Bayonetta and Astral Chain developer PlatinumGames has reportedly been losing key members of its development team after a lengthy period of failed projects.
It turns out that Metal Gear Rising and Transformers Devastation director Kenji Saito, Astral Chain director Takahisa Taura, and Anarchy Reigns director Masaki Yamanaka have all removed the PlatinumGames initials i.e. PG, and other references to the studio from their Twitter/X handles, suggesting that they’re no longer working at the company.
It’s particularly worth noting that Kenji Saito used to have his location in his Twitter/X bio set as Platinum Games, and that has been removed alongside other references to the studio.
Furthermore, more recently, Bayonetta Origins director Abebe Tinari took to Blue Sky to change the location in his bio to Helsinki, Finland. He also posted about this change, saying that he hadn’t had a reason to update his profile bio for several years up until now. He added that while it’s only a one-word change, it is a major one, suggesting that the move to Helsinki may be associated to a new job.
It appears that Hideki Kamiya’s departure from Platinum Games may have led to other creative leads following suit. While Kamiya went on to form Clovers studio and collaborate with Capcom on the development of a sequel to Okami, it remains to be seen where these other key people will end up. It’s likely that Kamiya will ask them to team up with him to work on Okami 2 and other future projects at Clovers. Only time will tell whether this is the case.
Recently, in an official press release, Kamiya shared that he left Platinum Games to search for a place where he could work on games according to his creative beliefs. With the help of encouraging colleagues who share the same beliefs, he was able to find that place at Clovers.
