PlatinumGames president promises ‘big news’ early this year

The president of Astral Chain studio PlatinumGames has teased “big news” from the company in 2020.

Speaking to Japanese publication Inside Games, Kenichi Sato indicated that the public could start to see “the beginning of a new stage” for the developer early this year.

With the Tokyo Olympic Games putting an increased focus on Japan, Sato said he wants the company to operate at “full speed” during 2020.

Platinum continues to work on Bayonetta 3, which director Hideki Kamiya recently claimed is progressing well, despite no public showing of the title since its announcement in 2017.

However, arguably more important for Platinum are its two in-development original IPs, which will be owned entirely by the studio. The company is also planning to move into self-publishing.

Those developments are seen as crucial to the studio’s growth, since despite creating countless critically-lauded IPs during its first ten years, Platinum is still reliant on partnerships with other companies.

The Bayonetta and Vanquish IPs are owned by Sega, while Nintendo has the rights to Wonderful 101 and Astral Chain.

In May 2019 studio head Atsushi Inaba told VGC that he was implementing methodology changes at Platinum, including new approaches in how it designs its games, in an attempt to build a “new foundation” for the company.

At the time Inaba claimed Bayonetta 3 would see a change in design process based on experience creating the first two games, and revealed that the firm was midway through creating an unannounced title which he claimed “has never been done before”.