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Platinum and KojiPro on partnership: 'We'd love to do it again'
The build of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance shown off this week at a press event in Los Angeles was essentially complete, and while the game itself won't be released until February, finished product means that the collaboration between Kojima Productions (represented at the event by producer Yuji Korekado) and Platinum Games (represented by producer Atsushi Inaba) is also done. So when Joystiq sat down to chat with them, we only had one important question: How'd it go?Both sides were unsure of the partnership when it began. Korekado said that "the challenge for us was the worry about what kind of game would this end up being," and Inaba told us that Platinum wasn't sure about taking over for Kojima's series on this iteration. But now that all is said and done, both sides also say they not only had a great time, but they'd do it again. "We could not have done that without Platinum Games' expertise, it would not have happened," said Korekado. "So of course, this tag team, we'd love to do it again."Inaba was even more adamant about the two studios working together in the future. "From our side, it would be a waste to not do this again. We made a great game, and we'd love to do it again," he said. He agreed that when the project started, both teams were reticent about joining forces. "But after working together on the game for a while, they were both able to learn from each other and grow as people and as developers. And we feel that's a plus. Moving forward as a team, we'd love to do it again, no doubt." Obviously, nothing's been announced yet, and the goal right now is to get Rising in the public's hands. But it sounds like Platinum and Kojima are ready to make more Metal Gear music together in the future.
Platinum just now hearing about Anarchy Reigns delay, apologizes to fans
Yesterday's announcement of a Q1 2013 release window for Anarchy Reigns was a surprise to us. It turns out it was also a surprise to developer Platinum Games. Producer Atsushi Inaba issued a statement to fans today in a series of tweets, expressing his surprise and explaining what he knows."First of all," he said, "we are done with all international versions of Anarchy Reigns. The delay is not due to further development of the game." In fact, "Today's Q1 2013 release news was the first we'd heard of it." Inaba apologized to fans for the confusion, and confirmed that the Japanese release will take place on July 5 as planned.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance DLC planned, could be new playable character and mission
Platinum Games may give players a chance to put down Raiden's sword in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Around the 2:48 mark in the Game Trailers E3 interview above, Platinum producer Yuji Korekado (through his translator) suggests the possibility of other playable characters.Specifically, Korekado mentions DLC, which he confirms the studio is planning for post-launch. "Right now we don't have any plans for online competitive play; however, we do have some plans for download content for after the release of the game, that will maybe let you play as a different character or experience different types of missions." We sincerely hope the character is Old Snake and the mission is to do some skateboarding.
Hideo Kojima gets his Revengeance with Metal Gear Rising
Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima and Platinum Games producer Atsushi Inaba took the stage at Konami's offices here in Los Angeles earlier this week for a mea culpa of sorts: Kojima now admits that Metal Gear Solid Rising, though it may have looked nice in the trailer back at E3 2010, just wasn't working. "In the summer of 2010, the team made a presentation for me," he recounted through a translator, "and I realized the game design still wasn't there yet." The team's vision was split between stealth and action, the idea of "cut everything" worked technically but made for gameplay that was too open-ended, and the game just wasn't fun, says Kojima. "As the young staff said to me, they wanted a good game that just felt good moving around, and we would never get that, so I decided to cancel the project." "But still, we had a lot of things" that could still be used, says Kojima. "Motion capture, a lot of good story, the view of the world inside the game, and I wanted to use that somehow. I wanted Rising to be born again, so that's when I decided to contact Platinum Games."%Gallery-141553%
Platinum Games aims to build and keep new IPs in the future
This week's launch of Vanquish not only portends the imminent demise of thousands of robots, but represents the final shot in Sega's four-game publishing deal with Platinum Games. Speaking to Develop, Platinum's executive director, Atsushi Inaba, reflected on the agreement -- encompassing Bayonetta, Madworld, Infinite Space and Vanquish -- and the incentives offered by Sega. "When we created Platinum Games, we of course talked to a lot of publishers, and Sega offered us the most freedom to develop games, he said. "I think the partnership has been great, and I'm really grateful for their support." Inaba considers the exchange, with ownership of four properties going towards creative freedom, a "fair deal." But what happens next? "For the future of our partnership, of course, it's not something that we alone can decide," Inaba said. "Sega has its stance, and we have ours, but if Sega asks us to make something we might take the offer." Although Platinum has nothing "against the idea of making sequels," Inaba added, the company's long-term goal is to create new IP and retain ownership of it. "So as a studio we would like to do both [new IP and sequels], but the whole point of Platinum Games is to create our own IP, that's what we do." With Platinum still growing and readjusting its relationship with Sega, the developer's critical acclaim will be compared to its uneven sales performance in any discussion. Selling over a million copies, Bayonetta has undoubtedly been the studio's biggest success thus far. If Sega intends to ask for a sequel, it'll know witch. [Image: Platinum Games website]
Platinum Games working on multiplayer game
Speaking to NowGamer, Platinum Games producer Atsushi Inaba confirmed that the studio is currently working on a new multiplayer project. With Platinum having thus far produced only single-player titles (Bayonetta, Vanquish), Inaba confirmed the multiplayer title saying, "We haven't officially announced it yet, but we have a big multiplayer title that we're working on right now." He then advised that we all keep an eye out for the upcoming announcement (we will!). Inaba also discussed the challenges of creating Vanquish, a new IP that will enter a crowded market of third-person shooters, most of them developed by western companies. He noted that the people at Platinum "enjoy new challenges" and are encouraged by the fact that third-person shooters constitute such a popular genre. This, despite the fact that the genre has struggled to take hold in Japan, which Inaba believes is "very unfortunate because there are so many great games in the genre."
