Big changes are afoot at Japanese developer PlatinumGames. The company was formed after an exodus from Capcom and has since made its name on action titles and being one hell of a workhorse studio since its inception. They are taking bold moves now, as they go into the uncertain world of self-publishing. They’ve unveiled their first major project in that league already. But they have several work-for-hire titles with other publishers as well. While you may expect they will phase out the latter, it seems they do want to strike some type of balance.
In an interview with DualShockers at PAX East 2020, Studio Head Atsushi Inaba talked about the balance between the two different areas of publishing. Inaba said they are “not going to forget about their collaborations” with their various partners from the past – such as Nintendo, who they are currently working with for Bayonetta 3 – in an attempt to “try to maintain both of those moving forward.”
It makes a lot of sense for Platinum to straddle this line, considering they have a few key projects with partners ongoing now. Whether or not the studio will step towards full freedom after those are done is something we’ll just have to wait and see. Their next title is set to be revealed soon, and apparently is going to blow our minds, so godspeed to them.