Video Game Giant Says He Wants to Direct One Last Game Before Retirement
Shinji Mikami is undoubtedly one of the bigger names when it comes to the Japanese Video Game creators. He’s directed the Evil Within series; he’s produced or executive produced Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 2, and Viewtiful Joe. And Mikami has most recently been working on Ghostwire: Tokyo which combines action with Japanese urban legends.
While being interviewed for Vg247 as part of Ghostwire: Tokyo promotion, Mikami has revealed that, while he has been directing video games himself for the past thirty years, he has passed on most of the video game directing to his company, Tango Gameworks.The creation was done intentionally, “with the vision of creating a studio that gives young and talented creators a chance.” Though, as Tango Gameworks was part of Bethesda, this means that whatever game that Tango Gameworks comes out with next, will be possibly an Xbox exclusive- especially as Microsoft purchased Bethesda in 2020.
However, that does not mean that Mikami has decided to pull out of game directing just yet- or in sticking with one possible platform. But it seems that the gaming director wants to seize on opportunities when they are there, especially for his beloved survival horror genre.
“Survival horror is not at its peak of popularity. The tide is low, there’s not a big wave behind it. Survival horror is at the low end of the wave right now, so a surfer wouldn’t go out there. It’s probably just best to wait for the bigger wave, until the time when there is a big enough survival horror game that’s much more well accepted.” said Mikami.
It’s possible then that he wants to bring the wave forward with a little push, or at least go back to an old project. When asked in revisiting Resident Evil 4, Mikami, who was the game’s writer, said that he would love to see the game expanded.
“Fans will most likely want it, and so that’s a good thing. It would be great if Capcom could do a great job and make the story better, and put out a good product. I only had three weeks to write it in.”
This may address some rumors of a possible game story expansion for the Resident Evil 4 game that may be coming out in 2023. Though if Mikami was attached to the remake, we would hear about it. So for now- stay tuned. Who knows what game Mikami will work on next- and maybe if we’re lucky, it’ll be survival horror.