Tango Gameworks CEO Shinji Mikami to leave studio

Mikami has an impressive résumé, including games like Resident Evil 4, Dino Crisis, God Hand, and Vanquish.

Shinji Mikami, the founder of Tango Gameworks and game director for The Evil Within franchise, has announced he’s leaving the company after 12 years. Bethesda confirmed the news in a tweet early this morning.

Mikami started his career at Capcom working on the Resident Evil series and other Capcom favorites like the cult classic beat ‘em up God Hand, Dino Crisis, and Ace Attorney. Mikami left the developer in 2006 for PlatinumGames to direct the influential, if somewhat forgotten, third-person action shooter Vanquish. In 2010, Mikami founded Tango Gameworks, which was almost immediately acquired by ZeniMax Media, bringing Tango into the vast Bethesda household.

Though Tango Gameworks seems to be enjoying a period of success with games like Ghostwire: Tokyo and the surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush, which was stealth-dropped earlier this year, this is now the second high-profile departure from the company. Ikumi Nakamura, who worked on The Evil Within franchise and became an instant celebrity for her quirky-cute E3 2019 presentation, left the company in 2019 to start her own development studio, Unseen.

In its announcement of Mikami’s departure, Bethesda wrote, “We wish Mikami-san well in the future and are excited by what lies ahead for the talented developers at Tango.”