Why Did Shinji Mikami Leave?

[CODE_umb87]

^ It would be a good idea, but unfortunately, due to copyright infringement, he can never make another RE game ever again. That is unless he decides to go back with Capcom, which is very unlikely.

[Andyfer_Ruu]

that is true! ^^
But as ive said before, this is the direction shinji wants the series to go, he created re4.

[CODE_umb87]

that is true! ^^
But as ive said before, this is the direction shinji wants the series to go, he created re4.

I agree, its funny how some people here are saying "Yeah, go Mikami!" and "he left because re4 has taken the re series in the wrong direction". Are you all aware that RE4 was his idea? Shinji Mikami=RE4. The ideas of RE4 came from him, the inspiration of RE5 came from his ideas. He never left because of what the series had become. Im sure it was a very hard decision for him to leave the franchise he started in the hands of Capcom.

[Andyfer_Ruu]

Yes, i know if i was him, it would be a hard thing to do.
Just to get it straight, what was the actual reason why he left? Was it because people went behind his back to get RE4 ported to the PS2, or was it something else?

[CODE_umb87]

I think RE4 being ported to the PS2 was the main reason he decided to split. He sounded pretty clear when he stated it would stay exclusive to the Gamecube, but then Capcom went behind his back and did what they did. I would feel bad too if people bought a Gamecube just for RE4 when later Capcom would release it for PS2. I would be mad at Capcom too if they backstabbed me like that. But im sure there were other conflicts between him and Capcom that led up to him ultimately leaving.

[Zombie]

I think RE4 being ported to the PS2 was the main reason he decided to split. He sounded pretty clear when he stated it would stay exclusive to the Gamecube, but then Capcom went behind his back and did what they did. I would feel bad too if people bought a Gamecube just for RE4 when later Capcom would release it for PS2. I would be mad at Capcom too if they backstabbed me like that. But im sure there were other conflicts between him and Capcom that led up to him ultimately leaving.

They did the same with Keiji Inafune and Mega Man X5, the only difference is that Keiji never promised anything and he is still in the company.

I believe the main reason is creative freedom, after the poor sales of God Hand and PN03 I guess the company told Mikami to stick with RE and stop making "fresh" games that sells close to nothing.

[Stars1356]

I think RE4 being ported to the PS2 was the main reason he decided to split. He sounded pretty clear when he stated it would stay exclusive to the Gamecube, but then Capcom went behind his back and did what they did. I would feel bad too if people bought a Gamecube just for RE4 when later Capcom would release it for PS2. I would be mad at Capcom too if they backstabbed me like that. But im sure there were other conflicts between him and Capcom that led up to him ultimately leaving.

I was one of the people that bought a Gamecube for Re 4 but to tell you the truth, I wasn't mad about it 4 coming out for the PS2. Besides there was remake and RE 0 plus a few other games that I liked for it. I also bought RE 2 and 3 for the cube because I wanted to replay them.

[Twist]

I think it was Shinji's idea to make BH4 WITH the ghost-like Zombie's and haunted area's, not some bs about backflipping over giants and wrestling dogs with Predator-mouths and drunk villagers.

[Mr_Zombie]

I think it was Shinji's idea to make BH4 WITH the ghost-like Zombie's and haunted area's, not some bs about backflipping over giants and wrestling dogs with Predator-mouths and drunk villagers.

Well yes, those versions of RE4 were also his ideas, but he (among other people working at RE4) rejected them because they wasn't fun and fresh enough.
And yes, that "bs about backflipping over giants..." was also his idea. Moreover, in one of the interviews about RE4 Mikami stated that after RE4 Leon became his favourite character in the series .

So like it or not, the creator of the series "destroyed" it.

[Umon Daisuke]

Naturally, Mikami wasn't happy with that, so he departed. He had no reason to depart, Capcom gave him his own development studio, but obviously people going behind his back irked him a little bit.

Then he went on to create Clover, created a few (awesome) games, then Capcom dissolved Clover Studios. Then, Seeds was born from Clover but later renamed PLATINUM GAMES, where he now works. There are rumours he's working on multiple projects at the moment (last I heard, something with Goichi Suda + EA?)

Not quite, RE4's PS2 port irked him alright, but that wasn't really the reason for leaving the company. Think of all the core staff that left before him, who were at Capcom well before him. Creative freedom and corporate politics basically.

