More than two months after leaving Platinum Games, co-founder and The Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya has revealed why he left the studio. In a new interview with IGN, Kamiya told the publication he decided to leave “because I felt that the direction the company was heading in was different from my beliefs as a developer.”
“Without that element of trust, I couldn’t continue working there, and so I left, so that I could continue working in what I consider to be the right way,” Kamiya said. “I don’t think of games as products, but rather as works of art. I want to put my artistry into games and deliver games that could only be made by Hideki Kamiya, so that players can enjoy Hideki Kamiya games exactly as they are.
“I decided to leave the company and forge my own path, to continue making games that reflect the developers who made them.”
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Kamiya announced in September that he was leaving the company. His final day was October 12, and that same day, he revealed he had started a YouTube Channel. Throughout his final month at Platinum, his departure, and creation of the Hideki Kamiya Channel, Kamiya hadn’t revealed why he left the studio, leaving fans questioning the decision. Thanks to this new interview with IGN, we now know it was about creative direction.
Elsehwere in the interview, Kamiya said he had many deep discussions with Platinum president Atsushi Inaba about his potential departure, deciding to leave only after the two agreed.
“Inaba also had his own set of beliefs as the head of the company,” Kamiya told IGN. “Although his beliefs differed from my own, we talked it out thoroughly, so we were both satisfied with the conclusion we reached.”
Kamiya said the reaction from the development teams at Platinum was one of sadness, with some even crying in his office while talking to him about it. Despite the sadness, Kamiya said he doesn’t regret his decision to quit.
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For more about Kamiya’s departure, his future, and his ideas around game development, be sure to read IGN’s full interview here.
Before co-founding Platinum in February of 2006, Kamiya worked on Capcom’s Resident Evil series, helping plan the first game and directing its sequel, as well as its Devil May Cry series. He also directed the first Viewtiful Joe game, and then Okami in 2006 at Capcom’s Clover Studio. Capcom closed Clover later that year but Platinum had already been somewhat founded under the name Seeds, Inc. It was later renamed Platinum Games and the rest was history.
Kamiya departs from Platinum more than 17 years after he founded it alongside Shinji Mikami, who is no longer there and departed from Tango Gameworks earlier this year, and Atsushi Inaba, who is the studio’s CEO.
While waiting to learn what Kamiya is up to next, read Game Informer’s review of Bayonetta and then check out our thoughts on The Wonderful 101. Read Game Informer’s Bayonetta 3 review after that and then read our review of Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon.
[Source: IGN]
What do you hope Kamiya does next? Let us know in the comments below!