Inaba-san, you recently said that now that you're CEO you'd like Platinum to return to its roots, focusing more on original games. Could you elaborate on what you meant exactly? Have you been disappointed with recent titles in terms of originality?
Inaba: I wouldn't say the comments originated from any kind of frustration or anything that we've had with any of our recent titles. It's more just, when I think of how we've grown as a company, usually you take all that experience of how it's built and changed you. But I just want to forget all of that for a second.
For me and my time as president, what's most important is that I remember what we started this company wanting to do: original gameplay, original fun. That was the base of the company. And so, I just want us to focus on that 200%. I just want that to be the key thing that we're focusing on. That comment is just about, 'let's change gears to focus on that more than anything'.
Would you say the company has been too concerned about risk?
Inaba: I would say definitely yes, there has been in the past. What I'm trying to say now is not about turning 180-degrees to where we don't even think this is a job and do whatever we feel like. This is a business at the end of the day. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't want to be making decisions that I'm going to regret when I look back, right?
There are always going to be some decisions that are going to be hard to make and I don't think that's something that you can completely remove from the equation. But I do think that, If I see an idea that we're thinking about or if something didn't work, if in my mind I support it, then I want to be able to go through with it and not regret it.
The same Japanese interview seemed to suggest that you want to place more focus on live service games, when you said you wanted users to be able to 'enjoy games for longer'. Could you elaborate on those comments?
Inaba: I can't really elaborate further on what I said in that interview. I want people to be able to enjoy our games for longer. I think that has many meanings. For example, losing a game to a system that stops getting updated when new consoles come out is something that I've always felt is unfortunate. So, it has that meaning in there: finding ways to beat that.
And regarding live service games, it's not something I'm going to confirm or dismiss. I think it's something that we'll be able to discuss more openly when we're able to talk about Project GG more, which I look forward to doing some time in the near future.
Should fans of your past games be concerned that you're about to drastically shift focus?
Inaba: I think both Kamiya and I would say that we have lots of different ideas for things that we want to do regarding online and multiplayer. We both think that's a fun concept and we want to explore that more. But at the same time, we don't want it to be taken as a message that we're abandoning games similar to what we would've made up until now. If we have an interesting idea, I don't think that there's any reason that we would say, 'no, we don't do that anymore, we're done with that'. So, we're interested in both ways.
Kamiya: I think in terms of the expectations of fans in relation to linear action games like NieR and Bayonetta, we understand that we do get some respect for the action games that we've created, and we're always happy to hear that. But we don't want to be labelled as 'the action game company', we want to be labelled as a company that is interested in original, fun gameplay.
Something like Sol Cresta isn't this black sheep, where it's totally different… it still feels like part of the family because at the end of the day, we feel that it's an original, fun thing that we wanted to do. I hope that with the things that we do in the future that philosophy will become more apparent to our fans.
NFT and blockchain have become a popular trend among corporations. What's Platinum's interest, if any?
Inaba: We haven't really been thinking about that. I understand it's a hot topic right now and it's really starting to gain momentum, but the way that it's gained momentum has been focused on profitability for the company, but with no positive impact on the creators or the users in any sense. So that's frustrating to see happening.
The people who are trying to promote NFTs and partner with gaming companies, their conversations seem extremely one-sided. 'Hey, you're going to make money!' But how does it benefit the user or the creator? If I want to spend my time on something, I want it to benefit making good games.
As content gets more and more digital, I do think that NFT as a concept will gain more importance, but I think that the early adopters are just seeing it as a way to profit as much as possible. That's not something I'm interested in being part of, to be honest.
A lot more on the full interview below.
Interview: PlatinumGames doesn’t want to be known as ‘just the action game company’ | VGC
The Bayonetta studio’s newly-promoted president and vice president discuss service games, NFTs…
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