He also wasn't the one to establish Clover, which was just a fancy name for a Capcom R&D studio. Inaba held the helm at the company, likewise for Platinum (whose president is Tatsuya Minami).

He's working with them on some projects, but he established his own small studio after Clover's demise by the name of Straight Story. Hence his collaborations with Grasshopper and Platinum.

On topic, there is little reason that he won't be able to work on RE again as Capcom would welcome him back. Also, the series has been outsourced before with CV, so anything's possible.

[Carnivol]

People need to mix "oldschool fans" (old fans) and "Oldschool fans" (fans of the old).



Also, one of the "issues" with Resident Evil 4 going PS2 was that the PS2 in general is a much bigger platform than the GC could ever be. And by announcing the PS2 port so close to the release date of the GC version greatly hurt the sales of the GC version.



And back to the "fans" thing. Fans are a horrible group to deal with in general for any owner of an intellectual property. They often don't know what they want and they usually buy anything, 'cause they have no clue what they want, and then they'll complain about it not being what they wanted.


Fictive scenario:
Resident Evil 4 goes the "ghost" routine. There you have a huge problem. So, they get Leon, on demand. Popular main character and all. Then they make him run around shooting some ghost man and a bunch of puppets/dolls (Sounds mysteriously like Devil May Cry). No questions answered whether these things are "real" or just Leon being high on acid. How does this "fit in" better than Leon, many years after the Raccoon City Incident, being sent to Spain to recover the President's Daughter (and *whoopsie daisy* finding himself stuck in another situation with infected people and people with ties to his past Umbrella adventure running around in what certainly is a small world.)

[Skunky]

And by announcing the PS2 port so close to the release date of the GC version greatly hurt the sales of the GC version.

The announcement of the PS2 port wasn't that soon after the GC version was it? I had played through the game a few times before I heard it was coming to PS2. I guess it wasn't a long time after, though...

I certainly wasn't angry about the port. The extra bonuses, including the full length Separate Ways, just made me excited. Without it, RE4 is really incomplete.
I only bought a Cube for RE games but it still has REmake and Zero as exclusives, the best console version of RE3 and okay ports of RE2 and RE-CV. Once they realized the GC was doomed, they really should have ported REmake and Zero too.

[Mr_Zombie]

No, the announcement of PS2 version was made even before the NGC version came out. As IGN article states, it was made on October 31, 2004, and GameCube version of RE4 (US) was released on January 11, 2005. And I really don't understand why Capcom did this?

Why couldn't they announce PS2 version few months after NGC version was out, so it wouldn't influence NGC version sales and both sides (Nintendo and PS2 users) would be happy :/.

[Umon Daisuke]

To keep outspoken shareholders happy. Company execs had to fend off criticism since the REmake's and Zero's commercial performance that didn't sit well with them (both called for profit revisions).

I didn't say it before, but seems some of you think that Mikami's ideas spawned earlier RE4 versions. Far from it; you just need to look at the first version's turnout that turned into a different game (DMC). As an executive producer, he had little creative input until Kobayashi asked him to step in (after getting demoted), and we ended up with RE4.

[Rombie]

^ As Umon said, the first version of RE4 was spearheaded by Kamiya which is why it became DMC, of which Mikami was exec producer of both projects. Hiroshi Shibata and Jun Kobayashi were in charge of the next two editions before Jun and Capcom requested Mikami come on board as director rather than the exec pro position where he'd been in each version before.

From what I heard Mikami had the power to request whatever he wanted because he was already on the outs from Capcom and they needed to keep him there as long as possible. His issues for leaving seem potentially varied, from the events surrounding Yoshiki Okamoto's leaving, the shareholder decisions on sales focus within the Capcom, and Capcom management's disinterest (and eventual closure) of what he and his development buddies had tried making under the "Capcom 5" for Nintendo (Viewtiful Joe, Killer7, RE4 (V2&3), PN03, and Dead Pheonix) and eventually Clover Studios' efforts as well.

The only thing I can say about it personally is Mikami was pushing hard to have console exclusive games post 2001, which Capcom as a company had already outlined was not going to be their future focus as far back as late 1999. Clearly this decision made shareholders happy because they saw the potential for more sales on more formats and for the most part the majority of Capcom games for the past few years have released to multiple formats under this focus.

I think CVXFreak tried to ask Mikami more about all this with no luck as I recall.