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Platinum Games: Bayonetta on PS3 was “our biggest failure”

sublimit

Banned
Platinum Games director Atsushi Inaba has called the PS3 conversion of Bayonetta, “our biggest failure”.

Speaking to us as part of a ten-page feature in our new issue, E246, he discusses how Platinum declined handling the port itself, delegating the task to an in-house team at Sega, the game’s publisher. The resulting release suffered framerate and control issues which blighted the experience for many players, despite receiving largely positive review scores.

“The biggest failure for Platinum so far, the one that really sticks in my mind, is that port,” Inaba tells us. “At the time we didn’t really know how to develop on PS3 all that well, and whether we could have done it… is irrelevant: we made the decision that we couldn’t. But looking back on the result, and especially what ended up being released to users, I regard that as our biggest failure.”

Inaba was speaking on the verge of the Bayonetta 2 announcement, which has caused controversy thanks to Platinum’s exclusivity deal with Nintendo. There was anger when the title wasn’t retained as a multi-platform release by Sega. In Edge’s feature however, the team stipulates that it had a very specific five-game deal with the publisher, and that it was already talking to other parties at the close of its fifth Sega project, Anarchy Reigns.

In a wide-ranging interview, which also covers the state of Japanese game development and the problems with growing team sizes, Inaba told the magazine that the Bayonetta experience provided an important lesson. “One thing I will say is that it wasn’t a failure for nothing,” he explains. “We learned that we needed to take responsibility for everything. So on Vanquish we developed both versions in-house.

“We learned, so it wasn’t a pointless failure, but it was a failure nonetheless”.

You can read the rest of the interview in E246, which should be with subscribers in the coming days and will be on newsagent shelves from 27 September.

Via Edge
 

Neff

Member
Bayonetta is one of the very few games this gen in which its gameplay is directly impacted by its inferior port. And considering that gameplay is the most important element of games to Platinum, I can see how it would be embarrassing for them.

Fortunately buying a 360 rectifies this problem.
 
And Bayonetta X360, their greatest success. Too bad they'll never address that PS3 version since they're full steam ahead with Wii U, but I'm sure that'll be great. Actually, what's stopping them from re-releasing Bayo1 on Wii U?
 

Sophia

Member
Wii U and PC re-release it is! :)

Fixed. :p

I like how they worded this flop.

The honesty in this is inspiring and should be a paragon for all developers.

Plus their attitude means they will not make a similar mistake ever again. Metal Gear Rising should be awesome across platforms.

If only other companies could admit to their mistakes like this. I do have high hopes for Metal Gear Rising.
 

glaurung

Member
I like how they worded this flop.

The honesty in this is inspiring and should be a paragon for all developers.

Plus their attitude means they will not make a similar mistake ever again. Metal Gear Rising should be awesome across platforms.
 

Nibel

Member
Developing for PS3 sure is hard man

pNqKq.jpg


Love PG though
 

spats

Member
I thought it's a mediocre game regardless of what platform it's played on. Almost everything felt cheap and janky about it. Then again I also hated MadWorld and thought Vanquish was boring based on the demo, so their games have never really done anything for me as a whole. But the ps3 version of Bayonetta was definitely a horrible port job, can't argue with that.
 

2San

Member
Btw didn't Bayonetta 1 sell really well(1 mil+), why didn't SEGA publish Bayo 2?
I thought it's a mediocre game regardless of what platform it's played on. Almost everything felt cheap and janky about it.
Opinions are opinions, but can you tell me exactly what was janky about it?
 

Neff

Member
How subtle.

A fact is a fact. If you want to play Bayonetta as it was meant to be played, you need a 360. The PS3 version is in no way comparable, every single element of the game suffers. It's more than worth it, imo.
 

meppi

Member
Indeed, it is never too late for a patch!

Unless they tend to do a DICE patch of several gigs and thus re-writing a huge part of the game, I don't even see it working.
Too much work involved for something that just isn't worth it at this point.


Good. It's crazy to me that there are people that claim the PS3 version was fine.
Indeed. the timing of this interview is quite funny in that regard. ;)
 
Inaba has been doing a lot of press lately huh? He's coming off pretty positively too.

His comments about the western and Japanese game industries are also quite interesting. I'm sure that there will be a thread about it soon. But it's about time that someone said what he said.
 

