Shinji Mikami says if watching a playthrough is enough, the game wasn't good enough

Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami has a sharp take on game streaming: if watching someone else finish your game leaves viewers fully satisfied, that's actually a sign the game failed to do its job.

The quote comes via Japanese comedian Hidetaka Kano, who relayed a conversation with Mikami during a TV interview on June 18. Kano told Mikami he was worried about streaming culture spoiling games for people who hadn't played them yet. Mikami's response cut straight to the point — "If viewers watch a playthrough of a game all the way to the end and are satisfied with just that, then it was only that good of a game. Our job is to make games that leave people wanting to clear them with their own hands, even if they've watched someone else do it, so keep streaming." It's a confident, almost counterintuitive position: the best games are spoiler-proof because the experience of playing them can't be replicated by watching.

Kano also mentioned that Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii told him "exactly the same thing" in a separate conversation, suggesting this view has some traction among veteran Japanese game designers. Mikami directed both the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4 — two games widely regarded as experiences that demand to be played rather than watched, built around tension, player agency, and moment-to-moment decision-making that a passive stream can't fully convey.