Yesterday, PlatinumGames revealed the fourth and final part of its much-hyped 'Platinum4' series of announcements, and the whole thing turned out to be an April Fools' joke. It didn't seem to sit particularly well with fans who were hoping for something more, but Hideki Kamiya has taken to social media to explain the thought process behind the whole thing.
In case you missed it, the prank teased an arcade machine for a new game called 'Sol Cresta', a made-up sequel to '80s side-scrolling shoot em ups Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta. On Twitter, Kamiya says that he hopes fans "were able to get a good laugh". His full statement can be found below (translation via Siliconera):
"We, PlatinumGames, went all-out for this year’s April Fools’ again. While I’m aware that we’re living in troubled times, as an entertainer there’s a part of me that just wants to cheer you all up, even if it’s just a little.
And a big thank you goes out to the folks at Hamster for their cooperation.
I’ve always had my own rules about April Fools’ jokes such as ‘make it obvious that it’s a lie’ and ‘make sure it doesn’t disappoint even if they know it’s a lie’ and so on. However, this time it was ‘make something that will get us (me?) excited’ and we went full stupid with it. I hope that you were able to get a good laugh and remind yourself that this is PlatinumGames."
Judging by the reactions of fans in the prank's YouTube comments, and indeed in our very own comment section yesterday, it sadly didn't seem to get viewers very excited at all. Instead, people were simply left wondering whether we'll still be getting a 'proper' fourth announcement in the future.
That still remains to be seen, but we sure hope there's something else up PlatinumGames' sleeve - for many, hyping up a joke won't quite cut it.
[source twitter.com, via siliconera.com]
Comments 68
No. Just stop.
Don't do it again.
Perhaps if the gag had stuck to Kamiya's own rules, it would of been received better. To be honest, it did not feel like much of an April Fool's gag.
I'm still laughing. It was hilarious.
@RazumikhinPG I had to take the day off work as my sides hurt
It's stil not funny.
When you need to explain the joke, you know you failed.
I saw the funny side, but now I want Hideki Kamiya to go all in on a crazy scrolling shooter once his upcoming game is wrapped, it’s clear from this trailer and his twitter that he has a lot of love for that style of game, and it would be a nice way to round off all of the obvious Shmup-inspired segments in his previous directorial outings.
It wasn't funny. It wasn't entertaining. You don't announce a joke in advance. That's just stupid.
It wasn't clever or funny. You set yourself up for failure from the start
@Kreko Nintendo could have done the exact same thing and these people would have laughed.
@sikthvash I had to get 2 metres away from everyone because my laughing was so annoying.
It was better than yet another obviously fake game. And that was a seriously well-seeded prank.
Wasn't sure if it was a joke or not. Platinum doing a space shooter is rather realistic... Maybe I would even have gotten it...
A bayonetta 3 release date would have been a better joke I think! X x x x x
It wasn't exactly smart to lump in an April Fools joke with a series of spaced out major announcements.
Doesn't help that the individual joke doesn't exactly land either.
It was a good joke, it was meant to get a rise out of people and it did that.
Honestly, just get some New games released Platinum. Astral Chain was a corker, Bayonetta 3 is ongoing. Wonderful 101 is a port (how about just going straight for a sequel instead). Just release something New, even if it had been Sol Crests, with Platinums savvy it could have been good, and New.
At the very least it was more interesting than the first three announcements.
@BenAV agreed
It wasn't funny not because it was a cheap joke....
It wasn't funny because, being Platinum Games, you had all us HYPED for something truly amazing. The 4th reveal of a countdown that lasted a month?
Of course people were expecting something more
Jokes are always better if you have to explain them, right?
When you have to explain your joke...
I'm glad I was one of the few who apparently didn't give a toss about this as it seems to have bunched a lot of panties up. Not that I blame anyone for being upset, this was kind of a dumb thing to do and I have to admit I'm still struggling to get the "joke" behind it.
But what do I know, I'm just an onion.
April Fools is a morning of silliness. You don't hype it up over a month and then let people down. That's just mean man! It was a great joke (and totally got me lol) but it's bad sportsmanship to tell folk previously to stay tuned. April 1st is still an actual day where folk gets stuff done after all.
Ah well. Crazier things have happened where companies see a reaction and actually act on it...
@GrailUK This is the main thing for me... if it didn’t happen on April 1st then it isn’t an April Fool’s joke. It starting in March (?), for me, means you didn’t kid people on April Fool’s day, you started to kid them in March.
Same with the Flipnote stuff. The joke was in March. You just told everyone it was a joke on April 1st.
The ‘I work at Nintendo AMA’ on Reddit was a good April Fool.
I keep saying that platinum are just a marketing company using social media to gain fans and ultimately sales. Ha ha they got it wrong this time.
I don't really care about this announcement and the Presta series in general, but I still didn't find this funny at all.
This guy is such a clown. Who actually has to explain an April Fools joke. This dude needs fired.
