Today, during a panel at Bitsummit hosted at the Miyako Messe venue in Kyoto, PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba talked about several interesting topics related to the studio.
Asked about their favorite game genres, Inaba-san explained that he likes games with really in-depth stories. When it comes to really hardcore action games, they’re in the minority of games that he personally enjoys. Kamiya-san explained that a lot of people think that he likes only action games, but whether they’re action games, shooters, or adventure games, it doesn’t matter. He just likes games in general. He even finished Call of Duty for the Nintendo DS.
When asked what is the perfect action game, Inaba was doubtful that such a thing even exists, but Kamiya-san mentioned that the game that immediately comes to his mind is Castlevania for the Famicom.
According to Kamiya-san, the secret to creating perfect combos for action games is mostly about letting the player becoming the character and making them feel like they’re doing really cool moves, and being in control of that character really makes them feel good.
According to Inaba-san, people think that PlatinumGames makes great combo-action games. Yet, that’s really not their intention, as they don’t really have things like meetings to decide the perfect combos to put in their titles. It just comes naturally. Kamiya-san added that it’s the same about making action games: many think that PlatinumGames is a studio dedicated to making action games, but they simply set out to make the games they like, and they organically become what a lot of gamers like. Even though there is a bit of a discrepancy between what people think they do and what they really do, it’s still “a nice misconception,” as it results in a lot of people liking PlatinumGames for the combos and action in their games, and it helps motivate them as creators, even if it’s not intentional: they just want to make fun games.
Inaba-san then explained that when he saw the logo of Bitsummit Volume 6, it reminded him of The Wonderful 101, which was the sixth game that PlatinumGames was working on in the way they number their projects chronologically. He remembers how nice it was to work on that. Kamiya-san added jokingly that while the game is called “101,” its worldwide sales are more like 13, so maybe they should have called it “The Unwonderful 13.” Yet, the developers love that game, so it would be awesome for them to be able to release it on Nintendo Switch.
Kamiya-san then asked the audience “If The Wonderful 101 came out on Switch, would you play it?” and there were quite a lot of positive responses.
Inaba-san was asked how they stay competitive against western games and their big budgets. He mentioned that he thinks their budgets are very reasonable, and the amount of money that is spent on AAA western games is almost scary. It’s so high that a studio can go bankrupt while still selling millions of copies. PlatinumGames prefers to have a variety of different projects with different budgets and content including some self-published games. This is the safest way for them to remain competitive and still keep their Platinum style intact.
Kamiya-san added that it’s not really about the money, as you can spend a lot of money and come up with a really crappy movie like Pacific Rim 2 (he added that Inaba-san made him say that, then they laughed and said that it really is a crappy movie). Just because you have a lot of money, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to make a good game. As a creator, sometimes you want to make small games, sometimes you want to make big games, but none of that is about the budget, but it’s about making the game that you want to make. If you’re able to do that, that’s the most important thing.
Kamiya-san is currently working on Bayonetta 3, and he’s very excited to give more information about it in the future. Inaba-san explained that there is a bunch of very interesting games the studio is working on, but one of them is an unannounced title that is probably going to be something new and innovative that people have never seen before, and it’ll “turn the action genre on its head.” It’s a top-secret game that a lot of people at PlatinumGames don’t even know about.
He concluded mentioning that at PlatinumGames they want to keep being creative and original. Seeing all the indie games at BitSummit inspires them to continue to compete and to have a hungry mindset and go on with their innovation.
If you want to read more about Bayonetta 3, you can check out Kamiya-san’s comments from February. If you’re more interested in The Wonderful 101, you can enjoy our review of the Wii U version.