Platinum Games has revealed new details regarding what's next for the studio. According to a new interview, Platinum is working on multiple unannounced projects, and it's looking to expand its workforce to more than 1000 employees across those projects in order to boost its publishing nous.
What is Platinum Games up to?
Right now, Platinum Games is gearing up for the launch of Bayonetta 3, which hits the Nintendo Switch in October. Despite this, the studio still found time to chat to Japanese gaming publication Famitsu (note: article is in Japanese, and we're using extra translation from gaming personality Nibel on Twitter) about its future plans. After former Nintendo managing director Takao Yamane joined Platinum earlier this week, speculation was rife regarding what his appointment meant for the studio. It turns out that it's all part of a major expansion for Platinum, with CEO Atsushi Inaba telling Famitsu that he wants the studio to exceed 1000 employees in the future (about half as many as Koei Tecmo has).
Yamane himself will head up Platinum's publishing division, which is aiming to publish games on a global scale, both physically and digitally. The studio's upcoming slate includes several unannounced projects for different publishers, with the scale ranging from smaller titles to bigger ones. Platinum is also currently working on a brand new IP separate to Project GG, which could well be a live service game if Platinum sticks to the new direction it announced back in February this year. Of course, the abject failure of Babylon's Fall could cause the studio to rethink things in that direction. We'll have to wait and see.
What do we know about Project GG?
Right now, details about Project GG are still pretty thin on the ground, but Platinum's Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya did share some more information in the Famitsu interview. It's a game that Yamane himself finds "interesting", according to the interview, and it'll be published in-house by Platinum, so the studio isn't looking for an external publisher. Since the game was originally teased back in 2020, Kamiya says the project has expanded significantly, and that he wants to make sure the game is as good as it can possibly be. Tencent's investment in the studio apparently helps in that department, but that doesn't mean Tencent has any creative control over Platinum; rather, Tencent tells Platinum about trends in the industry, but takes a hands-off approach otherwise, according to Inaba.
Platinum dishes out a few more juicy Project GG details in the interview as well. Apparently, the game will have some kind of standout feature in a similar vein to Bayonetta's Witch Time or The Wonderful 101's Unite Morph gimmicks. Perhaps most excitingly, Kamiya confirms that the Shiba Inu who made an appearance while a building collapsed in the original trailer will have an expanded role within the game, so that's not the last we'll see of the fluffy little critter. It's all go right now at Platinum, so hopefully we hear more about Project GG and some of the studio's upcoming titles in the next few months.
