Video Games Chronicle has published a new interview with Platinum Games studio head Atsushi Inaba, who shared various tidbits of information regarding the studio’s future.
Here are the details:
- Bayonetta 3 will see a change in design process based on Platinum Games’ experience on developing Bayonetta 1 and 2.
- Platinum Games is midway through the development of an unannounced title which “has never been done before,” according to Inaba. He added, “I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else. Even for our varied history of veteran game developers, this is something that has never been designed before. So from a game design perspective, we’re very excited right now.”
- Platinum Games is aiming to move towards self-publishing, as it will eventually have the “freedom” to own its intellectual properties and make independent decisions on future directions.
- “2019 will be an incredibly important year for us,” Inaba said. “Without speaking directly to the number of titles we may or may not announce, I can say it’s going to be a year of some major new approaches, new challenges and new methods for us. Basically, we’re building a new foundation that in later years will pay dividends. For us, new challenges are going to be very important.”
- Platinum Games’ new approaches include a move away from relying on external publisher funding, as well as an examination of how it structures game design.
- While Platinum Games has worked with third-party partners in the past on properties it does not own, such as Bayonetta, NieR: Automata, and the upcoming Astral Chain, it is currently working on two new intellectual properties owned entirely by the studio, neither of which have been announced.
- The creation of wholly-owned properties will not result in the end of third-party collaborations, however. “There are still going to potentially be games in which we partner with publishers to do big things with big IPs,” Inaba said. There might be some co-publishing options where we’re doing some of it and they’re doing some of it to make a larger game, and there might be situations where we’re going to be self-publishing larger games as well.”
While I’m really happy to see more of Platinum who’s back in great shape, it’s kind of insane how many games they are currently working on right now with a staff of around 206 persons ( according to the Wikipedia page of Platinum Games ) in their studios. The games they are currently developing are :
- Bayonetta 3
- Astral Chain
- Babylon’s Fall
- A ( purely at this point ) hypothetical Wonderful 101 Switch port
- Mysterious new IP 1
- Mysterious new IP 2
- Secret game “ unlike anything else “ they’ve made so far
( And of course, they’ve co-worked on the upcoming Granblue Fantasy game who’s development has been handled back entirely to CyGames, now that they’ve done their part )
Let’s just hope that the number of games they are simultaneously doesn’t affect the quality of the other games, because there are some games like Astral Chain who’s potential is too strong to be wasted due to an abundance of games developed simultaneously.
This looks pretty exciting. Platinum has yet to deliver to a bad game, apart from the licensed games, but honestly if they are given the full controls to do whatever they want, man do they deliver. So you should definitely expect to hear more about Platinum Games later this year... or maybe even in a few weeks since E3 is right around the corner !