Neff

Member
I'm sure that was a very cheap solution for many.

I wouldn't say it was cheap, but compared to what I paid for my PS3 ($400), and the additional entertainment I derived from purchasing a 360 ($200), it certainly wasn't expensive either.
 

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
So they had a 5 game deal with Sega huh? Hopefully the Nintendo one isn't as long ;_;

Also Bayonetta x Vanquish Double Dip Crew™
 

sublimit

Banned
I would like to see more developers standing up and take full responsibility for their lousy port jobs instead of hiding behind their fingers.
Much respect for Platinum on that front.
 
Eh after the patches i honestly didn't have any problems with it for the most part.Of course compared to the 360 it still runned poorly.

I don't think the patch even addressed the performance at all. It just reduced loading times and left the biggest problem as it was.
 

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Yeah after patch I'd say PS3 Bayonetta is playable but not the good example for the game's performance; it's very wrong to make your judgments on the game based solely on the PS3 version.

I don't think the patch even addressed the performance at all. It just reduced loading times and left the biggest problem as it was.

dem framerates
 

FranXico

Member
Right now I'm imagining Bethesda having the same honesty to admit that it is their own fault that the PS3 version of Skyrim came out so bad...
 

Footos22

Member
it wasn't shit it was still a good game just shit to the 360 version....
I platinumed the ps3 version then bought it on 360 and got 1000/1000

Could hardly tell the difference, both were installed and the patch used on the ps3 version.
Was just faded colours and terrible clock tower section. Apart from that it runs just fine.

If i played it the other way round it might have been a different story.
installed on 360 i had multiple frame drops so thats prob my own fault but whatever.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
A Wii U release would be popular probably. It would have to come out at least 6 months before Bayo2 so as not to cannibalise its sales.

i'd actually be curious to know what fans/Platinums sales expectations are for Bayo2 on Wii U.
 
It's closer to 30 fps than the 360's silky 60, right? That's playable. The game would load when you paused it. It was worse than Sonic 2006.

The framerate is all over the place. It's not close to anything. There are even very, very few sections where it hits 60 fps just to remind you how awful the rest of the game is.
 

Bleep

Member
It's closer to 30 fps than the 360's silky 60, right? That's playable. The game would load when you paused it. It was worse than Sonic 2006.

A big part of the problem is that the framerate isn't stable at all. It varies and affects the players timing.
 

waypoetic

Banned
I'm going to poop on the disc and tweet it to them!!!!!1!!11

I was fine with playing it on PS3. The story was lulz on the other hand.
 

Neff

Member
It's closer to 30 fps than the 360's silky 60, right? That's playable. The game would load when you paused it. It was worse than Sonic 2006.

During cutscenes, PS3 is 20fps, 360 is 30fps. During gameplay, the PS3 version averages 24fps, the 360 version averages 55fps.

There are even very, very few sections where it hits 60 fps just to remind you how awful the rest of the game is.

True. The first fight with Jeanne is probably the most consistently smooth section of the PS3 version, and is a depressing reminder of what you're missing for pretty much the game's entirety.
 

meppi

Member
Good post. This isn't some 'betrayal u suck nintendo!!1' post, just the other releases were multi platform at least. ┐(´ー`)┌
Right back at ya.
What does that even have to do with "I hope the publishing deal with Nintendo ends soon"?

Nintendo makes it so that they can make a game they really want to make and you'd prefer them to not even be involved so that they might not be able to make games like this at all?
Makes perfect sense to me... :-/

installed on 360 i had multiple frame drops so thats prob my own fault but whatever.

Yeah, just like with PGR4 it's one of the few games where it is best not to install it to the HDD as doing so makes it run into some technical issues.
 

deathcab

Banned
How subtle.

A great part of what has gone wrong this generation is being forced into pay for a simple service. I am pleased that Sony has yet to fold and I have some hope for the future.

I am deeply unhappy about paying a telephone service for an internet connection, and will never pay for TV or gaming.

On the bright side, we are close to dropping the local loop cost in Australia, things "should" move ahead in a postiive way.

dc
 

.la1n

Member
Played originally on 360 and trying to finish it on PS3 now, it's not perfect but honestly still a hell of a lot of fun. Either way, glad they have chosen to develop all version in house from this point forward, should have never trusted Sega's in-house team to do anything worthwhile.
 
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