Last week, the video game industry was shaken by the closure of Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Games, Tango Gameworks and Roundhouse Games by Xbox. Many rumors have since circulated, such as the one which explains that Shinji Mikami, the founder of the Japanese studio, would have taken almost all of Tango Gameworks’ staff with him after his departure in 2023.
No, Shinji Mikami would not have taken Tango Gameworks staff with him
Rather than leaving doubt, a former employee of Tango Gameworks wanted to clarify the situation. Yun M. Watanabe, having worked as cinematic director on The Evil Within and its expansions from 2011 to 2015, clearly stated that the rumor is “completely false”.
Granted, he hasn’t worked at the studio for several years now, but he’s obviously in a much better position to know the situation than Twitter users who rely on an unsourced screenshot from Reddit.
After leaving Tango Gameworks at the beginning of 2023, Shinji Mikami, particularly known for being the creator of Resident Evil and The Evil Within, teased his return to the industry in October. Finally, it was not until March 2024 that we learned that he had founded a new studio, KAMUY Inc.
He now wants to free himself from Survival Horror and offer an environment that would allow young game creators to have the opportunity to gain experience more often. In other words, he wants to propose new projects with shorter development cycles than what we can experience in the industry today.
Regarding the closure of Tango Gameworks, a company he founded, he shared 3 words on Twitter to express his sadness.
