{"id":64516,"date":"2026-04-01T12:06:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T03:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64516"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T03:06:54","slug":"resident-evil-director-shinji-mikamis-new-aaa-game-studio-fully-acquired-by-stellar-blade-developer-shift-up-in-new-global-publishing-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/resident-evil-director-shinji-mikamis-new-aaa-game-studio-fully-acquired-by-stellar-blade-developer-shift-up-in-new-global-publishing-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami\u2019s new AAA game studio fully acquired by Stellar Blade developer Shift Up in new global publishing deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: NIKKE developer Shift Up announced on April 1st that it would be entering a partnership with Japanese video game studio Unbound, led by Resident Evil director and Devil May Cry producer Shinji Mikami. According to a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/shiftup.co.kr\/eng\/news\/news.php?ptype=view&amp;idx=416&amp;code=news_eng&amp;page=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/shiftup.co.kr\/eng\/news\/blog.php?ptype=view&amp;idx=414&amp;page=1&amp;code=blog_eng\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">blog post<\/a> by the Korean studio, Shift Up has fully acquired Unbound, and will be taking on the role of publishing and \u00a0handling global support for its titles. To celebrate the acquisition and partnership, the company also unveiled a short documentary video on YouTube featuring Mikami and Shift Up CEO Hyung-tae Kim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SHIFT UP x UNBOUND | Partnership Announcement ft. Shinji Mikami\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PTColDTq19M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As for how this collaboration came to be, the two creators cite each other\u2019s common goals and \u201cshared conviction,\u201d driven by the wish to create a large-scale, high-quality game that doesn\u2019t compromise on its creative ambitiousness. \u201cSeeing my own vision and ideals come into focus like this, and finding someone whose direction aligns so closely is something I\u2019ve rarely experienced before in my career. I hope we keep building together for a long time,\u201d Kim explained.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe best part of Shift Up is Kim. He\u2019s a creator too, working on-site and putting his all into making games. After speaking with him, we decided to aim for the same goals together. In other words, at Unbound, we are aiming to create a masterpiece of a game,\u201d Mikami commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/ss-agent.jp\/pr\/unbound-2501\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">company interview from February<\/a>, Unbound has been stealthily working on a fully original title of \u201cAAA quality and AA volume,\u201d and is currently recruiting development staff. The company is also parallelly working on smaller, more experimental PC and console-based IPs. With Shift Up handling its publishing, all of the titles will be developed with the global market in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stellar Blade and NIKKE developer Shift Up has acquired studio Unbound, led by Resident Evil and Devil May Cry veteran Shinji Mikami.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":64521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-64516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami\u2019s new AAA game studio fully acquired by Stellar Blade developer Shift Up in new global publishing deal - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stellar Blade and NIKKE developer Shift Up has acquired studio Unbound, led by Resident Evil and Devil May Cry veteran Shinji Mikami.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/resident-evil-director-shinji-mikamis-new-aaa-game-studio-fully-acquired-by-stellar-blade-developer-shift-up-in-new-global-publishing-deal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami\u2019s new AAA game studio fully acquired by Stellar Blade developer Shift Up in new global publishing deal - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stellar Blade and NIKKE developer Shift Up has acquired studio Unbound, led by Resident Evil and Devil May Cry veteran Shinji Mikami.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/resident-evil-director-shinji-mikamis-new-aaa-game-studio-fully-acquired-by-stellar-blade-developer-shift-up-in-new-global-publishing-deal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-01T03:06:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-01T03:06:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260401-64516-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1236\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"678\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami\u2019s new AAA game studio fully acquired by Stellar Blade developer Shift Up in new global publishing deal - 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