Shinji Mikami has a blunt message for the gaming industry: if your game feels complete after someone watches it streamed to completion, that's on you.
The Resident Evil creator made the comments during an appearance on Japanese television, where comedian and gamer Eiko Kano asked him about the thorny issue of streamers broadcasting full playthroughs, complete with spoilers. Mikami's answer cut through the noise around livestreaming's impact on game sales and engagement.
"If viewers watching a game stream through to the ending feel satisfied, then that's all the game is worth," Mikami said, as reported by Nikkan Sports. "It's our job as game creators to make games that people want to try completing with their own hands, even if they have already watched the whole game."
Kano, who runs a gaming YouTube channel and even appeared as a fighter in a Street Fighter 2 promotional build, had been wrestling with whether creators actually wanted him streaming their games, especially story-heavy titles. His concern was serious enough that he said he would have stopped streaming had someone like Mikami objected. Instead, Mikami essentially told him to keep going.
The message represents a philosophical divide in how the industry views content creators. While some developers worry about spoilers tanking interest, Mikami frames the real problem differently: if watching someone else play is satisfying enough, the game simply didn't make people want to grab a controller themselves.
Mikami is far from alone in this thinking. Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii gave Kano a similar response when asked the same question. More recently, Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi acknowledged that some people prefer watching RPGs to playing them, calling it a "crisis." But like Mikami, Hamaguchi placed the burden on developers. "If people watch a game stream and it makes them wonder, 'What would I do in that situation?' or, 'How would I experiment with that?', then they'll hopefully be inspired to try playing it themselves," he explained.
For Mikami, the conversation comes as his newly founded studio Unbound enters a new chapter. Stellar Blade developer Shift Up acquired the studio earlier this year, with plans to publish Unbound's next project. It's a significant partnership for Mikami, who left Tango Gameworks before Microsoft shuttered the Hi-Fi Rush developer. He established Unbound in 2022 and has kept it independent and quiet since then, with no releases or announcements until now.
In an announcement video, Mikami teased that he's working on "a fairly large game" and promised "we're going to create a masterpiece of a game."
Author Emily Chen: "Mikami's take cuts through the hand-wringing about streaming destroying games, but only if developers actually deliver experiences that make people want to play instead of watch."
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