Among other reasons
Platinum is seemingly fed up over not being able to control the future of the games it develops. Titles like The Wonderful 101 and Vanquish have been positively received, but because Platinum doesn’t wholly own the properties, it can’t dictate what’s next for them. That’s going to change.
In an interview with Video Games Chronicle, Platinum head Atsushi Inaba says that the studio is going to shift to an ethos of self-publishing its games. Inaba mentions that he doesn’t want to depend on external publishers because that takes authority out of Platinum’s hands. “What it means is we have a lot of different choices in the way that we want to make games,” he said, also mentioning that the studio values having freedom in this regard.
The biggest sticking point seems to concern when sequels get made. “It’s that simple and quite frankly in the case of Bayonetta, it 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,” Inaba explains. ““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 can’t do it.”
The wheels are already in motion, as Inaba says Platinum has two unannounced games in development, both completely owned by the studio. One of them is emphatically praised by Inaba, who says “We’re in the middle of designing something that has never been done before. I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else. This is something that has never been designed before. So from a game design perspective, we’re very excited right now.“
Platinum isn’t taking these changes lightly. Inaba calls this “a new foundation,” while also stating that these new methods brings about new challenges. Regardless, it seems like an exciting time at Platinum, as the developer hopes to finally seize control of its artistic vision.
Platinum’s Inaba says secret project is ‘unlike anything done before’ [Video Games Chronicles]
