One of gaming"s true legends is leaving the Microsoft-owned development studio he founded over a decade ago. TrueAchievements reports that Shinji Mikami will be departing Tango Gameworks, where he was the studio head as well as the original founder. ZeniMax sent out a company-wide email announcing that Mikami will leave Tango Gameworks sometime in the coming months. There"s no word as to why he made this decision.
This move just a few weeks after the studio surprised many gamers with the launch of its stealth-developed rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush. In the email announcing Mikami"s departure, Todd Vaughn, the senior vice president of development at Microsoft-owned Bethesda Softworks, stated that Hi-Fi Rush has become "one of the most successful launches for Bethesda and Xbox in recent years" since its release for PC and Xbox consoles in late January. Vaughn added that the game has "generated significant positive momentum for the business and Tango."
Mikami is perhaps best known as the development leader behind the original Resident Evil game for Capcom in 1996. He also directed Resident Evil 4 and the first Dino Crisis game among others. He later departed Capcom to form Tango Gameworks in early 2010, and it was acquired by ZeniMax later that same year.
At Tango, Mikami was the game director behind the survival horror game The Evil Within which was released in 2014. He since served as the executive producer for Tango"s subsequent games: The Evil Within 2, released in 2017, the action-adventure game Ghostwire: Tokyo in 2022, and this year"s Hi-Fi Rush. Before the release of Ghostwire: Tokyo, ZeniMax was purchased by Microsoft in 2021.