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PlatinumGames Inc.PlatinumGames Inc. is a Japanese video game developer that was founded in October 2007 as result of a merger between two companies, Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya founded Seeds Inc. after the closure of Capcom's Clover Studio, while Odd Inc. was founded by Tatsuya Minami. A year after the studio was founded, video game publisher Sega announced that it would be publishing four intellectual properties developed by the company: is a Japanese video game developer that was founded in October 2007 as result of a merger between two companies, Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya founded Seeds Inc. after the closure of Capcom's Clover Studio, while Odd Inc. was founded by Tatsuya Minami. A year after the studio was founded, video game publisher Sega announced that it would be publishing four intellectual properties developed by the company: MadWorldMadWorld, Infinite Space, Bayonetta, and Vanquish. Their partnership later extended to include Anarchy Reigns. Most of these games were met with positive reception. Over the years, PlatinumGames had developed an expertise in action games and one of their key philosophies was that the team would not follow conventional game design concepts.

While PlatinumGames' core goal was to create new and original intellectual property, the team previously also accepted several contract works from Activision on several licensed projects, most of which received mixed reviews. Since 2013, PlatinumGames has held a close relationship with Nintendo, who funded several of their original titles, including The Wonderful 101 and Astral Chain, and handled licensing between Sega that would allow PlatinumGames to continue the Bayonetta series. The studio worked on creating new installments in other studios' franchises, with the studio taking primary development duties on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance for Konami, Star Fox Zero for Nintendo, and Nier: Automata for Square Enix. Nier: Automata, which was both a critical and commercial success, is considered one of the greatest games of all time and a turning point for PlatinumGames. It was a monumental project since it was their first game released after Microsoft Studios canceled Scalebound.

PlatinumGames was founded by the merger of Seeds Inc. and Odd Inc. in October 2007. Seeds Inc. had been founded by Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, and Hideki Kamiya on August 1, 2006.[3] Prior to establishing the company, the three worked for Capcom, and were key members of the Osaka-based Clover Studio, which specialized in making new and creative intellectual properties.[4] They worked closely together developing popular Capcom franchises including Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe and Ōkami. Most of these titles received critical acclaim, but under-performed commercially, leading to Capcom's decision to close the studio.[5] Prior to the closure, the three founders had already left the studio to form their own company in mid-2006. In January 2006, the company expanded to 51 employees, including more former Capcom employees such as Masami Ueda, composer for the early Resident Evil games, and Mari Shimazaki, Ōkami's artist. Yusuke Hashimoto and Kenji Saito, who would eventually become PlatinumGames' directors, joined during its establishment period. The new company revealed its existence by launching its website in February 2007.[3]

Odd Ltd. was founded by Tatsuya Minami in February 2006, and later renamed Odd Inc. in July 2007.[6][7] Like the founders of Clover Studio, Minami worked at Capcom prior to founding his own studio. He joined Capcom and for 20 years was involved in titles such as Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and the Mega Man franchise. However, he decided to leave as he became tired of making sequels.[8] Minami became the studio's head and focused on the company's management and administration, while Mikami, Inaba and Kamiya remained in the positions of director or producer.[6][9]

The company had not revealed anything about upcoming projects for a year, until 2008, when Sega announced that it would be publishing four PlatinumGames' titles.[9] According to Minami, the titles were unique and creative, and it was courageous of Sega to publish these risky titles. Minami added further that the partnership with Sega allowed them to bring these titles to Western markets. The four games included MadWorld, Infinite Space, Bayonetta and Vanquish.[10] Each was released in 2009. All the intellectual properties created by PlatinumGames as part of the partnership are owned by Sega.[11]

MadWorld was the first game to be released. Produced by Inaba, the game was designed to appeal to a western audience and had a unique art style inspired by that of Sin City. The original story was written by Yasumi Matsuno, who had previously worked on Square Enix's Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics, while PlatinumGames and Sega jointly localized the title for the West. The team created the game with a vision of bringing a unique game to the Wii.[12][13] While the game received positive reviews, it was a commercial failure, despite Sega's heavy marketing.[9][14][15] Though the game was a commercial failure, Sega felt that sales were "encouraging",[16] and said that they would continue to make mature games for the Wii. They released the Welcome To Violence pack, which bundles MadWorld with House of the Dead: Overkill, and The Conduit, each of which were commercial failures.[17] In 2010, Sega announced that they would cease publishing mature video games for the Wii, citing the disappointing sales of MadWorld as a contributing factor. However, PlatinumGames announced several days later that they would like to do a sequel to the game.[18]

