Shinji Mikami, Resident Evil Icon, is leaving the studio he founded

Shinji Mikami, famous Japanese game designer best known for his work on resident Evil series, has decided to leave Tango Gameworks after founding the studio over 10 years ago, so a true successes report that was confirmed by Bethesda on twitter.

Mikami’s career spans a wide variety of games and genres

Mikami is a legendary game designer at this point, an veteran of the industry who’s been around since the ’90s when he started at Capcom. While his first major game as a designer at the Japanese studio was the 1993 action-adventure game Goof Squad he rose to the helm for the SNES and directed the adventure horror classic resident Evil in 1996. That game ended up making gangbuster numbers for Capcom, catapulting Mikami to stardom, and solidifying resident Evil than the tentpole horror franchise we know today. He has since worked on a number of resident Evil Play as either a consultant, director, producer or writer during his time at Capcom while digging into other famous projects. This includes the survival horror series Dino Crisisthe hack-and-slash action-adventure game from 2000 Onimusha: Warlords (a favorite of mine), the action-adventure game from 2001 Devil May Cry (another favorite of mine), the side scrolling beat ’em up from 2003 Viewtiful Joe (another favorite of mine) and so many more. He has also served as an executive producer on a handful Phoenix Wright games. This man’s resume is long, yall.

And now the famous game developer begins a new chapter in this resume. Viewed by ZeniMax in a company-wide email true successes, Bethesda’s senior vice president of development, Todd Vaughn, broke the news of Mikami’s departure. Though unclear when he’s leaving, Vaughn said Mikami plans to exit Tango Gameworks “in the coming months.”

“I’m writing to let you know that studio head Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months,” Vaughn said. “Mikami-san has been a creative leader and supportive mentor to young developers at Tango for 12 years through his work on The evil in Franchise, Ghostwire: Tokyoand of course, Hi-Fi Rush.”

Bethesda then confirmed the news on Twitter todaythanks Mikami for his work and looks forward to the future of Tango Gameworks.

“We can confirm that Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months,” the statement said. “We thank him for his work as creative director and supportive mentor to young developers on The Evil Within franchise, Ghostwire: Tokyo and of course Hi-Fi Rush. We wish Mikami-san all the best in the future and look forward to what lies ahead for the talented developers at Tango.”

kotaku has reached out to Bethesda and Tango Gameworks for comment.

Mikami has brought out the lesser known with Tango Gameworks

After spending roughly two decades at Capcom, Mikami partnered with PlatinumGames to release the third-person shooter in 2010 Defeat. That same year, he founded Tango Gameworks, which was almost immediately acquired by Bethesda Softworks’ parent company, ZeniMax Media. Four years later in 2014, Mikami returned to his spooky roots to direct the survival horror game The evil in. It was received fairly positively, leading to a sequel in 2017. During the development of this game, Mikami took a backseat and chose to serve as a producer while overseeing the game’s progress. Tango would release the open-world action-adventure game in 2022 Ghostwire: Tokyo and this year’s rhythm-based action game Hi-Fi Rush, both of which would be Mikami’s final projects as the studio’s executive producer. He leaves with a high tone.

Mikami leaving Tango Gameworks sucks. He’s worked on so many different games, which proves his creativity knows no bounds. He also helped advance the careers of others through Tango Gameworks, particularly Ikumi Nakamuraan artist who worked on The evil in And Okami before you get in the role of creative director for Ghostwire: Tokyo. On the studio’s official website, Mikami called he wants[ed] to create a place where young creators can challenge themselves,” referring to the “many talented creators in Japan” who don’t have access to the same opportunities. This is a man who used his power to elevate the obscure and unknown, something you don’t see too often anymore.

While in December 2020, Mikami said he could One last game, it’s unclear what’s next for the famous Japanese game designer. But we hope Mikami stays in the games industry to continue the work he aspired to do at Tango Gameworks, which is to nurture lesser-known creatives to diversify the types of games we see in the world.