Shinji Mikami to launch new studio

Fabled Japanese game designer Shinji Mikami will form a new studio called Tango, according to reports.

The decorated game designer is said will open a new Tokyo business in a bid to tap into the city’s rich source of young industry talent.

Mikami wants this studio to grow aggressively, and plans to see Tango’s workforce reach 100 people within five to seven years.

He will soon close down his current Osaka-based outfit, Straight Story, which has less than twenty staff.

The move suggests that the Resident Evil maestro is ready to return to projects with the kind of scale that had previously made him prominent.

"One of the reasons I’m building a company is to raise the game makers of the future, people who haven’t gone pro yet," Mikami said in an interview with Famitsu.

"I really want to make Tango a company run from a creator’s perspective, one that expands upon new talent."

Mikami’s influence on the industry can be found in a catalogue of high-profile and critically acclaimed titles. The Resident Evil creator played a part in numerous titles such as God Hand, Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry and Okami.

His departure from Capcom in 2005 took his career on a zigzag, working at Clover Studio before it closed in 2007, before joining Platinum Games in a supervisory role. He works freelance for the industry, consulting on projects such as, and most recently, Vanquish.

Mikami also revealed an interest in 3D gaming – claiming he would like to make “a true-3D horror game, something where you’d use glasses like in the Avatar film."