One of the PlayStation 5’s most anticipated exclusives for 2021 is Ghostwire: Tokyo, the newest title from The Evil Within developer Tango GameWorks, the development studio led by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. Ghostwire: Tokyo was first revealed at E3 2019 by its then creative director Ikumi Nakamura, whose energetic performance at Bethesda’s conference led to her becoming an internet sensation. Later in 2019 however, Ikumi Nakamura left Tango GameWorks without commenting on why she was departing the Japanese horror developer. In a new documentary from YouTube channel Cutscenes, Nakamura revealed that she has opened her own independent studio.
Ikumi Nakamura entered the video game industry working for Capcom after growing up with titles such as Resident Evil and Devil May Cry. There, she worked with Shinji Mikami’s Clover Studio on the beloved PS2 classic Okami. After this, she moved onto Platinum Games to work as a concept artist on Bayonetta, and later reunited with Shinji Mikami at Tango GameWorks working as the lead artist on The Evil Within and contributed additional art to The Evil Within 2. In September 2019, three months after the reveal of Ghostwire: Tokyo, her debut title as a creative director, Nakamura left Tango GameWorks.
In the newest documentary from Cutscenes, Ikumi Nakamura reveled that she left Tango GameWorks due to health complications, as she had also grown accustomed to seeing creators over-exerting themselves working on projects. Instead, Nakamura decided to take her experience working at some of Japan’s most renown game development studios and create her own independent studio with her own IP. Nakamura does show regret for leaving Ghostwire: Tokyo mid-development though, stating “I still remember it as my own child.”
For those interested in Nakamura’s work or just a very unique perspective on the Japanese side of the video game industry, the documentary is well worth a watch. Nakamura also comments on the reaction to her iconic E3 2019 performance, which she claims left her in a nervous state emotionally until she received a message from a friend of hers informing her that she had become an internet meme. She also revealed that around 80% of the emails she received praising her after E3 were from women who were happy to see a woman on stage presenting her game. In the documentary, Nakamura comments on gender representation of the industry, claiming that she believes stories written by women are “more in sync with their time” and wants her new studio to “achieve full gender equality.”
While it’s likely a very long time before Ikumi Nakamura’s studio reveals its first game, her studio joins the likes of Keiichiro Toyama’s Bokeh Game Studio as one of the newest Japanese horror game developers to appear in recent years. Furthering the resurgence in mid-to-big budget horror game releases in recent years thanks to titles such as Resident Evil 7: biohazard, The Evil Within, and The Medium.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is slated to release this October as a PlayStation 5 console exclusive.
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