2020 is shaping up to be a big year for Japanese studio PlatinumGames. The company has already successfully crowdfunded a remaster of The Wonderful 101, and yesterday announced Project G.G., a new IP which it aims to publish itself. Those were the first of four pieces of news that the company is drip-feeding to its fans.
We've now got the third piece of news: PlatinumGames is opening a new office in Toyko to work alongside its existing Osaka HQ. It currently has 15 staff but this is expected to rise to around 100, and the studio will be working on the aforementioned Project G.G., according to an interview with Hideki Kamiya in Famitsu magazine.
In a blog post on the company's site, President and CEO Kenichi Sato outlines the reasons for the new office and PlatinumGames' mission for the coming years.
Sato states that the studio is "proud to be regarded the world over as one of the foremost Japanese game developers, by gamers and fellow creators alike," and that he is "always humbled when I visit game studios abroad and our peers there tell me they’re fans of PlatinumGames."
Sato adds that making "intellectual property that’s entirely ours" is the company's goal now, which hints that we'll be seeing less collaboration with the likes of Nintendo and Sega in the future. He explains that the new "capital alliance with Tencent" has played a big role in realising this objective. Sato also explains that "at PlatinumGames, everyone’s a creator," and that "every employee at PlatinumGames has a stake in creating high-quality games in a comfortable, efficient environment."
This leads to the establishment of "The Platinum 8", a series of eight principles that are shared by the entire company. "The Platinum 8 guides our entire staff as we face the challenges of our daily work," adds Sato. "By working together under these principles, I think we can overcome any obstacle and truly become the world’s number one studio for player satisfaction."
With two studios, more staff and an injection of capital from its partnership with Tencent, PlatinumGames could grow into one of the games industry's major players over the next few years – assuming its games can find the consistent commercial success that has sometimes eluded them.
As well as Bayonetta 3 and Project G.G., PlatinumGames is also working on Babylon's Fall for the PS4.
[source four.platinumgames.com]
Comments 26
I wonder if the fourth reveal will be the resurrection of Scalebound?
What’s the 4th announcement? They’ve refilled the hand wash in the men’s toilets!
@Rodan2000,
No they have replaced the toilet rolls.
Like I said, Bayonetta 3 will be multi-platform. You can thank the China money for that.
Awesome, Platinum is on the road for an amazing future.... just as long as they stay away from Tencent AND Activision
@BloodyMurder if it wasn’t for Nintendo saving that franchise, Platinumgames wouldn’t exist anymore.
So that won’t happen anytime soon.
Genuinely wondering if they are in charge of the new The Dragon Prince game that's currently in develoment. No specific details have been released & they did handle the The Legend of Korra game.
At this rate the fourth announcement will be 'we might be at E3 this year'.
@RupeeClock
Microsoft owns the Scalebound IP. So probably not.
I would rather live in Osaka but tokyo is a close second(if I had a choice)
They seem te be recruiting! very excited what there slate of games is going to be in the upcoming years and how fast they produce their products.
Great for them, but should not count as one of the announcements. I expected game announcements
Wow that’s great news. For those saying it’s not an announcement, it means they can work on Bayo 3 alongside these new games. It’s great news for those of us who eagerly await Platinum’s work.
Very cool, good for them, but I seriously hope they're not seriously counting this as part of the Platinum 4. Consumers deserve better.
@Friendly Ummm ...the franchise of Bayonetta probably wouldn't exist anymore, not the developing company itself. Platinum Games would still be around. They still had other contracting deals with other developers and such.
this is your indicator that platinum is thriving big
Surprised by the negative comments here. This is awesome news! Platinum are growing, that means more games from this fantastic studio! If this came as a standalone announcement people would be excited but because it came as part of a package of announcements it's disappointing? C'mon people, lets have some perspective, be happy for them!
@Ogbert Tell me about it, they can announce whatever they like...I get the impression the last thing on their mind is that someone in the comment section of Nintendolife is crying because it's not a sequel to some game that they wanted.
The new studio will be focused on live services
"Our new Tokyo office will play a major role as we expand into live ops game development. The starting core members of our future live ops team who’ll be working there are already a part of PlatinumGames."
https://four.platinumgames.com/03-TOKYO/
@johnvboy
They have installed save stations in all toilets on Suda 51's recommendation. ^^
This is nice but sucks it means no Bayo news anytime soon.
I'm interested to see what the future holds for Platinum. This studio growth can only be a good thing and is paving the way for more projects.
Okami 2...please!
@Aldora Unless Nintendo wasn't happy with progression and withdrew money. Happened with Microsoft, who's to say it would happen again?
I love the Bayonetta series and whilst I’ve not played any of their other IP’s I’m interested to see their developments going forward.
@Aldora I never presented the idea as if I had evidence, only suggested a scenario that happened with Microsoft with that dragon game Platinum was developing.
With all their projects they really need that extra staff. Though with Corona going on, everything might be on hold for now.
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