Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami has gone from reinventing survival horror several times, to pumping out classics for both Capcom and Platinum Games before starting his own studio Tango Gameworks.
Now acquired by Bethesda, Tango is currently working on the much anticipated The Evil Within which hopes to bring the survival horror genre back to its roots.
In speaking with GamesIndustry International, Mikami pointed out that games like The Evil Within work so well under a U.S. publisher because of Western publishers take more risk financially and work harder.
"Games have become big projects, requiring a lot of resources both to create and market," said Mikami. "Games have become more risky. Japanese companies don't take those kinds of risk like Western developers do. In the past, what the Capcom president [Kenzo Tsuijimoto] told me was that game development is becoming more and more expensive and many Japanese publishers won't be investing $30 million or more in a game."
Though Mikami is satisfied with a Western publisher, he believes "there are still a lot of good" Japanese companies.
Mikami also praised gaming engines made in the U.S. The Evil Within uses id Software's Tech 5 engine that powered Rage and the upcoming Wolfenstein: The New Order.
"As for the organizational structure of companies, I think it would be good if companies would be more flexible about incorporating foreign technologies," Mikami said."
According to the article, Mikami says that he disagrees with where survival horror has gone after working on games outside the genre leading him to create The Evil Within.
"The fear and the triumph of overcoming fears is the same," Mikami said. "The different thing is that the Resident Evil series has its fears (zombies, etc.) grounded in science - viruses and stuff - whereas in The Evil Within, the background of those fears are more cerebral, more psychological, like the evil within the human soul. That's the big difference in concept."
The Evil Within is set to for release on PC, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in 2014.
