Shinji Mikami Revealed Why He Left Tango Gameworks

Shinji Mikami, the creator of both Resident Evil and The Evil Within franchises, has finally revealed why he left Tango Gameworks.

The Real Truth About Leaving by Shinji Mikami

Shinji Mikami established his own independent studio, Tango Gameworks, in 2010, after working at companies like Capcom and PlatinumGames for several years. Only a few months after the company was founded, however, it was bought up by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media after undergoing major financial troubles. Nonetheless, Mikami worked at Tango Gameworks for over a decade, developing hit survival horror titles like The Evil Within 1 and 2, all the way to action games like Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush.

After Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda and Tango Gameworks was finalized in 2022, Mikami left the studio he founded about a year or so later, leading speculation to run rampant as to why the Resident Evil creator resigned from the company. But now, the truth about his leave is revealed by him.

According to a recent interview uploaded to the YouTube channel of Japanese game developer Byking, Shinji Mikami revealed that he actually wanted to leave Tango Gameworks eight years before he eventually did. As translated by Automaton, Mikami noted that he “had only been CEO [at Tango] for 6 months” before it was eventually acquired by ZeniMax. Although it seemed like he was the representative of the company from the outside looking in, Mikami likened his position at Tango as one more akin to that of “a rank and file employee” rather than a higher-up. “I had ‘___ producer’ attached to my name, but I wasn’t an executive or anything of the sort.” Although he still managed to create several great games at Tango Gameworks, this made it harder for him to work on the more unique, smaller scale passion projects he had in mind.

The lact of control and want to do something his own leaked Shinji Mikami to leave Tango Gameworks. He decided not to do so for so long, however, simply because he felt that he had a responsibility to contribute to ongoing projects at the company.

After his left from Tango Gameworks, Shinji Mikami now founded his brand new studio called Kamuy. He curently didn’t revealed more information about his studio, maybe he is waiting to make something physical to make the announcement. In the meantime, we are waiting to see more from Shinji Mikami.

Read More: Shinji Mikami Founded a New Company