I think it fell flat mostly because it's a plausible announcement from them. Platinum is known for being pretty off the wall, and even though they primarily make 3D action games, I know Kamiya has often talked about his affinity for old shmups. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they actually had a small team that made this game, and if they even went to the extent of producing some arcade cabinets for it as a novelty (think that Gungeon arcade game that was announced a while back).
Now, they're in this weird position where most people believed it and now that they've said it's not real, the reaction is just a confused "Okay?" I mean, how else did they expect people to react to a fake sequel to a super niche shmup series?
Them having to explain it, is more humorous than the actual joke.😆
I still want to live in the timeline this game gets made.
What a buffoon...
Yeah, if you have to explain the joke, it wasn’t funny.
it was because they hyped it for months as a final announcement. So they come across as a-holes here
"Why can't people take jokes anymore?"
@RupeeClock said it in two short sentences.
I thought it was funny and had a good laugh. Mainly because of all the disappointment that went along with it.
It still cracks me up when I think about it. 😂
Whenever you have to explain a joke or prank ... things went horribly wrong.
I am more disappointed by the reaction of some people to the joke than to the joke itself.
Because in the first instance it was already suspected that it could be a joke (announcement on April 1, almost half the world must be prepared if you already know it); and recently, to so many "things / incident" in various games at the beginning of this year (which I still consider absurd to bother with) and really and seriously people, to anything, "" ANYTHING "", are already indignant, they get angry, furious and even attack without a correct reason.
But well, I hope things improve.
Somebody in the comment section of another article on this topic said that we need jokes in these uncertain times. This, after I said that the joke was bad PR on PlatinumGames part. Companies can’t play with consumers emotions. Not this way. This article (and a majority of the comments) confirms what I said.
I personally thought it was funny and was already highly skeptical of the announced announcement date. Granted, I understand the disappointment of those who were expecting more.
To the socially arrested people asking, "Why can't you take a joke?..."
I have played and appreciated both Viewtiful Joe and Nier: Automata, so I can appreciate the joke that is Hideki Kamiya. But a joke, like a troll, is less and less funny each time it repeats. These antics are progressively disinclining me from projects associated with him, and, sadly, Platinum.
A good April fools day joke/prank is always appreciated but this one was not funny or obvious, It really made no sense. They missed the point apparently. I think its funny he considers himself an entertainer though.
Platinum Games definitely needs a PR barrier to stop dumb, potentially harmful decisions like this.
Between this and ‘We didn’t actually need that Kickstarter money’, they’re doing a damn good job of eroding good will or trust with supporters.
@nessisonett The purpose of jokes isn’t to annoy people.
"we went full stupid"
-Hideki Kamiya
out of touch and poorly executed
@mesome713 You're joking, right?!
Why is it a joke? An arcade game would be fun? How is this funny?
Amazing. They combined the "We're going to announce a product you might actually want. LOL jk April Fool's haha gotcha xD" and "Teasing an April Fool's joke in advance so it's not a surprise at all when it happens" strains for the ultimate eyeroll inducer.
@NEStalgia That's as great a head stone title as I've ever seen...
That game they showed looked just fine, if they made a Sol Cresta game I'm sure it would sell. I guess I was just disappointed it wasn't real, because it really could have been.
Here’s an idea.....how about cracking on with some games development instead of trolling and wasting people’s time. The mans a d*ck.
I'm more impressed with their prank that made it so anyone who completed the survey for the Physical tier of W101 got their reward delayed because they forgot to put in the option to select a platform.
Now they better make this Sol Cresta game, i want it.
Dishonesty is wrong. It doesn’t matter what day of the year it is. You can’t use a stupid holiday as an excuse to do bad things. I get a new bout of depression every year on April 1st because I can’t go online or trust anything I see or read.
April Fools’ y’all!
I got a laugh out of it because giving Nichibutsu this much esteem is one of the funniest inside jokes if you're familiar with their work.
“...and we went full stupid with it.”
That much is for sure.
@EmirParkreiner Hell yeah!
After all, Pokemon Go originated from an April's fool day joke right?
I love Moon Cresta and Terra Cresta, I really do hope this becomes a real product in the future!
@mesome713 You want someone fired because of a joke? You sound like donald trump... 🤦🏼 For those that don’t get it, that’s a bad thing...
Dear Kamiya-san
If a part of you just wants to cheer us all up, why go thru all that trouble when you could just give us something new on Bayo 3? That would go a great distance to cheer us up!
Sincerely,
A concerned gamer
@nessisonett zactly. Ppl forget Kamiya-san is a master troll 🤣
I prefer it when gaming companies make their April Fools jokes more obvious like LamePro and Game Infarcer.
@Ryu_Niiyama ok boomer
@User199x huh? April Fool’s whippersnapper! Oh and get off my lawn and all that.
He didn't "have to" explain the joke, he did it because so many people are stupid enough to not get it.
What's disappointing is that people can't appreciate an effort, and would rather complain that they aren't getting more of whatever they think they wanted.
@dew12333 OK Mr. Ego
@tobsesta99 Why?
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