Japanese devs sound off about 3DS
Famitsu recently rounded up some high-profile Japanese developers to gauge their reactions to Nintendo's 3DS hardware. According to a translation by Andriasang, the responses ran from business-minded declarations of intent to somewhat philosophical thinking-out-loud. Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono seemed to be most able to keep his excitement in check. He was collected and business-minded when he said, "We'd like to put in some ideas that make effective use of the portability." Hideo Kojima was happy that he wouldn't have to change glasses to use 3DS and mused about the implementation of CO-OPs, the multiuplayer mode featured in Peace Walker, "and other things -- elements fitting of a 3D and portable game machine." Super Monkey Ball (and Yakuza) creator Toshihiro Nagoshi, already working on a 3DS Monkey Ball game, said that he would "like to make a variety of proposals" for games that use the Wi-Fi and 3D aspects of the system. Shinji Mikami and Tomonobu Itagaki were on their way to a meeting in which they planned to talk about the system (and eat yakiniku). Others developers got more ... philosophical. Suda 51, for example, wants to make "The Next Game," in the same sense that he sees 3DS as "The Next Hardware." Bayonetta producer Hideki Kamiya hopes to make "a 3D game where you can enjoy the feeling of existence given by portable 3D." Kamiya's Platinum Games partner Atsushi Inaba, "experienced a strong jolt of the feeling 'I want to make something.'" He added, "Since the start of the game industry, there's never been a system that better fit the words 'dream' and 'next generation.'"
Shinji Mikami's Vanquish headed to 360, PS3; 'Winter 2010' release worldwide
As listed in the most recent issue of Famitsu (and translated by Andriasang), Platinum Games' fourth effort for Sega, Vanquish, is headed to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this winter. The game's director, the acclaimed Shinji Mikami, spoke with the Japanese mag recently about how the game is taking shape. Apparently, Atsushi Inaba (ex-CEO of Clover Studios) will be serving as producer on what Mikami calls a "shooter that places importance on the good tempo and feeling of rhythm you get from playing an action game." The game's said to be set in a near future where US/Russian Cold War relations have resulted in a standoff. "There are lots of games where you shoot and kill people, so this time we wanted to try and see how we could convey the good feeling of shooting robots." Truer words, Mr. Mikami. Truer words. Allegedly the game is around 80 percent done at this point, with only "annoying" work left to be done -- Mikami's not a fan of enemy and ally AI development, it seems. Will we see Vanquish on North American shores this winter as well? We're not sure yet, but with the game "developed with overseas markets in its sights," we have to imagine Platinum Games would like its latest title to land in our trigger-happy hands as soon as possible.
Platinum Games' fourth game is Vanquish
On this evening's "World Exclusive" laden episode of GameTrailers TV, host Geoff Keighley unveiled the latest game from Japanese development all-star team Platinum Games, a futuristic shooter named Vanquish. From the bit of trailer we saw in tonight's show, the game is set on US soil sometime in the future. Also, hey, there are some mechs -- it's from Japan, right? We've got the whole thing embedded after the break, should you be so inclined. As noted earlier this week, the upcoming game comes from Resident Evil designer Shinji Mikami and marks the fourth title from the development studio -- the last of a four game deal with Sega inked back in 2008. Though we've got tonight's game announce still fresh on our brain box, we have to wonder what this means in terms of a publisher for upcoming games from all those other famous developers sitting around Platinum Games HQ, wondering what to do next. Okay, okay, they're probably not just sitting around. But still! No consoles were named or release windows given -- heck, the whole trailer was live-action -- but we have to imagine that kind of info isn't too far off.
