Legendary game director Shinji Mikami, founder and CEO of game developer Tango Gameworks, will be leaving the studio in the coming months. First reported by True Achievements, Bethesda later confirmed the news on a post from their official Twitter account early this morning. According to True Achievements, Todd Vaughn, senior VP of development at Bethesda, first broke the news through a company-wide email.
Bethesda continued on in its Twitter post, thanking Mikami for his work with Gameworks and wishing him well.
“I am writing today to let you know that studio head Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months,” said Bethesda. “Mikami-san has been a creative leader and supportive mentor to young developers at Tango for 12 years through his work on the Evil Within franchise, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and of course, Hi-Fi Rush.”
“We wish Mikami-san well in the future and are excited by what lies ahead for the talented developers at Tango,”
Bethesda wrote “We can confirm that Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months. We thank him for his work as a creative leader and supportive mentor to young developers on The Evil Within franchise, Ghostwire Tokyo, and of course, Hi-Fi- Rush.”
Mikami has had an impressive career within his 33 years in the video game industry. He spent 12 years working with Capcom in 1989, creating the first Resident Evil and worked on other influential series during his time there like Devil May Cry. He founded Tango Gameworks in 2010, after leaving Capcom and a short stay at Platinum Games in 2007. The new studio was quickly acquired in October that year by ZeniMax, parent company of Bethesda, before Microsoft eventually acquired it in the tech giant’s $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax in 2020.
He launched the popular The Evil Within series in 2014 and its sequel in 2017. Mikami went on to lead other successful games like Ghostwire: Tokyo, and most recently, the sleeper hit Hi-Fi Rush.