The company's second game was Infinite Space. Announced as Infinite Line, it is a role-playing video game with real-time strategy, and space simulation elements.[19] Inspired by the works of Arthur C. Clarke and Greg Egan, PlatinumGames collaborated closely with Nude Maker while developing the game.[20] Produced by Inaba, the title was released in June 2009 in Japan, and its localized release for western territories was in March 2010. The game was a moderate success in Japan,[21] but sales of the game in the West were unsatisfactory. PlatinumGames blamed Sega for not producing enough copies of the game, as the game "sold out instantly".[22][23]

"That's how games are. Teams kind of burn themselves out and then they get all that feedback and they get recharged and then people say that they're ready to do it again. And Bayonetta was a really, really strong example of that".

The third game is Bayonetta, an action game "evolved" from the Devil May Cry series.[clarification needed] The title was directed by Kamiya, who originally pitched several "casual" projects for the studio before starting the development of Bayonetta.[25] The game features an original story, with inspirations drawn from Scandinavian mythology, while the design of the titular character was based on Kamiya's own vision of an "ideal woman".[26] The development team was credited as "Team Little Angels", as opposed to Devil May Cry's "Team Little Devils". The game received critical acclaim on its release, with critics praising its action as "genre-topping", as well as its characters and innovation.[6] However, according to Inaba, the team had set an overly high standard for themselves and became extremely frustrated by the end of the project's development. Inaba added that the game's development "nearly broke" PlatinumGames.[27] The team's morale was restored after hearing players' positive opinions of the game.[27] In addition, Inaba called the PlayStation 3 version of the game the company's "biggest failure", as the team did not have sufficient skills to develop that version of the game.[28] More than 1.35 million units of the game were shipped,[29] but according to Minami, the company was disappointed with its sales, despite it being one of the most commercially successful games produced by the company.[8][30] An animated film based on the game, called Bayonetta: Bloody Fate, was later released by Gonzo.[31]

The Sega-PlatinumGames original partnership announcement teased a mysterious fourth game from Mikami.[10] The title was later revealed to be Vanquish.[32] The team drew inspiration from Casshern when creating the game's visuals. Mikami decided the game's third-person perspective through trial and error, and hoped that with it, the team could increase its gameplay pace.[33] It was originally designed to be an open world game, but this idea was later abandoned and the game's direction shifted to become linear.[34] On its release, the game was positively reviewed, with critics calling it innovative for introducing new elements into the shooter genre. Sega added that the company was encouraged by the game's first and second-day sales.[35] After its release, Mikami left PlatinumGames and formed a new company, Tango Gameworks. According to Minami, Mikami "always wanted to be his own man, and his own developer".[6]

In late 2010, PlatinumGames revealed that it was in discussions with Sega to extend their partnership. Inaba added that Sega is a publisher which allows the team to have much creative control over their games.[36] In 2011, PlatinumGames announced that they had extended their partnership with a new title called Max Anarchy. The game was released in western territories as Anarchy Reigns in 2013.[37] The game serves as a sequel to MadWorld, but it does not feature the Sin City graphic style, though players assume control of MadWorld's protagonist Jack Cayman for most parts of the game.[38] The game received mixed reviews on its release,[39] and it was a commercial failure.[40] Anarchy Reigns is the last game developed by PlatinumGames to be published by Sega.[6]

In 2011, Hideo Kojima and his studio Kojima Productions were working on a new Metal Gear game focused on one of its main characters Raiden, a ninja equipped with swords. Unable to continue working on the game, Kojima contacted Minami to ask PlatinumGames to work on it. According to Kojima, PlatinumGames was the only studio capable of working on an action game with sword-based combat.[8] The team added stealth elements to the game finding its system too boring and straightforward.[41] Directed by Kenji Saito, the game, titled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, was released in 2013 and received generally positive reviews from critics, and was a commercial success. It also became the company's first licensed title.[42]