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Bethesda Softworks announced earlier today via Twitter that Shinji Mikami is due to leave Tango Gameworks “in the coming months.” It appears that Mikami has chosen to leave the studio of his own volition. And as of now, there’s no word on where he may go next.
Mikami has left his directorial mark on plenty of games over the years, from survival horror classics like Resident Evil to slick action games such as Vanquish. It’s fair to say that his portfolio is fairly varied, and he’s likely to carry on with this work in the future. It is interesting timing, though, given how successful Tango Gameworks’ last few releases were.
Shinji Mikami set to Tango Gameworks, which he founded
Tango Gameworks was founded in 2010 by Mikami and a small group of developers. This team would then grow and eventually create 2014’s The Evil Within, a third-person survival horror game that hearkened back to Mikami’s former work on Resident Evil. This was then followed up with The Evil Within 2 in 2017. Then in 2022, Tango Gameworks released Ghostwire: Tokyo. This is another game with a survival horror edge, with some twists to the formula due to its open-world setting.
— Bethesda (@bethesda) February 23, 2023
After The Evil Within, Mikami took a supervisory role at Tango Gameworks. John Johonas and Kenji Kimura took the director’s seat for The Evil Within 2 and Ghostwire: Tokyo respectively. And Johonas’ most recently directed title, Hi-Fi Rush, received plenty of critical acclaim. So Mikami is departing the studio at a high point in its lifetime. And with the high quality of the developer’s last few titles, it should be in good hands.
Mikami’s career in gaming has been extremely varied. And his contributions to franchises such as Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and Tango Gamework’s portfolio cannot be overstated. With that said, it’ll be interesting to see where he goes next. His varied history in gaming gives him plenty of license to go off and do something unique. The future of Tango Gameworks will also be something to keep an eye on in the future.
