Shinji Mikami facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shinji Mikami
三上 真司
Mikami in 2013
Born	(1965-08-11) August 11, 1965 (age 59) Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, Japan
Alma mater	Doshisha University
Occupation	Video game designer director producer
Years active	1990–present
Employer	Capcom (1990–2006) Clover Studio (2004–2006) PlatinumGames (2006–2010) Tango Gameworks (2010–2023) KAMUY (2024–present)
Notable work	Resident Evil Dino Crisis God Hand Vanquish The Evil Within Ghostwire: Tokyo Hi-Fi Rush

Shinji Mikami (三上 真司, Mikami Shinji, born August 11, 1965) is a famous Japanese video game designer, director, and producer. He started his career at Capcom in 1990. There, he worked on many very popular games.

He directed the first Resident Evil game in 1996. This game was a big hit and helped create the "survival horror" game style. He also directed the first Dino Crisis game in 1999. Later, he returned to Resident Evil to direct a new version of the first game in 2002. He also directed the action-packed Resident Evil 4 in 2005.

In 2006, he directed his last Capcom game, God Hand. After leaving Capcom, Mikami started his own game studios. He founded PlatinumGames in 2006 and directed Vanquish in 2010. That same year, he started a new studio called Tango Gameworks. There, he directed the scary game The Evil Within in 2014. He has also been a producer for many other games. In 2023, he left Tango Gameworks and started a new studio called KAMUY in 2024.

In 2009, IGN, a big video game website, named him one of the top 100 game creators ever.

Early Life and Education

Shinji Mikami grew up in the Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan. As a child, he spent a lot of time playing outside. He once said that kids back then had to be creative to invent games because there weren't many other things to do. His big dream was to become a Formula One race car driver.

When he was a teenager, Mikami became very interested in horror movies. Some of his favorites were The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Evil Dead. He also enjoyed practicing karate and kendo. After trying for two years, Mikami got into and graduated from Doshisha University. He studied how products are made and sold there.

Career Journey

Starting Out in Games (1990–1993)

Even though Mikami often played arcade video games, he joined the game industry by chance. He heard about a job fair at Capcom and went mainly for the free food! But once he talked to the people at Capcom, he found their work sounded really cool. He applied to both Capcom and Nintendo. He chose Capcom because their second interviews were on the same day, and he felt he had a better chance there.

He joined Capcom in 1990 as a junior game designer. At first, he and other new hires were told to just "think hard about game design" in a warehouse. After a few months, he was suddenly put on a team and given a leadership role. This was surprising because he didn't know much about making games yet.

His first game was a quiz game for the Game Boy called Capcom Quiz: Hatena? no Daibōken. He made it in just three months. His next three games were based on Disney movies. These included Who Framed Roger Rabbit for Game Boy, and Aladdin and Goof Troop for the Super NES. Aladdin was his first big success, selling over 1.75 million copies around the world.

Mikami learned a lot by watching older, more experienced designers. When he showed them his game ideas, they would say his work was "uninteresting" but wouldn't give much advice. He found this helpful because it made him think for himself. He learned the art of game making from Tokuro Fujiwara, another important game creator.

Resident Evil and Its Impact (1993–1996)

After making Goof Troop, Mikami started working on a new game in 1993. It was a horror-themed adventure game for the PlayStation. The game was set in a haunted mansion and was called Resident Evil. It was originally planned as a new version of an older Capcom game called Sweet Home.

The director of Sweet Home, Fujiwara, trusted Mikami with the project. Mikami was not keen on it at first because he didn't like "being scared." But Fujiwara believed Mikami "understood what's frightening." Mikami wanted to make a game that fixed the problems he saw in some horror movies.

The game became Biohazard in Japan and Resident Evil in other countries. It mixed 3D characters with pre-rendered backgrounds. It featured zombies and other monsters inspired by George A. Romero's Dead films. Resident Evil was released in 1996 and quickly became one of the PlayStation's first big successes. Capcom even created the term "survival horror" to describe and promote the game.

Resident Evil is seen as the game that defined the survival horror style. It made the genre popular. Its way of controlling characters became common in many games. It also made players think about how to save their limited items and resources. The game's success helped the PlayStation become a leading game console. It also led to a series of Resident Evil movies. Mikami helped with the first movie's script to make sure fans of the games would be happy. He later stepped away from the movies because he felt they were going in a different direction.

Capcom Production Studio 4 (1997–2002)

After Resident Evil became a hit, Capcom changed how its development teams were organized. The team behind Resident Evil became Capcom Production Studio 4. Mikami was put in charge as the general manager. This meant he focused more on being a producer, guiding many projects. He felt this time was difficult because he couldn't spend all his time on creative ideas.

In his new role, he oversaw the creation of Resident Evil's sequel, Resident Evil 2. He wanted this game to make everyday places feel strange and scary, like a city taken over by a virus. Resident Evil 2 sold over five million copies, showing how much people loved survival horror games. After its release in 1998, he also oversaw Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and directed another survival horror game, Dino Crisis. Both came out in 1999.

Around 2000, Studio 4 started making new game ideas. Mikami was an executive producer for games like Devil May Cry (which was first planned as a Resident Evil game). In 2000, Mikami also produced Resident Evil – Code: Veronica. This game was made for the Dreamcast console, which was more powerful than the PlayStation. This allowed the team to use full 3D environments for the first time, instead of pre-rendered backgrounds. Resident Evil Code: Veronica sold 1.14 million copies. That same year, Mikami's Dino Crisis 2 was released and sold 1.19 million copies.

