This year also marks the 10th anniversary of his studio Tango Gameworks, which he started in 2010, as he tells it, to give younger talent a chance to thrive. Now 55, that’s more of where Mikami’s focus lies, as he’s currently helping the team on Tango’s “Ghostwire: Tokyo,” an action-adventure title slated to come out next year.
There, he found out Capcom’s chairman, Kenzo Tsujimoto, wanted to make a public stock offering for the company. Mikami says it was “a crazy big dream” at the time, as the only gaming company that was listed in the first level of the Japanese stock exchange was Nintendo. In retrospect, it was a decision that would set up the decades-long success of the entire “Resident Evil” franchise. But at the time, Mikami faced pushback from his team.
“Resident Evil 2” was a critical and commercial success, also selling over 5 million copies. However, the development wasn’t without its hiccups. About 70% into the process, the team came to Mikami and said they needed to start over. “I do remember receiving a two-page report fully just packed with comments, saying negative things about ‘this is not “Resident Evil,” this is completely not “Resident Evil” and I will not let this happen,'” he says. “But I was very lucky I was strong-hearted. I was able to survive reading all that.”
“I do remember the chairman of Capcom, Tsujimoto Kenzo-san, called me in and asked me, ‘Are we really not going to release on other platforms?'” he says. “And I had to say, ‘Well, if you want to do that, you can do that, but you have to fire me first.'” “Resident Evil 4’s” legacy continues to this day, with Capcom just recently greenlighting a remake. Mikami isn’t involved with the remake, though, and hasn’t heard from the Capcom team about it. “They have a good formula of taking the IP and using it in a routine way to create revenue,” he acknowledges, “and that’s a very good way for increasing business.”
He says they were told not to work on the smaller titles anymore, though, creating a challenge for giving opportunity to younger talent who may not be ready for major titles. But they were able to work on games for the sake of experience — including one with a particularly bizarre concept that never saw the light of day.
“The Evil Within” started as a project called “Noah,” although the game that resulted evolved into something completely different. But if Mikami had the chance to make the original concept of “Noah,” he says, maybe he would.