Shinji Mikami departs Bethesda’s Tango Gameworks

Shinji Mikami, the celebrated video game director whose works span the first Resident Evil to 2014’s The Evil Within, is leaving the studio he founded. Tango Gameworks and its parent company, Bethesda Softworks, confirmed Mikami’s departure in a message Thursday morning.

“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 of The Evil Within franchise, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and, of course, Hi-Fi Rush,” Bethesda said in a statement posted to Twitter. “We wish Mikami-san well in the future and are excited by what lies ahead for the talented developers at Tango.” Mikami himself has made no public statement on his departure.

Tango Gameworks, acquired by Bethesda shortly after Mikami left Capcom to start it in 2010, most recently developed the rhythm/beat-’em-up game Hi-Fi Rush, which launched at the end of January. Before that, Tango developed the survival-horror adventure Ghostwire: Tokyo, which launched in March 2022 as a one-year timed exclusive for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. Microsoft acquired Bethesda’s parent company and all of its studios, Tango Gameworks included, in 2020, and Tango and Bethesda still honored their standing commitments to develop PlayStation console exclusives.

Mikami, 57, began his games development career with Capcom in 1989. He created the first Resident Evil and two of the franchise’s main characters — Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine — for Capcom in 1996. He left Capcom in 2007 for PlatinumGames, where he directed the third-person shooter Vanquish, published in October 2010. In March of that year, he started Tango Gameworks.

Tango Gameworks has since developed four console and PC games: The Evil Within (2014, which Mikami directed), The Evil Within 2 (2017), Ghostwire: Tokyo (2022), and Hi-Fi Rush (2023).