Shinji Mikami set to leave Tango Gameworks

Founder and CEO of studio behind Hi-Fi Rush, The Evil Within

Marco Wutz | Feb 23, 2023

Shinji Mikami set to leave Tango Gameworks /

Shinji Mikami, who founded Tango Gameworks in 2010, will leave the studio in the ongoing year. This has been communicated to employees through an email sent by Todd Vaughn, the senior vice president of Bethesda, whose parent company ZeniMax Media purchased the company not long after its founding.

According to TrueAchievements, which has seen this email and reported on it, Vaughn wrote: “I am writing today to let you know that studio head Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months. Mikami-san has been a creative leader and supportive mentor to young developers at Tango for 12 years through his work on the Evil Within franchise, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and of course, Hi-Fi Rush.”

Shinji Mikami, founder and CEO of Tango Gameworks. — Shinji Mikami, founder and CEO of Tango Gameworks / Tango Gameworks

Before he left to create his own studio, Shinji Mikami worked at Capcom, where he was seen as instrumental in creating the legendary Resident Evil franchise. He brought this interest and great experience in the survival horror genre over to his new studio, where he went on to create The Evil Within, which quickly got a sequel, and Ghostwire: Tokyo.

Most recently he was the executive producer on Xbox Game Pass surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush, a game that could not be more different from his usual projects.

There is no indication as yet what Shinji Mikami’s next plans might be and when exactly he will leave the company.

Tango Gameworks apparently has no new project coming up at the moment, but will continue working on supporting Ghostwire: Tokyo, which was released in 2022, and Hi-Fi Rush for now.

Published Feb 23, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg