Shinji Mikami is one of the greatest developers the game has ever seen. He spent his early years at Capcom and, among many other games, created the Resident Evil series and returned to direct the outstanding Resident Evil 4, before becoming an important member of the legendary Clover Studio. He and others left Capcom to co-founded PlatinumGames, and although Mikami always had a heart to oversee one major title in the company and help it be established, he set out to set it up on his own. Mikami oversaw the standout Vanquish before founding Tango Gameworks later in the same year.
The thread is running in Mikami's career to nurture the next generation. His representative disciples included Hideki KAMIYA, Shu TAKUMI, John Johanas, and Ikumi NAKAMURA. Mikami's goal at Tango Gameworks was to direct his first title, The Evil Within (in the case of The Evil Within 2, it became one of the best action horror games ever made), before moving on to the role of director and letting the studio's young talent take the reins.1 The studio that remains in Mikami In May 2023 launched a surprise after its parent company Zenimax acquired Microsoft Games, Easy Operation Aloof genius that rocked the Hi-Fi scene
Yesterday, Microsoft announced the brutal closure of 4 studios of Tango Gameworks. Its 14 years of Tango development of Evil within and its sequel Ghostwire: Tokyo, the mobile title of the Asian market called Hero Dice, Hi-Fi Rush (Microsoft exec named "Bu Hit for). One game every three years is not a bad thing going on at this level, Tango has also made an unusual game, the kind of one that gets loads of 7 and 8/10s but is a game of the year that some people will swear. The decision just seems inexplicable, a typical bean counter moment, and it has committed a cardinal sin of contempt for Mikami Shinji.
Except for a documentary a few years ago, Mikami tends to keep himself to himself, and this declaration is not exactly redundant:
"Tango closed" and Mikami "sad.""
There's always that sadness about the tango story because it doesn't feel like the studio that did something particularly bad and there was a lot to give. It's a studio of talent and pedigree, a legacy from 1 of the greatest designers the game has ever seen, and now all the people who made it are scattered in the wind. On a selfish level, I'm gutted there will be no evil in 3. But perhaps that single word is just summarizing it from every angle: sad for Mikami, sad for Tango itself, sad for the player, sad move by Microsoft.
Mikami does not tweet much, but perhaps from the moon back this can stand in honor of the pen pusher who took out the tango in the back of the hut and decided to shoot it: "There has always been talk of androids approaching humans, but now I think that humans are approaching androids." I feel that it is based on this."
Comments