ZeniMax Grabs Resident Evil Creator Mikami's Studio Tango Gameworks

After announcing earlier this month that it had picked up $150 million in investment, ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda and id Software, today revealed it has acquired Tango Gameworks, the studio founded by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.

"It's refreshing to find a publisher who understands, trusts, and supports the development of blockbuster games and works to make it a collaborative effort," Mikami said in the announcement. "The library of AAA franchise titles ZeniMax owns speaks for itself. We are very excited to be joining ZeniMax and working with a company that is dedicated to creating the best games ever made."

Tango "is dedicated to AAA multi-platform game development," ZeniMax explains, and will continue to be run by Shinji Mikami, who'll also be creative lead on all future projects.

"Shinji Mikami has earned a stellar reputation as one of the industry' finest game developers," said ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman. "He has repeatedly created hit titles that have earned praise from fans and critics around the world. We share his vision for innovative, genre-defining games and look forward to working with Shinji and his team at Tango."

Mikami's most recent release was Vanquish with PlatinumGames, which launched this week on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. He's also been working on Grasshopper Manufacture's ridiculous Shadows of the Damned, along with Suda51 and Akira Yamaoka.

The ZeniMax empire already included Fallout 3 developer Bethesda Game Studios, publisher Bethesda Softworks, Doom maker id software and Arx Fatalis dev Arkane Studios, not to mention the rights to the Prey franchise and, of course, to Fallout.