Shinji Mikami has been involved in video game development since the ’90s, during which time he was involved in the creation of several Resident Evil games, two The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush.
In February of last year, it was revealed that the creator was leaving the Tango Gameworks studio he founded, which was acquired by Zenimax Media, Bethesda’s parent company, almost immediately after its birth. In March of this year, it was revealed that he founded another studio, called Kamuy.
Now he gave an interview to Byking (summarized by Automaton in English), in which he talked about the details of his departure. He said that he had already wanted to leave the studio 8 years earlier, which, although everyone was attached to him, and the word producer was next to his name, in fact he was hardly different from a simple employee, so he didn’t really feel like his own.
In addition, as he talked about before, he wanted to break away from the horror genre (which he eventually succeeded in with Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush), and he wanted to put more energy into educating the next generation. In the past, he stated that they would create a masterpiece roughly every decade, but in the meantime they would be happy to work on smaller projects.
In the end, this could not be realized in the case of Tango Gameworks, but he still felt a responsibility towards his peers, which is why he stayed there for so long. And with Kamuy, his goal will again be to be able to realize these. He is currently working on the Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered project with several other studios.