Capcom's Inafune: Xbox was only way into overseas market
Capcom's Head of Research & Development Management Group and Online Business (breath) Keiji Inafune is all about the Western game market. In an internal interview on Capcom's website published earlier today, Inafune makes a variety of comments regarding Capcom's changing attitude with regards to the Western market. "I think I can only get away with saying this now, but I really thought that using the Xbox was the only way to break into overseas markets, and I took that hypothesis all the way," Inafune says in the piece, citing Lost Planet and Dead Rising as two prime examples of games targeted at Western audiences that were successful.Speaking to the state of the video game industry and Capcom's relevance within it, he continues, "Up until now, we made games in Japan, and it was merely coincidental that those games sold overseas. But overseas game makers in regions like North America and Europe have gained strength, and it has become clear that this is the direction the game industry is going." We've heard statements like this before from MadWorld creator Atsushi Inaba, but never from such an influential and powerful figurehead within the Japanese development community. Considering the online multiplayer focus of the company's cadre of games both released and on the horizon, we think Capcom is putting its money where its mouth is.
Inaba: Western devs 'superior' to Japanese devs
Atsushi Inaba, creator of Okami and the upcoming Madworld, contends that western game developers are better than their Japanese counterparts in a new interview with Develop. According to Inaba, Japanese developers have to "work hard" to match the standards of western developers. He adds that game development will soon be "about individual developers and not about what country they are in" and that the games industry is being consumed by the ever-growing beast, Globalizilla -- the embodiment of globalization, of course. (Note: Inaba did not specifically utter the name "Globalizilla" -- probably because he's superstitious.)When asked about opportunities for Japanese developers, Inaba stated that there were many opportunities, but that such opportunities hinge on a developer's ability to sell products to a global audience. He further added that it's important to focus on new IP in order to keep innovation alive in the industry, stating, "Industries that innovate and produce something new will always survive in the global marketplace." So, we shouldn't expect a Madworld sequel then?
Joystiq @ New York Comic Con 2009!
Click to begin your photo tour -- it's like you're really here! Joystiq is here: Live from New York Comic Con 2009! Join us on the show floor as we bask in the glow of video games. Take that, you boring old comic ... books. Check out all there is to offer us thumb twiddlers, including a Platinum Games Inaba sighting -- and ... is that really you, Vin Diesel? -- in our gallery below:%Gallery-44042%
MadWorld producer talks mature Wii titles, sequels, minigames
Despite having few ultra-violent titles in its library (most notably Manhunt 2 and No More Heroes), the Wii can't seem to shake its "kiddie" moniker. MadWorld producer Atsushi Inaba hopes to change that, telling play.tm, "It would be great if MadWorld can really kick off [a trend of mature titles]." He also opined that the console's hardware capacity is not a problem so long as you can "correctly communicate the concept or features of the game." Seeing as we're able to envision waggling the remote and producing lots of virtual blood, we think he might be onto something. Inaba also said that they're (gasp!) considering a sequel should the game be successful. If that's not enough of a non-surprise for you, he reminds us that there will be minigames -- known here as "Blood Bath Challenges." This is a Wii title, after all. Gallery: MadWorld
Atsushi Inaba would love to make more MadWorld
Of course, we don't know if that's a good thing yet, without having actually played the first game, but we suspect that Platinum Games' MadWorld will be sequel-worthy. Inaba gave Play.tm the usual line about sequel prospects: "We'd obviously love for there to be a sequel and will definitely consider making one depending on the feedback we receive from players of the game". Of course, by "feedback" he means money. Interestingly, a MadWorld sequel would make a self-fulfilling prophecy of Inaba's prediction that his game may start of a trend of mature Wii games.Elsewhere in the interview, Inaba mentions that each stage of MadWorld should feature 2-3 Blood Bath Challenges (like the infamous "Man Darts") which are unlocked at certain score milestones.%Gallery-22964%
Confirmed: MadWorld with color would suck
