A new studio made up of solid veterans
According to the studio’s official website (online for almost a year but recently discovered) and a recent interview relayed by the Video Games Chronicle website, the Unbound studio, led by Shinji Mikami, is currently working on a new original AAA license intended for consoles and PC. Those responsible for the studio explain that their objective is to create a completely new license intended for a demanding audience.
The project is aimed at the AAA segment, while specifying that it will offer content more comparable to an AA production, the studio not having the same workforce as the major Japanese studios. The team currently has around fifty people. For the moment, no concrete details on the gameplay, the universe or the release period have been communicated.
The team, however, insists on its desire to create an ambitious game capable of establishing itself as a new franchise. Unbound was founded after Shinji Mikami left Tango Gameworks, the studio behind titles like The Evil Within And Hi‑Fi Rush. The creator is best known for having made Resident Evil, considered one of the founding games of modern survival horror. We have also recently published a complete file dedicated to this important figure in video games which we invite you to read to find out more.
Even if Mikami remains involved in the project, he has explained in recent years that he wants to leave more room for a new generation of developers. Furthermore, if we rely on its past statements, we should not necessarily expect a new survival horror. The Unbound team nevertheless brings together many veterans of the Japanese industry, having worked on major games like Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Sonic the Hedgehog, Hi‑Fi Rush, Okami, Killer7 or El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.
Also among the members cited is Masato Kimura, producer of Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush, a longtime collaborator of Shinji Mikami who also worked on Devil May Cry, Resident Evil and other projects. So far, no images or trailers have been released, which suggests that development is still at a relatively early stage.
But with Shinji Mikami’s name associated with the project, this new AAA license obviously attracts attention. We should learn more in the coming months.