Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami announces surprise departure from Xbox-owned Tango Gameworks

Shinji Mikami is leaving the studio that he founded in early 2010.
Screenshot by Gamepur

Xbox Game Studios has just lost a significant name. Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami has announced that he is leaving Tango Gameworks, the studio he founded after leaving Capcom, after working there for twelve years. Mikami’s absence will be a massive blow to Xbox Game Studios, the current owner of Tango Gameworks, as he is the creative mind behind games like Dino Crisis, The Evil Within, and Vanquish.

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Bethesda senior vice president of development Todd Vaughn announced Mikami’s departure via a letter sent to the ZeniMax staff, which was acquired and verified by TrueAchievements. According to Vaughn, Mikami will be leaving Tango Gameworks in the next few months, though no reason was given for his exit. Mikami has yet to make an official statement on any of his social media accounts.

Mikami founded Tango Gameworks in 2010, and ZeniMax Media bought it in the same year. Over the next few years, the company worked closely with Bethesda Softworks to release The Evil Within, The Evil Within 2, and Ghostwire: Tokyo. When Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media in 2021, Tango Gameworks fell under Xbox Game Studios, and fans had assumed that Mikami would be working with the Xbox brand for years to come.

What’s surprising about Mikami leaving Tango Gameworks is that the studio just released the highly-acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush, which was shadow-dropped onto Game Pass during Microsoft’s last Xbox Developer Direct. It’s unclear whether Mikami’s departure is linked to the launch of Hi-Fi Rush or whether he had always intended it to be his final game with the studio before leaving.

It’s unclear what Mikami plans to do next, but he may retire from the industry, as he has been working on video games since 1990. Whatever the reason for his leaving Xbox Game Studios, we want to thank Mikami for all of his hard work and the fantastic games he created over the year, and we wish him well in the future.


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Scott Baird
Scott has been writing for Gamepur since 2023, having been a former contributor to websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, Screen Rant, The Gamer, and TopTenz. A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started as a film student before moving into journalism. Scott covers Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, Pokémon, and MTG. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.