In 2001, an improved version of Code: Veronica came out for the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2. This version, called Resident Evil - Code: Veronica X, added new scenes. The PS2 version sold 1.4 million copies. In 2001, Mikami made a big decision: the main Resident Evil games would only be sold for the GameCube console. The GameCube would get new versions of old games, plus three new games: a remake of the first Resident Evil, Resident Evil Zero, and Resident Evil 4. Both Resident Evil (remake) and Resident Evil Zero were released in 2002.

The remake of Resident Evil came out in Japan on the sixth birthday of the original game, March 22, 2002. It was meant to be the best version of the game. It sold 490,000 copies in the US and 360,000 in Europe. In total, the remake sold 1.24 million copies in its first year. Resident Evil Zero was released on November 12, 2002. Capcom hoped it would sell 1.42 million copies, but it sold 1.12 million.

Capcom Five and Resident Evil 4 (2002–2004)

Even though Resident Evil Zero didn't sell as well as hoped, Mikami still supported Nintendo. He announced four more exclusive games for the GameCube from Production Studio 4, in addition to Resident Evil 4. These games were P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, killer7, and Dead Phoenix. This group of games became known as the Capcom Five.

The first of these games to be released was P.N. 03, which Mikami directed. This game did not do well. It got mixed reviews and sold less than expected. Because of this, Mikami stepped down as the manager of Production Studio 4. He stayed on as one of the main producers for the team. After P.N.03, Mikami decided to focus more on the creative parts of the Capcom Five games. He eventually took over as director for Resident Evil 4.

Under his direction, Resident Evil 4 changed a lot. It was released in 2005 and became one of the GameCube's best-selling games. It sold 1.25 million copies worldwide in its first year. The game was highly praised by critics and won many "game of the year" awards.

Resident Evil 4 is often called one of the greatest and most important games ever made. This is because it changed how at least two video game genres worked: survival horror and third-person shooter. Resident Evil 4 made survival horror more about quick actions and precise aiming. It also helped define the third-person shooter genre by using an "over the shoulder" camera view. This camera view is now very common in third-person shooters, like Gears of War and Batman: Arkham Asylum. It also became a standard feature for aiming in many action games, from Dead Space to Grand Theft Auto and God of War.

Mikami had said that Resident Evil 4 would only be on the GameCube. In a 2017 interview, he apologized for the game later coming out on other platforms.

Clover Studio and God Hand (2004–2007)

After Resident Evil 4 was a success, Mikami left Studio 4. He helped create Clover Studio in July 2004. This new studio had many talented Capcom developers, including Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya. At Clover, Mikami directed God Hand. This was a beat 'em up comedy game that made fun of American and Japanese pop culture. It came out in Japan in September 2006 and in North America in October 2006.

Clover Studio closed in 2007. After that, Mikami joined Seeds Inc., which is now known as PlatinumGames. This new company was formed by many of Mikami's old colleagues from Capcom.

PlatinumGames and Vanquish (2007–2010)

In 2006, Mikami started his own small development studio called Straight Story. This studio worked under the PlatinumGames name, and Mikami was a contract employee there. He also worked with Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda on a game called Shadows of the Damned. Mikami said that Straight Story would close after Vanquish was finished. He planned to replace it with his new studio, Tango, which he had already started.

Like Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4 before it, the third-person shooter game Vanquish, released in 2010, became an important game for action games. It greatly improved the cover system. In Vanquish, the places you hide can be easily destroyed, sometimes with just one shot. The game also makes you lose points if you hide too much. But its most important new idea was the "power-slide" move. This allowed players to slide into and out of cover very quickly, or even in bullet time when their health was low.

Vanquish won an award for its rocket-sliding game mechanic. This move was both a way to escape and a way to attack, opening up new ways to play shooter games and making the action much faster. Vanquish itself was inspired by a 1970s Japanese cartoon series called Casshern.

PlatinumGames was very busy, so Mikami sent the entire Vanquish team to work on Bayonetta. He felt his last year at the company was very difficult. After Vanquish was done, his team was broken up, and he wasn't given any work besides attending meetings.

Tango Gameworks and The Evil Within (2010–2023)

On March 18, 2010, a mysterious website called "Mikami Project" opened with a countdown. The website later changed into a job page for Mikami's new studio, "Tango." On October 28, 2010, ZeniMax Media, the company that owns game publisher Bethesda Softworks, announced that Mikami had joined them after they bought Tango Gameworks.

In April 2012, an interview with Mikami in Famitsu magazine revealed the code name Zwei for the company's new survival horror game, which Mikami was directing. This game was later named The Evil Within. It was released in October 2014. Bethesda published the game for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Mikami said that this would be the last game he would direct. He wanted it to be a "true" survival horror game, where players face and overcome their fears. He felt that recent survival horror games had become too much like action games.

In 2019, it was announced at E3 that his studio was working on a new project called Ghostwire: Tokyo. On February 23, 2023, Bethesda Softworks announced that Mikami would be leaving Tango Gameworks in the coming months. Mikami said he had planned to leave Tango Gameworks eight years earlier but stayed due to ongoing projects. He wanted to leave to help young developers get experience and to move away from the survival horror genre, which he is often linked to.

Works

See also

In Spanish: Shinji Mikami para niños