Shinji Mikami wants to get away from horror games at his new Kamuy studio

Over a year ago in February 2023, Shinji Mikami suddenly left his position at the head of Tango Gameworks under Bethesda and Microsoft following the breakout success of Hi-Fi Rush. Recently, he teased a return to the gaming industry with a new studio revealed in March 2024, Kamuy. The director of many of the best Resident Evil games apparently wanted to exit Tango Gameworks for a while, not the least reason of which is that he wants to get away from survival horror for a bit.

Shinji Mikami shared some thoughts on his exit from Tango Gameworks and the founding of Kamuy in an interview with YouTube channel Byking, as translated by Automaton. In the interview, Shinji Mikami said that he’d actually wanted to exit Tango Gameworks for around eight years, but he felt obligated to see the projects that the developer was working on through to their end. The end point of that seemed to be Hi-Fi Rush, which was followed immediately by Mikami’s exit.

Hi-Fi Rush was the last game at Tango Gameworks under Shinji Mikami's leadership and could be considered a prime example of what kind of projects he wants to pursue with Kamuy.
Source: Tango Gameworks

Shinji Mikami has shared that he wants to help boost new developers in the scene and introduce pipelines that allow smaller and unique games to be produced under his banner. To that end, Kamuy is being set up as an environment where young game creators can gain regular experience on smaller projects, which Mikami believes there’s a strong demand for in the current industry.

Of course, personally, Mikami also wanted to get away from a certain expectation of him. The veteran may have directed Resident Evil and The Evil Within, but he has wanted to get out of the horror genre and explore new opportunities. For that, he also built Kamuy to be a studio free of expectations.

Late in 2023, Mikami had teased a return to the gaming industry following the end of non-compete clauses with Tango Gameworks, Betheda, Zenimax, and Microsoft. With those clauses now ended and Kamuy launched, it will be interesting to see what Mikami does with this new chapter of game development. As we wait to see what Kamuy comes up with, stay tuned for reveals and announcements here at Shacknews.