Platinum Gamesâ?? Nishikawa joins new Mikami studio

Platinum Games is set to lose one of its three founders to a new studio headed up by Shinji Mikami.

Shigenori Nishikawa will depart from the Osaka-based studio that built Bayonetta and MadWorld, and will likely relocate 250 miles east as he gets set to work at Tokyo-based outfit Tango.

Tango is headed up by fabled Japanese game designer Shinji Mikami, who wants his new studio to grow aggressively and plans to see its workforce reach 100 people within seven years.

Nishikawa has previously worked with Mikami, on projects as high-profile as Resident Evil 4.

The arrival of Tango, and Nishikawa’s move to it, suggests that Mikami is ready to return to projects with the kind of scale that had previously made him prominent.

Tango has already tapped Grasshopper Manufacture sound director Masashi Takada and Okami art director Naoki Katakai.