Former GhostWire: Tokyo creative director Ikumi Nakamura opens new indie studio

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here

Former Ghostwire Tokyo creative director and concept artist on Bayonetta Ikumi Nakamura has revealed that she has started a new indie studio in her native Japan that will be working on a new, as yet unnamed IP.

As spotted by PlayDiaries, the announcement came in the latest episode of mini-documentary called Cutscenes from YouTube documentarians Archipel, in which Nakamura reveals that she started up the new studio after a brief period travelling the world following her departure from Tango Gameworks in 2019.  

While it's early days yet for the fledging studio (which is also yet to get a name), Nakamura says their first project will be a brand new IP, saying "It was the chance for me to travel and learn what made a good working environment. I decided to use that experience to open my small studio, and build my IP."

She also hopes to bring in talent from all over the world with her new studio, another decision fuelled by her travels, saying "Of course there’s a language barrier, but even for someone like me who can’t speak English, I want to speak with people who have the curiosity to learn and understand each other. If I can form this type of team to work on a new game, I feel that we’ll be able to bring something new to the players, so this is the approach I want to take for my studio and my IP."

Nakamura also talks on the decisions that led to her leaving Tango Gameworks, despite only having revealed GhostWire: Tokyo a few months prior at that year's E3, saying "I started wondering whether there wasn’t a way for me to make games while feeling better. I took the decision to quit before it was too late."

Nakamura also notes the difficulties on walking away from the project following her very successful showing at E3, but noted how inspiring it was to receive emails, many of them from women in the industry, who were happy to see a female game creator getting on stage to show their game and how motivating it was for them.  

Check out the documentary for yourself below, and we look forward to seeing what's next from Nakamura and her new studio. In the meantime, GhostWire: Tokyo is set for launch exclusively on PlayStation 5 and PC later this year, in spite of Tango Gameworks becoming an Xbox Game Studio following the latter's purchase of Bethesda.

 

 

About the Author

Ben Borthwick

Ben Borthwick is the News Editor for VideoGamer. He's a fan of action adventure games, music games and especially comedic games like the Monkey Island series.

GhostWire: Tokyo

  • Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5
  • Genre(s): Action Adventure