PlatinumGames CEO Is Open to Being Acquired 'As Long As Our Freedom Was Still Respected' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 March 2022 / 4,458 Views
PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba in an interview with VideoGamesChronicle was asked the consolidation in gaming including Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. He was also asked if Platinum would be interested in being acquired.
Inaba is open to PlatinumGames being acquired if he was given the same independence that Activision Blizzard is expected to keep once the Microsoft deal finalizes.
"The most important thing for us is to have the freedom to make the games that we want to make," said Inaba. "What I hear about the recent acquisitions, I don’t think Microsoft is going to start micromanaging Activision to where they take away all their freedom… I don’t think it’s going to be a relationship like that.
"I think there’s going to be a lot of mutual respect there and I think Activision will be able to continue doing what they do best. That’s also what’s most important to us at the end of the day, whatever form that takes for us and our company. So I would not turn anything down, as long as our freedom was still respected."
Inaba and vice president Hideki Kamiya did recently say they have a desire to to revisit the cancelled Xbox game, Scalebound, and to bring it back.
"Kamiya has always wanted to do Scalebound," said Inaba at the time. "So we’d like to have a proper discussion with Microsoft."
Kamiya added, "We did a lot of work on it, and it’s no use Microsoft keeping the game in its current form, so we’d like to do something about it (laughs). Phil! Let’s do it together!"
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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i bet, its like saying ill sell you my business for 3.5 million but im still in charge
Todd Howard runs Bethesda Game Studios. He doesn't run the whole of ZeniMax. Just one of their internal studios lol. He's just such a big name because of the games that individual studio puts out.
You are completely right though! Obsidian has a bunch of legendary video game developers that have been their since the beginning that wanted to stay. Even Brian Fargo at inXile postponed his retirement after the Microsoft acquisition because of how excited he was.
No problem! Obsidian and inXile are great examples too because they were both purchased in 2018, and all their heads are still there. So they've had now almost 4 years to leave, yet haven't. Obsidian is honestly more telling because all the now Obsidian employees that were at Black Isle Studios, the studio that created the Fallout franchise, are still there! That includes all 5 Obsidian founders, one of their top Designers/Directors Josh Sawyer, along with Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky who are also of part Fallout's creation. Tim in particular credited as the actual creator of Fallout.
So not only did Obsidian retain all their legendary talent, but they're now handling several major projects and are the busiest they've ever been.
If they want freedom they should stay independent.
"I would not turn anything down"
$50. Final offer.
This a studio MS could really benefit from. But I just want MS to fund whatever project they want to do.
Purchase begging? Well Nintendo bite the bullet.
And I would like to know what he means by Ubisoft do best.
I hope either Nintendo or Sony would buy them if they're signaling that they want to be bought, I'm okay with Microsoft as well but they're currently too big. If it's not those three, I just hope it isn't Tencent or Epic.
Xbox lacks Japanese studios, so it seems to be a good fit for them. Phil has already expressed interest in acquiring studios in Japan so why not go for one literally asking to be bought by them?
I can't imagine Platinum would cost a lot to acquire since most of the big IP's they have worked on are owned by publishers.
I could see Sony buying them and allowing freedom similar o Bungie, but I suspect Sony probably wants to go a bigger with their next moves.
Nintendo acquisition incoming ??
-BUY US PLEASE! NINJA APPROVED-
I'd be happy with MS or Nintendo getting them, but no one else. The fact that they specifically were talking about MS and MS had been mentioning they want more Japanese studios makes it seem like this is paving the way for a MS buyout. Then you add the fact that Platinum the other day was begging to make Scalebound again... That's a lot of coincidence.
Would love to see Sony or Nintendo make a move for it tbh.
Did Platinum take on too many projects and they're now running out of funding or something?
Either way, they seem to do their best work with Nintendo, but that's highly unlikely to happen.
All depends. As long as companies are on schedule and under budget, I think Nintendo stays pretty hands off.
