If you thought that Platinum Games has more going on than just the highly-anticipated Bayonetta 3 and Astral Chain, then think again, as the developer has revealed in an interview that 2019 is set to be an “incredibly important” year.
The interview with Platinum Games studio head Atsushi Inaba, published by Video Games Chronicle, doesn’t entirely reveal what we can expect from the developer this year, but it does mention a handful of significant changes that the studio is undergoing internally, such as working toward self-publishing and no longer relying on funding from external publishers. On top of that, it also revealed there are two new wholly-owned IPs in the works.
Here are the highlights:
- “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.”
- One of these new approaches include a move away from relying on external publisher funding, as well as an examination of how it structures game design.
- In addition, the studio is working towards self-publishing, since it will eventually have the “freedom” to “own its IPs and make independent decisions on future directions.”
- Platinum Games is in the middle of developing an unannounced title which “has never been done before.” Inaba went on to state: “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.”
- In fact, the studio is currently working on two new intellectual properties which have yet to be announced.
Even though Platinum does intend to start developing and publishing its own content, this move won’t spell the end for third-party collaborations. It still intends to do such collaborations when such opportunities arise, and it will even apply the lessons learned from previous games to make even better ones in the future:
- Bayonetta 3 will be a good example of this, with the game seeing a change in design process based on the studio’s past experience with Bayonetta 1 and 2.
- And when Platinum does work on similar third-party collaborations like Astral Chain, Bayonetta and NieR: Automata in the future, Inaba stated, “…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.”
This is definitely an exciting turn of events for Platinum Games, and it will be interesting to see how 2019 turns out for it. That said, it’s worth noting that neither Granblue Fantasy: ReLink or Babylon’s Fall were mentioned in any capacity, despite the studio’s involvement in both projects already being public knowledge. The studio’s name was removed from the former’s website a few months ago, while we haven’t heard about the latter since E3 2018. Maybe these have something to do with Platinum’s current plans? Perhaps we’ll find out in the coming months when it’s ready to share.
