Resident Evil legend Shinji Mikami’s new studio, Unbound Inc., has been acquired by the company Shift Up. stellar blade And Goddess of Victory: Nikkeh. Unbound’s unannounced game will be fully backed and distributed by South Korean publisher Shift Up, led by CEO Hyung-Tae Kim.
Mikami is an icon of Japanese horror as the director of resident EvilIts 2002 remake and resident Evil 4Also founder of PlatinumGames and Tango Gameworks. Tango was responsible for The Evil Within series, Ghostwire Tokyo And hi-fi rush. Shift Up recently developed the hit action game stellar bladeWith Kim as director.
Even with an adorable quirky introduction video, it’s unclear what Unbound is working on at the moment, but the studio is targeting the global PC and console market. Its concepts include a lot of monsters, as is the tradition.
Consider the surface-level possibilities here, too: Resident Evil’s visceral terror mixed with dramatic beauty. Stellar Blade. frenzy of hi-fi rush excited by the anime styling of Goddess of Victory: Nikkeh. The Evil Within IIIBut make it sexy. These are jokes, but the sentiment remains – this partnership makes a lot of sense and it will be exciting to see what happens.
“We believe we can respect each other as creators and create games together,” Mikami said in a Shift Up blog post about the deal. “And I think with Hyung-tae, we can even enjoy the hard parts… Seeing my own vision and ideals come into focus like this, and finding someone whose direction aligns so closely, is something I’ve rarely experienced before in my career. I hope we keep creating together for a long time.”
It’s also nice to see stability for Mikami’s new studio. His previous team, Tango Gameworks, was acquired by Microsoft in 2021, and Mikami left after the release in 2023 hi-fi rush. Microsoft shut down Tango in 2024 during massive game industry layoffs, and its remaining team was eventually sold to Krafton. Mikami has been quietly building his studio since 2022.
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