Shinji Mikami to develop games for Bethesda, as Zenimax acquires Tango

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Oct 28th 2010 8:21AM

Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami isn't cooling his jets after completing work on the chaotic sci-fi shooter, Vanquish. Zenimax Media has acquired his Tango Gameworks studio in Tokyo and repositioned it as a division of Zenimax Asia. As creative lead at Tango, Shinji Mikami will oversee development of games for the Bethesda Softworks label.

"It's refreshing to find a publisher who understands, trusts, and supports the development of blockbuster games and works to make it a collaborative effort," Mikami said of the announcement. "The library of AAA franchise titles ZeniMax owns speaks for itself. We are very excited to be joining ZeniMax and working with a company that is dedicated to creating the best games ever made."

Shinji Mikami's games also speak for themselves, usually in gruff and scary voices. In a profile posted on the Tango website, Mikami described his goal as "making games from the viewpoint of the creator," and producing something that would "unify everyone's love of games around the world." With famous Japanese creators like Tomonobu Itagaki, Suda 51 -- and now Shinji Mikami -- forging deals with the likes of THQ, EA and Zenimax, it seems that a strong Western partner is becoming crucial in achieving that.

[Image: Tango Gameworks]

Source: Bethesda
More coverage: MadWorld director joins Tango

Tags: bethesda-softworks, microsoft, pc, playstation, ps3, shinji-mikami, tango, tango-gameworks, xbox, zenimax, zenimax-asia, zenimax-media

Reader Comments (41)

Is it just me or does it feel like a sunday on joystiq today? :-(
Where's the news :-(

@den69 It's still early!

@den69
Wait so the publisher of the pinnacle of western RPG design acquires the golden child of Japanese game design and you say meh?

This is like matter and anti-matter meeting and deciding to have a baby. Either that baby will change the world or destroy it.

Well my day started about 8 hours ago and there's been about 2-3 stories in this time :-(
And I read this hours ago on other sites so yeah not really news to me.

@den69

There really isn't much news right now. We know when games are coming out, we know all we're going to know about them and unless someone decides to drop a bombshell there really isn't all that much to talk about.

@Cap Morgan

Bioware would like to have a word with you.

Zenimax doing some big moves! Be interesting to see where they are 2 years from now and what their catalog looks like.

@Drew327

Imagine they make a console haha

@den69 Zenimax doesnt have the franchises to pull off a console that could compete with the other three consoles exclusives

@Faenix

I don't think he was being serious...

@Drew327
Imagine they make a presidential run haha

Anyone else notice the amount of good press Zenimax and Bethesda seem to be getting recently?

@Danjcb

Bethesda makes good games so its only right they get good press.

@This Little Man Says His Name Is
And thank god they have access to a better engine now.

@This Little Man Says His Name Is
Never said it was bad, I agree with you. I just seem to have noticed a lot of press surrounding them recently.

Well, There goes my hopes for a sequel to Vanquish.

@AltairArcanum

Isnt that franchise owned by platinum / Sega?

@Faenix Yeah. Sega owns the IP.

@AltairArcanum There's still plenty of talent on Platinium Games to make great games (including a Vanquish sequel), i'm talking about guys like Kamiya, Inama, Hashimoto and Nishikawa. The list of games where this guys have been involved is huge (Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, God Hand, Viewtiful Joe, Street Fighter IV, White Knight Chronicles, Dino Crisis, MadWorld, Okami, Bayonetta...)

So i'm pretty sure we'll see another great release coming from Platinium Games in the future.

I don't understand the gaming industry...Shinji Mikami and his crew have proven time and time again that they're brilliant yet they can't seem to find a steady publisher.

It's pretty easy to make money with Mikami:

1) Give this man a ton of money
2) Let him make his crazy ass game and throw some serious marketing behind it.
3) ???
4) PROFIT!

Plz can I haz nuw elda scrollz now?!? For the love of god please..

so lemme get this straight...Vanquished...meets Fallout...meets Doom ..*.GEEKGASM*

Only 15 comments. Zenimax is seriously a company everyone should be watching.

They are making some really smart moves.

@Phawx

Agreed. These guys and (surprisingly) THQ have been making some really good moves lately.

