There was a period when Japanese developer PlatinumGames seemed like they were on shaky ground. Several projects got canceled or reshuffled, and they hadn’t announced a full project for awhile. There were also rumors that Microsoft was at one point interested in buying the company, though that deal fell apart. Now it seems they are back on track, getting funding for self-publishing from Chinese multimedia giant Tencent, have recently released The Wonderful 101: Remastered and also have several other projects in the pipeline. It also seems they want to be clear they aren’t for sell.
Talking to VGC, Platinum Head Producer Atsushi Inaba shot down the recent Microsoft acquisition rumors, going as far as to say that it was ‘crazy.’ It seems Microsoft hasn’t even approached them about an acquisition at this point according to him. He also said that they would have no interest in selling at this point anyway, as the studio wants to remain independent and continue their path to self-publishing.
“I did read some rumours about Xbox wanting to purchase PlatinumGames, and I thought, ‘people on the internet write the craziest stuff’, because that conversation has not come to our doorstep at all,” he said.
“That said, we’re not Microsoft, so we don’t know what happens behind their doors, we don’t know if they had any thoughts about it possibly.
“We’ve not had any talks like that, but I think even if it was a possibility, we’re now going into more independent self-publishing.
“It’s not that we’re disinterested in Microsoft, but if the relationship were to be us working under their direction, I feel like that would be the opposite of what we’re trying to do now and limit our possibilities. Any opportunities that would limit our freedom I think we would be against.”
Phil Spencer has mentioned in the past about how Microsoft would like to add an Asian developer to the Xbox Game Studios, since it’s an area where Xbox lacks the most. But that won’t be PlatinumGames, at least not anytime soon.