Resident Evil Creator Teasing Announcement with Stellar Blade Studio Shift Up

Survival horror fans are no doubt familiar with the name Shinji Mikami. The legendary Japanese game director led the development team at Capcom to bring the original Resident Evil game to life in 1996 and followed up his shining debut with Dino Crisis in 1999. Despite having been away from those franchises for many years now, Shinji Mikami has continued to work within the realm of horror, perhaps most notably with his direction of 2014’s The Evil Within. His studio, Tango Gameworks, would later release Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush before Mikami’s departure in 2023. Despite near radio silence since leaving Tango, Shinji Mikami announced in March 2026 that he had founded another brand-new studio, Unbound Games, which has finally shared a teaser for an upcoming project that seems to include a major collaboration with Stellar Blade development studio Shift Up.

While very little has been revealed about Shinji Mikami’s new game development studio Unbound Games, early job listings for the company mentioned a “new AAA IP,” which seemingly indicates that Unbound will be offering something completely fresh for audiences to look forward to. Many players are hoping for another survival horror experience courtesy of Shinji Mikami, though the game director has previously stated his desire to branch out and try other genres. That sentiment could prove especially true for Mikami’s next big project, as it appears Shift Up, the team behind the 2024 post-apocalyptic action-adventure hit Stellar Blade, may be teaming up with Unbound on the mysterious new IP.

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Shinji Mikami Teases Collaboration with Stellar Blade Studio

Both Shift Up and Unbound Games dropped cryptic teasers on social media on March 31. Shift Up’s post came first and shows an unknown figure answering a phone before the message “Announcement Coming Soon” pops up. The caption includes the date April 1, 2026, perhaps indicating that another teaser or a more direct reveal will be coming very soon. Less than two hours later, Unbound Games shared a video of Shinji Mikami and another unconfirmed individual, in which Mikami mentions wanting to “make games together to change the world.” The Unbound video ends with the same “Announcement Coming Soon” message, written in the same font. Genki_JPN on X (Twitter) noticed the matching fonts and suggested that the hidden person in the teaser videos may be Stellar Blade director Kim Hyung-tae.

If the dialogue in the Unbound teaser is any indication of what’s to come, Shinji Mikami and Kim Hyung-tae may be teaming up for a completely new launch. There is always the possibility of a more general collaboration between the two companies and creatives, such as crossover content to be included in a Stellar Blade update, but the specific mention of making games together does seem to imply that the partnership between Unbound Games and Shift Up will be a large project. It remains to be seen if Shinji Mikami and Kim Hyung-tae are working together on Unbound’s new AAA IP or if they will be working on another game entirely. The only confirmed detail is the April 1 reveal, which Shift Up has already created a countdown video for on YouTube.

According to that video’s countdown clock, the next update on the project between Unbound Games and Shift Up will actually be released at 10pm ET / 7pm PT on March 31, or 11am JST on April 1. One unfortunate point to note is that April 1 is April Fools’ Day, and it would not be the first time a major company trolled audiences with a fake out reveal. However, the March 31 release in major time zones could offer a bit of optimism to fans hoping to learn more about the next game from Shinji Mikami. Interested players can follow along for an update on what exactly Shinji Mikami‘s Unbound Games and Kim Hyung-tae’s Shift Up may be working on.