Summary
Even more game directors have seemingly leftPlatinumGames, causing fans to wonder about the studio’s future. The past few years have been a mixed bag forPlatinumGames, with many of the developer’s key staff members leaving to pursue other ventures. The most prominent of these departures wasBayonettacreator and PlatinumGames co-founder Hideki Kamiya, who parted ways with PlatinumGames in 2023 after almost 20 years. He would later explain that he felt PlatinumGames was going in a direction different from his own viewpoint as a developer.
More staff members would seemingly follow Kamiya, with past rumors claiming thatBayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demondirector Abebe Tinari,Astral Chaindirector Takahisa Taura,Metal Gear Rising: Revengeancedirector Kenji Saito, andAnarchy Reignscharacter designer Masaki Yamanakawould be leaving PlatinumGames. Tinari in particular confirmed his departure by revealing that he had moved out of Japan completely.
More evidence of these prominent PlatinumGames directors leaving the company recently surfaced in the form of a video shared by Hideki Kamiya on his YouTube channel. As noted byVGC, this video included a “bonus” segment showing what Kamiya describes as a “former PlatinumGames directors’ drinking party,” consisting of himself, Abebe Tinari, Takahisa Taura, Kenji Saito, Masaki Yamanaka, andBayonetta 3director Yusuke Miyata. So far, PlatinumGames has yet to comment on this development officially, and it isn’t clear where these now-former staff members are going now.
PlatinumGames Seemingly Loses Five Major Game Directors
In 2024, Hideo Kamiya formed Clovers Inc., a version of the old Clover Studios that iscurrently working on theOkamisequel. According to Kamiya, many former PlatinumGames alumni have joined him at Clovers, including co-founder and formerProject GGdesigner Kento Koyama. A recent staff photo also featuresBayonettaandAstral Chaincinematic director Kunihiko Tsuda,Metal Gear Risinglead animator Hirokazu Takeuchi, andBayonettaseries animator Rei Yamamoto, though this isn’t a concrete confirmation that they are indeed working at Clovers.
Meanwhile, PlatinumGames is joining forces with Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja onNinja Gaiden 4, which is set to release this fall. On the other hand, the status of Hideki Kamiya’sProject GGhas been called into questionever since he left the company, with its recent removal from PlatinumGames’ website and lack of updates beforehand leaving some gamers to wonder if it has been canceled. Additionally, a social media update from Takahisa Taura recently hinted that he might be forming his own studio based in Tokyo.
