, including Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba. While Clover worked on Okami and the Viewtiful Joe games, Mikami took control of production of God Hand as game director.
When Clover Studio closed in 2007, several of its former employees came together to form PlatinumGames. Those founders included Kamiya and Inaba, but not Mikami. Mikami worked with PlatimumGames as a contract employee. Under PlatinumGames, Mikami was director for Vanquish, a third person shooter that innovated with a powerslide bullet time mechanic. Mikami also worked with Goichi Suda on development of Shadows of the Damned with Grasshopper Manufacture.
However, the studio Mikami really wanted to work for was the one he founded himself. Tango, announced in 2010, would later be renamed Tango Gameworks after being acquired by Zenimax Media later that year.
Mikami’s key work under Tango Gameworks would be The Evil Within, the 2014 survival horror that received a mixed response, though closer to positive. Mikami saw that Resident Evil turned into an action game franchise, and wanted to remake what survival horror was like for a new generation.
In spite of what fans may think, Mikami didn’t lead many of the projects associated with him, and this was just as true under Tango Gameworks as it was in PlatinumGames, Clover, and Capcom. The Evil Within 2 was actually directed by John Johanas, yes, the same John Johanas who was director on Hi-Fi Rush. Ghostwire Tokyo, on the other hand, was directed by Kenji Kimura.
Mikami’s position in the games industry affords him respect for his achievements, but as his experience with The Evil Within shows, may also indicate he is no longer in step with the appetites of modern gamers. While he certainly has the fanbase that will follow him around regardless of what projects he takes, this may be the end of a distinguished and influential career in video games in Japan, and the world as a whole.
