Ex-Capcom staffers and sound designers Hideaki and Saori Utsumi have announced Birdkin Studio, a new two-person husband-and-wife indie outfit based in their native Japan.
Per the studio's new official website (which is charmingly simple), the studio is a small one; "just Hideaki Utsumi and Saori Utsumi", as the description goes. They're currently working on their debut title, which will be released for Switch and PC via Steam.
No details about the game are available just yet (apart from one piece of artwork which may or may not be indicative of the final product), but if you want to keep up with Birdkin's progress, you can do so via the studio's official X (formerly Twitter) account.
According to the site, Hideaki Utsumi will serve as a game designer, sound designer, and composer for Birdkin, all of which are also roles Saori will take on. In addition, she'll be a CG artist and programmer for the studio.
If you feel that Utsumi's name is familiar, then you may have seen some videos of the couple's adorable birds, of which they have four: Gumi, Kiwi, Kohaku, and Lemon.
Utsumi's YouTube channel is chock-full of videos of the birds and the chaos they create. In particular, Gumi, a red and green chattering lory, is well-known for his distinctive "wuewuewue" catchphrase. If you haven't seen it, I heartily recommend checking it out for a big lift to your day.
Saori also has two YouTube channels: one for her music and one on which she posts videos of the couple's birds. The videos are mostly in Japanese, but they're well worth a watch to get a sense of what she's about.
The Utsumis aren't the first ex-Capcom staffers to fly the nest, so to speak (although neither of them has worked at Capcom for quite some time).
Others include Resident Evil producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who founded his own NetEase-funded studio in 2022, and Hideaki Itsuno, who left Capcom recently after over 30 years with the company.
We'll bring you more on what the Utsumis get up to next as soon as we've got it. Stay tuned!
