PlatinumGames is making some waves. The company has been in the news lately, and seems to be taking a bold step into self-publishing. Up until this point, however, the studio has been a work-for-hire without having sole ownership of the IPs they worked on. With getting The Wonderful 101 rights from Nintendo to launch a Kickstarter for multiple platforms, it’s led some to hope that maybe other exclusive titles the company has developed can find a similar fate. It’s hard to say how that will go, but for Platinum’s latest hit, it doesn’t look great.
In an interview with VGC, Studio Head Atsushi Inaba was interviewed about the upcoming release of The Wonderful 101. Beyond that though, while speaking about 2019’s Switch exclusive Astral Chain, he ssaid he won’t rule out it going multiplatform at some point in a similar fashion- but also said that decision comes down to Nintendo. In the end, the IP is owned by both companies, so they will both have to give the go ahead.
“In the case of Astral Chain, it’s an IP that’s owned half by Platinum and half by Nintendo,” he said. “So right now it just came out and it’s too early to say. For the time being we’re just hoping that it’s a success for the Nintendo Switch and we’ll see how it goes from there.
“Ultimately it’s Nintendo’s call, not ours. They own the publishing rights to Astral Chain, so really we have no say in that matter. We consider The Wonderful 101 an exclusive case.”
Astral Chain, unlike The Wonderful 101, seems to have been quite the success. So, it may be that Nintendo might be a little more hesitant to let that one go. We’ll just have to wait and see, but for now, if you want to play the game, you’ll need a Switch.