@NaeemTHM

It's because they are not feeling the heat of having acquired turd studios for way too much money like Activision and EA have in the past. It's like AMC theaters vs Regal. Regal goes out and buys up every vacant space around, and thus has more theaters... but not all of them are profitable. AMC on the other hand builds all their stuff so that it is up to their standards and makes careful decisions before purchasing a location. Zenimax and THQ sat back and waited and now that EA and Activision are being forced to downsize they can sit back and pick and choose what they want to do. They both also completely reworked their business models in the past few years.

So Shinji will have full access to the Rage engine, Personally I cannot wait to see what he does with it. If Vanquished is any indication of Shinji ability to combine western style games with a Japaneses twist, I am all in on whatever he come up with.

Let's just hope they don't end up using the Gamebryo engine.

Could we see a game on the scope of a Fallout or Elder Scrolls but with a crazy Shinji twist? Lets hope so.

@oJMan240o
I hope not. The only thing zenimax needs to do is give him money to make great games and provide ample marketing. Anything else would just dilute the concentrated awesome that Mikami produces.

This is "interesting" news, not necessarily "good." While I think that Bethesda could probably do with an infusion of fresh blood, I fear that it may start to go down the route of the J-Game. I don't want to see any flashing "COMBO" signs above the heads of my enemies when I hit them twice in a row, and I certainly don't want any insanely complicated and convoluted storyline with obscure philosophical claptrap thrown in to give it the illusion of depth. Let's hope that this is all to keep the developer on its toes, and doesn't herald some signalling of the company trying to push into the Asian markets, which would be a sad sign for the strategy of the company overall.

@ScottishViking

>.> Or... Bethesda could just continue to do their own thing and provide guidance to Mikami, who is looking to add some western flavor to his traditionally Japanese games. Just because they brought in a Japanese developer doesn't mean they will start putting out Japanese games across the board. Shinji's studio will continue to make the games it normally makes, which sell great in Asia but poor in the other markets, and Bethesda will continue to make games that sell great everywhere except for Asia. They're balancing their investments and expanding their prospective market for games.

Vanquish + Fallout = automatic win

Is that a doobie in his hand?

So, the next game he does is gonna be full of bugs and slowdowns, huh?

Zenimax has always sounded evil to me, but they do put out pretty decent games that don't seem to have to compromise to make a deadline or anything.

I remember the days when THQ was pretty much like Acclaim, putting out awful ports and licensed games. Good to see them making real games, too.

I think the reason nobody has been saying too much about ZeniMax is because they, deliberately, sit in the background and avoid bringing attention to themselvse directly.

They own a number of studios that already have a well established brand--id and Bethesda, for example--and rather than trying to interfere with that they monetize it, as opposed to publishers like EA who buy studios and give them generic names like "EA LA", which if I remember correctly was Westwood Studios. In doing so EA destroyed everything that brand had.

So does that mean that he is no longer with Platinum games?

@chrono From what I understand he will still be working as an external board member with them.

Grant from Mythbusters?

I likes. My case of the hots for Zenimax just grew a few inches.

@Grimcicle Don't forget they also bought Arkane Studios (worked on Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah, BioShock 2). Now hopefully we can see that game "The Crossing" put back into production. Anyone else remember that game being announced?

Shinji Mikami to develop games for Bethesda, as Zenimax acquires Tango

Reader Comments (41)

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 8:34AM den69 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 8:42AM Drew327 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 8:55AM Cap Morgan said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:05AM den69 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 10:09AM oJMan240o said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 10:51AM TheyDidItFirst said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 8:41AM Drew327 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:06AM den69 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:36AM Faenix said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 11:01AM TheyDidItFirst said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 4:19PM Crayola Q Pants ESQ said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 8:47AM Danjcb said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:47AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 4:19PM Crayola Q Pants ESQ said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 6:34PM Danjcb said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 8:55AM AltairArcanum said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:37AM Faenix said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 11:44AM AltairArcanum said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 12:30PM jmr1986 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:07AM NaeemTHM said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:10AM oggsy92 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:24AM Hitman190 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:49AM Phawx said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 10:09AM NaeemTHM said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 10:17AM oJMan240o said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:53AM Machiavellian79 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:59AM Mayor West said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 10:11AM oJMan240o said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 9:39PM mmxzer0 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 10:20AM ScottishViking said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 1:27PM oJMan240o said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 11:30AM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 11:41AM MeatyCarling said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 12:17PM rowd149 said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 12:37PM garnsr said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 12:50PM noyesa said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 12:55PM chrono said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 6:47PM Arooguy said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 5:13PM DarknessBear said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 5:41PM Nook said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 6:45PM Arooguy said

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