Tango Gameworks founder Shinji Mikami, the man with glorious mind that co-created the Resident Evil franchise, has revealed details as to why he left Tango Gameworks, a studio which he founded himself. In an interview with Byking, translated by Automaton, Mikami shockingly reveals that he actually wanted to leave the studio eight years before he ultimately did in 2023, but put off his departure due to his feeling of responsibility toward the studio’s projects.
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Mikami notes in the interview that he was only the CEO of Tango Gameworks for a short time, stating, “I had only been CEO for 6 months. I think a lot of people were under the impression that I was the representative, but I was very close to a rank-and-file employee. I had “___ producer” attached to my name, but I wasn’t an executive or anything of the sort.” The reason for his short-lived run as CEO was the fact that Tango ran into financial trouble the same year it was founded and was soon acquired by ZeniMax Media, saving the studio from going under but vastly changing the status of the company.
As for Mikami’s main motivation for leaving Tango, he mentions wanting to create an environment with his new company KAMUY that would allow young game creators to have the opportunity to gain experience and prosper through this growth, which includes an environment with shorter cycles between new projects. Mikami also had a personal desire to create unique, smaller scale video games, feeling as though there was an audience in the world for him to provide this to as well.
These motivations aren’t where it ended for Makami though – he also wanted to break away from being associated so heavily with the survivor horror genre. As pre-existing companies already have established styles, workflows, and often genres and classifications that they work within already, Makami opted to start the entirely new company from the ground up to curb expectations.
Mikami first came into the spotlight of the video game industry while employed at Capcom, where he served as the director for the original Resident Evil in 1996 as its co-creator. During his time at Capcom he directed a number of other recognizable titles including Resident Evil 4 and God Hand, as well as serving as producer for additional Resident Evil games, the original Devil May Cry, and more. At Tango Dreamworks Mikami directed The Evil Within as well as serving as producer on The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Hi-Fi Rush.
Mikami is believed to have founded his new studio KAMUY around March of this year, so it’s still a very new company and therefore he has not shared on the company’s team or what projects they may already be working on. For now, what we can say with certainty is whatever KAMUY’s debut title is, it won’t be in the survival horror genre.
What genre do you think Mikami’s talents would be well-suited for?
