Bayonetta Veteran Confirms PlatinumGames Departure

Curious as to what's going on at Platinum that's causing so many vets to leave, even now.

Guess we're not going to get a Bayonetta 4 anytime soon if at all.
Honestly the future of the company is looking bleak.

Still hoping for Astral Chain 2, but now made by the more junior staff, which is fine if Nintendo is on board producing

Correction: Abebe Tinari's the name, not Adebe

They are one of my favorite developers. Hope they don’t go under because of the talent leaving.

Hey, at the end we always can count on Microsoft buying them….. right? Right?

Oh boy, now my comment I wrote in the previous Bayonetta article (the 15th anniversary one) feels kinda verified.😑
Seriously, I'm getting more worried for Platinum's future here.

Even with some high-profile departures, they still had over 300 employees as of last year. and had three separate studios in 2022.
If I put on my wild speculation hat, I would guess that Kamina wanted to get back to making games (he was VP at PlatinumGames in the later years) and maybe some of the others didn't like the foray into Live Service crap at their Tokyo studio.

Platinum games becoming a shell of a company, why so many top people leave the company, I wonder what happens. I hope the company is still okay and still capable of making good action games like bayonetta series and astral chains.

Platinum feels like it’s finished at this point. Oh well, they had a good run.

Cereza and the lost demon is an excellent game, especially when splitting joycons with a friend.

@NinChocolate apparently the director for astral Chain left platinum after one of his projects got canceled.

Make of that what you will.

@gsilver 300 don't mean much when several of the lead designers quit.

Platinum have become Tango Gameworks at this point.

It could be that being kind of a Nintendo (Switch) exclusive company, there's limitations to how creative the developers can be. They've put hit after hit out, but there's going to be bigger opportunities at somewhere like Sony and chance to make more money.

Bayonetta Origins was clearly made with a lot of love, but imo also showed that the team lacked a lot of experience.

The Bayonetta franchise is well established and they have all the elements already in place to make another trilogy without needing much input. And let's be honest, if they mess it up, what are they left with ... ?

@iLikeUrAttitude I see zero reason why we won't see a Bayo 4. Nintendo just needs the yes from Sega, not Platinum.

Seems like management at platinum are annoying many of their staff. Is a shame if this becomes more of an exodus than it already may be.

I’m not convinced that these are unusual circumstances. It’s healthy for both the developers and studios to get a fresh wind every once in a while. That is, if the studio manages to attract enough new talents to make up for it.

Platinum is F****d

Bad news. PlatinumGames made some brilliant games. I hope the rest of the crew delivers us many passion projects in the future, nonethenless.

I hate Hideki's personal views but I can't deny that I cheer on Capcom to climb up to the top again with Okami 2, even if it has to be directed by him.

@Keyblade-Dan @Dom_31
The creative leads behind the Nier series are all still there (as far as I'm aware) so it's not all doom and gloom.

@AJWolfTill Pretty sure actual creative mind behind that series doesn't work for Platinum he works for Square

@NinChocolate

Nintendo now owns the Astral Chain IP if I’m not mistaken so I don’t believe a sequel hinges on Platinums approval or direct involvement. Hopefully we do get a sequel but we all know Nintendo IPs can go dormant.

@Princess_Lilly What other personal views does he have other than acting like an assho|e on the internet?

@Keyblade-Dan
Aww heck. Well that makes things look a lot dicier in my eyes.

Devs moving about is not uncommon, especially is mid-large studios like this. There tends to come a point where you’ve reached the cap of what you feel you can do at a studio and then you look for fresh opportunities elsewhere.

@Rainz I think this is correct. Not only Astral Chain, but also Bayonetta and Nier IPs are owned by Sega and presumably Square Enix. If fans and IP owners really want a sequel, they can do it without PG. In Bayonetta's case, a Nintendo exec prob just needs to wave a check at Sega with a letter saying they will cover the cost.

dont blame him for leaving but also is Sony really the best place to go, they're just as bad as Platinum if not a little worse nowadays

@Samalik well, he did call non Japanese people "insects" and automatically blocks everyone who writes to him in any other language than Japanese. I don't expect anyone to learn new languages just to communicate with fans, but I assume even he knows a tiny bit of English (like the rest of the planet), especially when he was hired by big companies for a long time. So yeah, I think that is enough

@Ramen756 to be honest sega didnt even want to fund the series.... if nintendo doesnt foot the bill i thing it be an end to the series....... b3 also kinda burnt the fans it did have... minigames, viola, the story, the mishandling of the character bayonetta herself

@Rainz the likelihood of a sequel is probably contingent upon Platinum’s promise to make it. I’m sure Nintendo is among Platinum’s top clients so if Nintendo decides it adds something meaningful to their library, and Platinum can make a compelling proposal to Nintendo, a sequel will go ahead.

I think Astral Chain is a nice little brawler for Nintendo, not something they have loads of, so they should really have asked Platinum to put forth a design. But as always, Nintendo seemingly can be happy frying it’s bigger fish and call it a day, as you mentioned there

I wonder if they are leaving before the Microsoft purchase of PlatinumGames.

@bert0503 People are leaving because they don't agree with Atsushi Inaba their CEO and overall PG have just burned a lot of goodwill from their past contractors. Also I doubt MS would want to buy them after they got burned so hard by PG with how Scalebound turned out.

It's no hidden secret PG took money meant for Scalebound to only put it into other projects and they also did the same to Granblue Fantasy Relink. The only reason they got away with it is because people pitied them for years as an underdog company, after Babylon Falls flopping people have long run out of pity for them.

@Princess_Lilly I think that's just his assho|e persona talking. Not a good mask to wear, but, yeah...

@Samalik I really really hope so. Personally I dont see any point in that, but guys who make good games tend to be built a bit different.

@Princess_Lilly If you look at his youtube channel, he has a completely different demiour.

It makes ya wonder why the hell is he pulling this crap off on twitter to begin with....

We'll see where Platinum's future goes at this point.

@Samalik could be that the twitter people are annoying him, which is totally understandable as twitter is more toxic than a cod lobby

@Ryoth Babylon’s Fall was definitely Square Enix to blame. They wanted a live service game. PlatinumGames does better when they have creative control.