It has been a big past few years for PlatinumGames with therelease ofNieR: Automatain 2017, theannouncement of developingBayonetta 3, and themore recent reveal ofAstral Chain. In the midst of all of this though, PlatinumGames' studio head Atsushi Inaba has said that 2019 is a very big year for the company, for more reasons than just what is currently in development.
Speaking recently in an interview to Video Games Chronicle, Inaba talked a bit about the importance of 2019 for PlatinumGames on a business level. Platinum is trying to ensure this year that it can get to a point where it can make more of its own development decisions down the road by controlling its IP. In the past, the studio has had to partner with third-party publishers that have led to complications later on. “Basically, we’re building a new foundation that in later years will pay dividends. For us, new challenges are going to be very important,” Inaba said.
As for previous examples of when the ownership of IP became a problem, Inaba touched onBayonettaspecifically. “It’s absolutely the truth that there are cases where you want to do a sequel but if you don’t own the IP, you’re able to’t do it. It’s that simple, and quite frankly in the case ofBayonettait took a lot of time and energy to get it to the point where sequels could be made. It wasn’t as simple as picking up the phone and asking, ‘hey, can we do this?’ There were a lot of pieces that needed to fall into place and a lot of negotiating that had to occur.”
Speaking ofBayonetta, Inaba also touched on the forthcoming release ofBayonetta 3and said that the title has seen a change in the design process when compared to the first two games. Inaba didn’t expand further on what this means specifically, but it’s an interesting tidbit to be certain.
In addition to touching onBayonetta 3though, Inaba also mentioned that PlatinumGames has multiple unannounced projects that are also in the works. One of these, he claimed “has never been done before” in regards to the project’s vision. “I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else.”
As for when this project (and others) that Platinum is working on will be revealed though, Inaba didn’t say. “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.”
Regardless of when we hear 3or these unannounced projects from Platinum, the studio definitely seems to be sitting in an interesting spot right now. Following the success ofNieR: Automataand the forthcoming launch ofAstral Chain, hopefully, the studio can indeed get to the point this year that Inaba seems to be wanting to take things. More freedom for developers is always a good thing, after all.
