Back in January, we reported that Shinji Mikami, of Dino Crisis and Resident Evil fame, will start work on the first title of the team Platinum Games (formerly SEEDS). Now how far along are they? Rumor has it that they have signed with Sega to release three new games, one of which will involve Devil May Cry 4 creator Hideki Kamiya. More details after the jump.

So what's next for the Resident Evil video game designer Shinji Mikami? After a long hiatus in between projects, Mikami announced that he and his crack team of developers from Platinum Games will start work on the first title under their newly formed company.

For more information, check out the full article!

What does Resident Evil, Phoenix Wright and Devil May Cry have in common? Pretty boys. Shinji Mikami of course! A warm Happy Birthday goes out to one of the gaming industry's living legends who turns 42 today!

Mikami has been in the gaming industry for more than 15 years now and is responsible for a number of games we all know and love. Aside from the ever popular video games mentioned above, he's worked on such classics as Aladdin and Goof Troop during the days of the Super Nintendo, Dino Crisis and God Hand.

After working with the Resident Evil franchise with Capcom for almost a decade (so many zombies, so little time,) he joined Studio Clover in 2004 where he worked with Hideki Kamiya to produce Devil May Cry. He later founded Seeds Inc. together with Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba which was last heard to be in the process of developing a new game.

Certainly a lifetime of achievement can't be fully captured in a scant three paragraphs but cheers to Shinji Makima and again a Happy Birthday!

Revered game designer Shinji Mikami who is best known for his work on the celebrated Resident Evil series was asked some pretty tough questions by Famitsu recently, and among those was which console he wanted to support given the choice.

Mikami held nothing back and said "from the stance of a game maker, if you're looking for visual expression and reality, it's Xbox 360. Otherwise, Wii."

Incidentally, more than 1,500 gamers, developers and celebrities were asked the very same question by the publication. The pulse of the people say it's the Nintendo Wii with the slimmest of margins at 38.9 percent. The Sony PlayStation 3 is at a very close second with a flat 38 percent while the Microsoft Xbox 360 is at third place with 23.1 percent.

Mikami is widely credited for bringing the survival horror genre to prominence with his work on the RE franchise, and was once again praised for reinventing the series with his stint as the director for the blockbuster Resident Evil 4. He is now working at Seeds studios after the dissolution of his old team Clover.

Fans were enthralled in a one-day gaming extravaganza called Snake vs Zombie Vol. 2 put up by Grasshopper Manufacture in Japan. Talk shows and presentations were run all day, but everything came down to a face-off between two of the industry's true heavyweights: Director Hideo Kojima of the Metal Gear Solid series and director Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil.

The two met in an hour-long talk show where provocative questions were asked. Both men showed a healthy respect for each other's work by revealing their experiences playing each other's games. Kojima first ran into Mikami's craft when he played the first Resident Evil and finished it. Mikami, on the other hand, says he's played through Metal Gear Solid and liked it a lot.

Kojima even had an amusing suggestion for the Resident Evil online game. "The player is a zombie hunter and enters a town infested with zombies. When you die, you turn into a zombie and you start to walk aimlessly, unable to control your character -- just the camera. But, you will still pay for your monthly subscription!"says Kojima, as the crowd burst into laughs.

For his part, Mikami said that he could never direct an MGS game because of his impatient nature. He says whenever he goes out to play war games, he's usually the first to get shot because he just can't stay put in one place. Kojima chimed in that he has a similar problem whenever the MGS development team goes to the mountains for their combat training sessions.

Both Kojima and Mikami revealed that they have problems regarding their staff and jokes. Mikami says that his staff takes a lot of his jokes too seriously at times and some of it eventually reflects in the game. Kojima, on the other hand, has a problem getting his staff to take him more seriously.

The two, however, said that they would still want to direct a game if they ever end up in a collaboration. The host jokingly asked "So how do you decide, with rock, paper, scissors?"

Speaking to Japanese gaming news entity, Famitsu, Shinji Mikami, made popular due to his creative influence over hits like Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and Devil May Cry, admitted that he has started actual development on possible multiple game projects. However, it was said that we shouldn't expect anything from him until after 2008.

IGN reports that Mikami is continuing work with Grasshopper Interactive's Suda 51, the one responsible for the upcoming No More Heroes on the Wii, and Mikami expects to be able to show something to gamers this coming summer.

Mikami notes that unlike old-school developers who have moved on to the production side of games, he plans to mainly be a game director - although he has already had experience being a producer.

Mikami is currently an external board member of SEEDS, an Osaka development company formed by a group of former developers from Capcom, and in general his future titles will carry the SEEDS branding. His games will be published by an actual publisher - not necessarily Capcom. The game creator has formed a private development studio last year, prior to the fading of Clover Studios, called Straight Story.

Devs of the now defunct Clover Studio (makers of Okami) have been given new assignments by parent company Capcom.

CVG reports that the devs were assigned to work on Resident Evil 5 with Jun Takeuchi and Keiji Inafune's Wii project. Some regret was expressed over the exit of three Clover veterans: Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya. The trio left Capcom to do their own thing and formed an independent studio of their own called Seeds.

The rest of the Clover team were assimilated by the game development giant's dev talent pool. The move wouldn't affect the games in development so much since Capcom doesn't have strict rules regarding their dev teams. According to Charles Bellfield, Capcom's vice president of marketing, "everybody does work on a variety of content and games at Capcom."

Well, there we have it. Some people have some concerns regarding the new Resident Evil since Shinji Mikami is not on the driver's seat anymore. We'll have to wait and see.