Shinji Mikami, one of the creators of Resident Evil, has recently stated that he wishes to direct one final game before his retirement.
Sitting down with Variety this week the video game designer reflected on his 30-year history in the industry and hinted at his plans for the future, telling Variety that he has “no shortage of ideas, and they definitely aren’t limited to horror”.
Mikami is currently working as executive producer on Ghostwire: Tokyo with his company Tango Gameworks, who was acquired by Bethesda’s parent company Zenimax Media in 2010. Zenimax then went on to be acquired by Microsoft making both Bethesda and Tango Gameworks Microsoft studios.
Whether this will affect the exclusivity of Mikami’s future projects is yet to be confirmed. However, head of Xbox Phil Spencer did confirm in September 2020 that Microsoft plan to honour the timed exclusivity of Ghostwire: Tokyo on the PS5. He also confirmed that the company will be releasing future Bethesda-published games on Xbox and PC, with other consoles (read: Sony's and Nintendo's) will differ case by case.
As to what kind of project Mikami is looking for, he continues by saying that “my thinking is that if I had a chance to make a game from the beginning to end that’s completely my vision, then definitely, that would be my big last project as a director”.
Mikami has previously directed Resident Evil (1996/2002), Resident Evil 4 (2005) where he also served as a writer, and The Evil Within (2014). When asked how he felt about Capcom greenlighting a Resident Evil 4 remake, Mikami acknowledged that “they have a good formula of taking the IP and using it in a routine way to create revenue.”
The director then finishes the interview stating that if he didn’t couldn’t work in games anymore, he’d happily take a part-time job in a convenience store.
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