Quality output without sucking up a bunch of money leaves them with a pretty loose leash in terms of my impression.
Bayonetta on Wii u/switch was a good example. Nintendo said "make Nintendo themed costumes". Platinum comes back with conservative costumes. Nintendo says "oh, you didn't want to make them more revealing like her other clothes?"
I don't think they breathe down the necks of their partners unless there are problems.
I'd argue they don't do that for problems either. Alpha Dream was clearly headed in a bad direction due to focusing on remakes of old games on an increasingly dying system. They'd still be going today if they just kept making new games, but Nintendo allowed it to their death.
On time and under budget. They needed to ask for help. I think alpha dream thought it would turn around. But I meant being problematic financially.
If alpha dream were Rareware, they would have asked for money/selling stock of the company. That starts to wear the relationship thin though. I think they didn't want to disrespect themselves in such a way.
That being said, I do think it's a shame that Nintendo didn't save them and take control. The Mario and Luigi games were really good. But if even the paper Mario crossover didn't save them, I think Nintendo didn't know what else to do with the series.
Tl;Dr
Nintendo was so hands off that they let alpha dream fizzle away.
I don't see either Sony nor MS interested in Platinum, they don't have big IPs. Their games sell only moderately and they don't seem to have any particular expertise other studios don't have
Neir is pretty big and only growing in popularity. Astral Chain I never played but it was well received by the nintendo fanbase. I think it would be a great studio for Sony honestly.
But isn't Astral Chain a Nintendo IP?
Ah you're correct didn't realize that. They still have Nier and the studio in general seems to have some talent.
This is making Platinum acquisition even more unlikely, the company has nothing to offer other than workforce
They would benefit Nintendo if they were in the buying spirit. Monolith nor Next Level Games offered no IPs but a talented studio. Monolith owned no IPs when Nintendo go them. PG is roughly the same size as Monolith. Monolith expanded under Nintendo and PG could do the same. Nintendo has let PG do their thing each time https://nintendoeverything.com/platinumgames-talks-bayonetta-3-no-restrictions-from-nintendo/
This can be done without buying anything. You just need to hire more developers, far less expensive than buying a company
True but their are levels to this. Gaming developers can't just do what everyone else can. Some studios are more talented than others. I personally think Platinum has shown that they are good at what they do.
Agreed, Nier is owned by SE and Platinum games in general are very hit and miss, perhaps being acquired and giving all games the time they deserve helps. They do have a good sense of the DMC like action games.
No one is buying platinum, period
Well if they do...hope they think in the way of Monolith and become part of Nintendo, though if not perhaps Baya 2 and 3 can do a Wonderful 101
Hoping Nintendo buys them and makes a deal with Sega for at least part ownership of Bayonetta.
Well, Nintendo seems like the most logical choice given their relationship with Platinum, but Microsoft also makes a lot sense given all of the recent purchases and the fact that they need a prominent Japanese developer in their portfolio (Sorry Tango Gameworks), Platinum is a pretty good starter. Me, personally, I'd rather have Microsoft for the simple fact that I prefer my PC over anything else. But, I would still be okay with Nintendo too.
They could use the funding however Nintendo or Sony are the only ones able to buy them since MS is foreign as a first party studio. Let them finish Scalebound first before buying them.
PG isn't really big, an acquisition wouldn't be impossible.
Its not about the size, i know, thats what she said. MS have to go through alot of Japanese regulations and even than, probably can only partner with them.
Besides MS has shown they're more interested in gathering studios with big IPs. PG has none. Even their new Sol Cresta is a licensed property from another company.
The fact MS recently acquired a Japanese studio tells us this isn't true. Also, Phil has said he'd be interested in acquiring a Japanese studio and he wouldn't have said that if it wasn't possible.
If I were MS, I would buy them and then throw money at Yoko Taro to make him the head game designer for all their future games. It'd be a match made in heaven and everyone wins.
Hope ms grabs it
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