27 Facts About Shinji Mikami

Shinji Mikami is a Japanese video game designer, director, and producer.

Shinji Mikami directed the first installment of the Resident Evil series in 1996 and the first installment of the Dino Crisis series in 1999, both survival horror games.

Shinji Mikami returned to Resident Evil to direct the remake of the first game in 2002 and the survival horror third-person shooter Resident Evil 4 in 2005.

Shinji Mikami has served the roles of producer and executive producer for many games.

Shinji Mikami grew up in the Yamaguchi Prefecture of Honshu island.

Shinji Mikami's application was rejected at the screening process, then approved one week later.

Shinji Mikami joined Capcom in 1990 as a junior game designer, Mikami and fellow new hires were sent to a warehouse and ordered to "think hard about game design", then left unsupervised for the entire day.

Shinji Mikami worked on Super Lap, an unreleased F1 racing game for the Game Boy that was scheduled to be released in 1992, but was canceled after eight months of development.

Shinji Mikami learned by observing his seniors; whenever he showed them his game design documents, they called his work "uninteresting" without giving any advice.

Shinji Mikami found this environment comfortable, since it engendered independence and freedom of thought.

Shinji Mikami had creative control over the screenplay and script of the first movie being dubbed a creative consultant.

Shinji Mikami then dropped out of the later movies because he believed that the movies were heading in the wrong direction.

The staff behind Resident Evil became Capcom Production Studio 4, with Shinji Mikami appointed as its general manager, changing his focus towards being a producer.

Shinji Mikami considers the eight years spent in this position as the nadir of his career: he could not spend all his time on creative aspects and felt that he missed out on the best phase of his life.

In 2001, in what was to be one of his most controversial business decisions, Shinji Mikami formed an exclusivity agreement with Nintendo in which the main Resident Evil games would be sold only for the GameCube.

Shinji Mikami eventually took over directorial duties for Resident Evil 4 from previous director, Hiroshi Shibata.

At Clover, Shinji Mikami directed God Hand, a beat 'em up comedy game that parodies American and Japanese pop culture.

Shinji Mikami formed a private development studio called Straight Story in 2006.

Shinji Mikami collaborated with Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda on Shadows of the Damned using the Unreal Engine 3 and published by EA.

Shinji Mikami revealed that Straight Story would close once development of Vanquish was completed, to be replaced with Shinji Mikami's new studio, Tango, which had already been established.

Shinji Mikami considers his final year at the company as the second worst nadir of his career: Once Vanquish was done, his team was disbanded, and he was not given any work besides attending meetings three times a week, effectively stuck in a madogiwa zoku position.

On October 28,2010, ZeniMax Media, parent company of noted game publisher Bethesda Softworks, announced Shinji Mikami joined ZeniMax after it acquired Tango Gameworks.

An April 2012 Famitsu interview with Shinji Mikami revealed the codename title of Zwei for the company's survival horror game The Evil Within, with Shinji Mikami directing.

Shinji Mikami stated that this will be the last game he directs.

Shinji Mikami stated that it will be a "true" survival horror game, "one in which the player confronts and overcomes fear", because he was disappointed by recent survival horror games becoming action horror games.

On February 23,2023, Bethesda Softworks announced that Shinji Mikami will leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months.

Shinji Mikami commented he planned to leave Tango Gameworks 8 years prior, deciding to stay at the company due to commitments with ongoing projects.