PlatinumGames have their hands full, what with the upcoming release this year of Astral Chain and their extensive development of Bayonetta 3. These, however, are not the only projects currently taking up their time this 2019, as it is now revealed that they are working on a new IP which is ‘unlike anything done before.’
The news comes from an exclusive interview made by Videogameschronicle with PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba. In it, Inaba talks about how 2019 will be an ‘incredibly important’ year for the developer. Inaba also talks about how Bayonetta 3, which was just recently relegated back to TBA status after the Nintendo investors call, will most likely see a change in its design process. This will be more in line with the release of the first two games in the series. Inaba then segues into saying that PlatinumGames is deep in the middle of creating an unannounced title which he claimed “has never been done before”.
“Right now we’re in the middle of designing something that has never been done before. I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else,” Inaba stated. “Even for our varied history of veteran game developers, this is something that has never been designed before. So from a game design perspective, we’re very excited right now.”
While we have no earthly idea what he might be referring to, we can look back to Inaba’s statement during a BitSummit panel back in 2018, in which he stated that a title Platinum was working on would “turn the action genre on its head”.
It would not be surprising if what he hyped us for will actually be a reality, and I have been a believer ever since playing Yoko Taro’s absolute masterpiece that is Nier: Automata. That game was my game of the year for 2017, so if ever Yoko Taro is once again involved with this new IP, it wouldn’t be as much of an over-exaggeration to think that Platinum might’ve made something really special and important.
In any case, I would assume the same if Hideki Kamiya was the one involved, but that would be unlikely as he is currently knee deep in the development of Bayonetta 3.
PlatinumGames’ Astral Chain is set to be released on August 30, 2019 as an exclusive title for the Nintendo Switch. Bayonetta 3 does not have a release date yet, but it is also expected to be a Nintendo Switch exclusive title.
