Shinji Mikami

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Shinji Mikami in Tokyo (2013)

Shinji Mikami ( Japanese 三 上 真 司 Mikami Shinji ; born August 11, 1965 in Iwakuni ) is a Japanese game developer and the inventor of the popular Resident Evil series. He is currently employed by the development studio Tango Gameworks . He has also produced some of the most popular Capcom titles such as Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry .

Career

After graduating from Dōshisha University , Mikami joined Capcom as a planner in 1990. His first title there was a quiz game for the Game Boy entitled “Capcom Quiz: Hatena? no Daiboken ”, which had a development time of over three months. Many games based on Disney trademarks followed : " Wrong Game with Roger Rabbit " (1991, Game Boy), "Aladdin" (1993, SNES) and "Goof Troop" (1994, SNES).

After Goof Troop was released , Mikami began developing a horror themed game for the PlayStation that is set in a haunted house. The idea was loosely based on Sweet Home (a game for the Famicom console ( Nintendo Entertainment System )). The result was the game Biohazard , an action adventure game that combined polygon-based three-dimensional figures and objects with pre-rendered backgrounds. Among other monsters, the game featured zombies that were heavily based on George A. Romero's Dead movie series. The title of the game was changed to Resident Evil based on a proposal from Capcom USA for the western market . On March 22, 1996 the game was released in Japan and North America and became one of the first successful titles for the PlayStation. While it wasn't the first game of its kind, Resident Evil popularized the survival horror genre and inspired other similar games.

After the success of Resident Evil , Mikami was promoted to producer and from then on was more involved in the business side of the company. As a producer, he oversaw the development of the Resident Evil sequels ( Resident Evil 2 , Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil: Code Veronica ) and another title in the same genre: Dino Crisis (1999).

Mikami was promoted to manager of Capcom Production Studio 4 in 1999 and worked as executive producer on various games, including the original "Devil May Cry" (which was originally intended to be part of the "Resident Evil" series). In 2001 he made what was probably the most controversial decision: Mikami reached an agreement with Nintendo that the Resident Evil games would only be available for the Nintendo GameCube. In addition to ports from previous PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast games, three new titles were released in the series: a remake of the original Resident Evil , Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil 4 . Spinoffs like Gun Survivor and Outbreak were not part of the agreement. Resident Evil and Resident Evil Zero were both released in 2002. Although both games were well received by critics, sales did not live up to Capcom's expectations, which is why they were considered commercial failures.

Still, Mikami stuck to his stance on Nintendo and announced the development of four more titles exclusively for the GameCube, in addition to the games Resident Evil 4 , PN 03 , Viewtiful Joe , killer7 and Dead Phoenix . This lineup became known as "Capcom 5".

The first of these games was PN 03 . The game had no success with either critics or buyers. Because of this, Mikami resigned his managerial position, but remained on the team as one of the leading producers. Mikami decided to focus on the creative aspects of the team from now on, took over Hiroshi Shibata's duties on the work on Resident Evil 4 and gave the project a new direction.

Capcom attributed the failure of the Resident Evil remake and Resident Evil Zero to the contract with Nintendo and decided to release the remaining Capcom 5 titles for the PlayStation 2 (including the later canceled project Dead Phoenix ). Allegedly, this decision was made against Mikami's will.

Resident Evil 4 was released in 2005 and was one of the best-selling games for the GameCube. Over 1.2 million copies have been sold worldwide. After the success of Resident Evil 4 , Mikami left "Studio 4" and switched to "Clover Studio". After Capcom announced the closure of Clover, Mikami opened a new independent studio called Seeds - the studio now known as Platinum Games - with Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya in February 2007 . His first game for Platinum Games distributed by Sega was called Vanquish and was released on October 22, 2010 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 . Mikami was not involved in the production of Resident Evil 5 . In 2010, ZeniMax bought the Tango Gameworks studio from Shinji Mikami. There he continues to work as President and Creative Director and on another survival horror game called The Evil Within , which previously had the working title Two .

Works

Web links

Commons : Shinji Mikami  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Acclaimed game developer Shinji Mikami joins ZeniMax Media. October 28, 2010 on ots.at
  2. ↑ Two: Survival Horror by Shinji Mikami April 27, 2012 on gamingcore.de
personal data
SURNAME Mikami, Shinji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 三 上 真 司 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese game developer, inventor of the popular Resident Evil series
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Iwakuni , Yamaguchi, Japan