How important are MadWorld's black-and-white visuals? According to producer Atsushi Inaba, the game looked "kind of subpar" when Platinum Games tried coloring it in. "MadWorld is very much based on American-style comics, so we added some color to see how it was going to look," Inaba told 1UP. "Adding color really didn't do anything for it. We got rid of it."And by "got rid of it." Inaba means completely. A Technicolor version won't even be available as an extra, so if you were kind of curious about seeing MadWorld with added pinks and greens, tough cheddar. We advise consoling yourself by reading 1UP's full interview with Inaba and director Shigenori Nishikawa -- especially as it features hot new screens of the game's "Asia Town" level.%Gallery-22964%
Atsushi Inaba talks MadWorld inspirations, Wii
A lot of things come to mind when looking at screens or video from MadWorld. Its visual style has been compared to Sin City and Running Man, to name a few. So, is this where creator Atsushi Inaba got his inspiration for the game?"Of course we like Sin City very much and we have seen Running Man before but they are not the sources of our creation," said Inaba. "The concepts of MadWorld are 'visual impact' and 'over-the-top violence,' and these two themes run right through the game." Inaba also says it hasn't been easy for his team to accomplish the game's stylish look and feel, commenting that "all team members are constantly working very hard to capture the style we want the final game to have."When asked why Platinum Games settled on the Wii, Inaba pointed to the "huge install base" and said his team is "really interested in the Wii platform" and "wanted to create a really cool and stylish game for that." Frankly, we're glad. Not just because we, uh, want to play this, but also because we're tired of the Wii getting the "it's only for kiddies" label. We're awfully tired of that, to tell you the truth.%Gallery-22964%
MadWorld boxart is simply awesome
Click for hi-res image Even before the boxart for MadWorld was unveiled, we found ourselves to be in love with the game. When we got our eyes on it back at E3, we entertained thoughts of pushing our way to the front of the crowd of journalists there to see the game, ripping the controller out of Atsushi Inaba's hands, and playing it for as long as we could before security came down to the area Platinum Games demoed the title for us and forcefully ejected us from the premises. The game just looks that good.What do you think of the boxart? Hate it? Love it? Indifferent?%Gallery-22964%[Via Go Nintendo]
MadWorld feels 'at home' on Wii
Despite what the Daily Mail says, Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba thinks that MadWorld is a perfect fit for the Wii. Not in the sense that you can play as your Mii (you can't), or because it contains a bunch of minigames (it doesn't), but because indulging in wanton slaughter is very, very intuitive."As you can see [from our Leipzig presentation] it's really easy to pick up and play, so when we came up with the concept of MadWorld, the Wii felt like a good console for that," Inaba told CVG. "It feels like a game that is at home on Wii." By the sounds of it, Inaba couldn't really imagine MadWorld on any other console. Not that we would expect him to say he'd prefer it on the Xbox 360 or anything.%Gallery-22964%
MadWorld's Inaba: Japanese devs are 'too soft'
Hey, you reading this! You a Japanese developer? If so, we need a word! Firstly: wow, thanks for reading us -- that's awesome. Secondly, and with the niceties over: you know what your problem is? You're too soft! At least that's what Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba reckons.In an interview with Gamasutra, Inaba suggested that Japanese developers spend too much time concentrating on established franchises, and not enough on amazing, creative new ideas -- ideas such as MadWorld, which is what Inaba is presently working on. If anything, argues the Okami creator, it is Western developers who are now producing the most innovative videogames."We don't feel that we're at the top of the industry, but we know that we have to catch up to where Western developers are," he concludes. Is he right, readers?
Atsushi Inaba wants to work with Nintendo platforms
Fans of the Viewtiful Joe franchise (or anything from Clover, really) will likely know the name Atsushi Inaba. The closing of Clover was very sad, but eventually led to SEEDS and, now, Platinum Games. So, just what interests Inuba and co. lately?Why, the DS and Wii, of course. When asked by 1UP on which platforms were desirable launching pads for a new title, Inaba said "Of course the Wii and DS are attractive platforms; they're platforms that aren't competing by way of the graphics. It's more about the gameplay." We couldn't agree more, because playing is believing with the Wii. Immediate releases from Platinum Games might not be on the horizon, however, as Inaba stated "we do want to create games on Wii and DS. But we have staff that has been creating games on the newest technology, like the PS3 and Xbox 360, so we are not interested in cutting that out."But, this interview is supposedly a bit late hitting the net, so there's also that to consider.[Via Go Nintendo]
