Well, this is definitely not the sort of news I wanted to hear when I woke up this morning, but it is a thing nonetheless. Shinji Mikami, the founder of Tango Gameworks, the creator of masterpieces such as The Evil Within (1), and Ghostwire: Tokyo, and who served as the executive producer on Hi-Fi Rush, has announced he is leaving the company.
As reported by Trueachievements, an email was sent out to all of the ZeniMax employees by Bethesda’s senior vice president of development Todd Vaughn, who confirmed that Shinji Mikami would be leaving the company.
“I am writing today to let you know that studio head Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months.” “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.”
Following this, Bethesda also posted a tweet that also confirmed this news.
— Bethesda (@bethesda) February 23, 2023
Shinji Mikami has stated what’s next for him, while some have speculated that he’s leaving to either set up a new studio, as he wanted more creative control. Some have blamed his departure on Microsoft/Xbox, but that can not be confirmed. Sadly, several people have also been begging Sony/PlayStation to snag him.
As for the title that Shinji Mikami was working on, this can only mean one of three things; Someone else took over the project, it was completed, or it was scrapped. Hopefully, this project wasn’t The Evil Within 3, which many, myself included, have been waiting on ever since Ghostwire: Toyko was revealed. And if so, here’s to hoping it was passed off to someone else.
Of course, that’s all speculation, as we don’t know what the title of the game was that Shinji Mikami was working on, if there even was one.
Of course, this also could be due to Shinji’s past retirement talk. He’s been involved with the gaming industry for over 33 years, which is a lifetime, from being involved with the Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and Devil May Cry titles with Capcom for 16 years before starting Tango Gameworks.
Regardless of wherever you end up, Shinji, we at The Outerhaven wish you nothing but success.
