Shinji Mikami may not have the name recognition of other Japanese game gurus like Shigeru Miyamoto, Tomonobu Itagaki, or Hideo Kojima, but his contributions to the industry have been tremendous.  Not only was he instrumental in bringing Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry to Capcom, he’s also the creator of the Resident Evil series.  More recently, Mikami has been working on Vanquish, a sci-fi shooter set in a fictional, cold-war America, with Platinum Studios.  According to a Famitsu interview, the producer’s next move will be opening a new independent studio.

The interview reveals that after the completion of Vanquish for Platinum and an unnamed action-horror title for Grasshopper Manufacture, on both of which he’s working with his own team of developers, called Straight Story, he’ll disband Straight Story, and start up a new group, Tango Studios. 

Currently, Tango is comprised of 13 employees, though Mikami hopes to see the company "grow to 100 people or so in five to seven years."  To facilitate that, Mikami will relocate his operations from Osaka to Tokyo in hopes of recruiting young talent.

No projects have been mentioned for Tango yet, nor potential publishers, but Mikami believes the future is wide open; "I'd like to make a choice with the rest of the team as we grow our numbers," he said, adding, "I've been speaking with a number of publishers as well, but we haven't signed any contracts yet."  With a pedigree like Mikami's, any publisher would be lucky to have him, and if Vanquish can live up to Capcom's promises of "a sci-fi shooter of epic proportions with a fast, fluid and frenetic combat system, and an engaging and immersive storyline"