Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami departed Bethesda’s Tango Gameworks in 2023, but little was known about his next chapter back at the time. Now, we finally have answers via his new studio’s official website.
Unbound is its name, and while details at the time of writing are scarce, there’s a ‘careers’ page which teases what the team is after. “We are a newly established, fully independent company, developing high-end consumer games, creating original AAA titles,” the official description of the studio reads. The company was established on 30th November, 2022, with the “start of business” happening in May 2023, which would line up with Mikami’s departure from Tango earlier that year.
Mikami is listed as the representative director, and while the team currently has “around 50 employees” (via VGC), there are plans to expand its size to about 150 developers at some point in the future. The job listings page adds more details to the initial reveal and teases the studio is looking to develop “challenging smaller titles” alongside triple-A projects for PS5, Xbox, and PC. “We passionately create games that will amaze the world in an office where someone is always discussing ideas,” the ‘corporate philosophy’ section adds.
Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush producer Masato Kimura (who also worked with Mikami on Devil May Cry and Resident Evil) is involved in the venture. “We’re aiming for AAA quality and AA content, which is why we’re creating a title that offers a rich gaming experience and allows you to be completely immersed in its world,” he revealed during an interview posted a while back.
Though the Hi-Fi Rush franchise lives (for now) at Krafton, even Mikami was shocked when Tango Gameworks was shut down by Microsoft back in 2024, only to be swiftly picked up alongside the IP later that year. “I had thought the studio would be safe as long as they continued to make Hi-Fi Rush games,” said Mikami. “That’s one of the reasons I left.”