Resident Evil legend Shinji Mikami's new studio, Unbound Inc., has been acquired by Shift Up, the company behind Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke. Unbound's unannounced games will be fully supported and distributed by South Korean publisher Shift Up, which is led by CEO Hyung-Tae Kim.

Mikami is an icon of Japanese horror as the director of Resident Evil, its 2002 remake and Resident Evil 4, as well as a 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 Blade, with Kim as director.

Even with an adorably grotesque introduction video, it's unclear exactly what Unbound is working on at the moment, but the studio is targeting the global PC and console market. Its concepts involve plenty of monsters, as is tradition.

Consider even the surface-level possibilities here: The campy horror of Resident Evil blended with the melodramatic beauty of Stellar Blade. The frenzy of Hi-Fi Rush amped up by the anime stylings of Goddess of Victory: Nikke. The Evil Within III, but make it sexy. These are jokes, but the sentiment remains — this partnership makes a lot of sense and it'll be exciting to see what shakes out.

“We believe we can respect each other as creators and make 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 building together for a long time.”

It's also heartening to see stability for Mikami's new studio. His previous team, Tango Gameworks, was acquired by Microsoft in 2021, and Mikami left in 2023 after the release of Hi-Fi Rush. Microsoft shuttered Tango in 2024 during a period of mass game industry layoffs, and its remaining team was eventually sold to Krafton. Mikami has been quietly building up his own studio since 2022.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mr-resident-evil-signs-a-deal-with-mr-stellar-blade-180158872.html?src=rss

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MindsEye developer Build a Rocket Boy remains so convinced that corporate foul play contributed to the disastrous launch of its debut game that it’s now planning to prove it to its audience via in-game content.

In a wide-ranging interview with GamesBeat, BARB CEO and CTO Mark Gerhard said MindsEye will soon receive a multiplayer update, as well as a new mission called Blacklist in which the studio will "share some of the evidence of the sabotage with the community." Gerhard didn’t elaborate further, beyond revealing that the new mission will also introduce a playable female character, but promised further updates to the game in the coming months.

BARB hopes its DLC will inspire the MindsEye community to create their own user-generated content with its Arcadia platform, which was always the long-term plan for the troubled action game. "The end state we want to be at is where the community can make their own [content] and can dream up their own creations, and again, without being a studio or needing to program or anything," Gerhard told GamesBeat. "They can actually make really fun and compelling experiences for themselves and their friends. That’s our mission. And I think that’s going to be more and more evident over the next few months."

MindsEye was riddled with bugs and performance issues when it launched last June, resulting in players demanding refunds and the studio hurriedly attempting to patch things up. Layoffs soon followed, with BARB co-CEO Lezlie Benzies reportedly addressing the remaining staff to reassure them of the game’s future. According to an IGN report, the former president of Rockstar North and GTA producer told employees at the time that saboteurs both external and within the company were to blame for the game’s nightmarish rollout.

In his new interview with GamesBeat, Gerhard took responsibility for the bugs and crashes that led to what he admitted was "without doubt, the worst launch in history," but echoed Benzies’ previous comments about the reputational damage the game suffered. "Obviously, we were kind of caught flat-footed on that," he said. "We didn’t counter the negative narrative. We weren’t sophisticated enough to have done that. But, we’re aware. We’ve called that out. Some of the negativity has been orchestrated around this, and thankfully, as a result, it stopped."

Gerhard said that the studio has collected "very strong evidence" of the alleged leaks following months of "thorough investigations," adding that the case is now in the hands of authorities in the UK and US.

BARB recently parted ways with co-publisher IOI Partners (a subsidiary of Hitman developer IO Interactive), and will be solely responsible for publishing responsibilities on MindsEye going forward. As a result, the planned MindsEye and Hitman crossover event is no longer going ahead.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mindseye-will-litigate-its-own-launch-sabotage-controversy-in-dlc-form-152344593.html?src=rss

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