2006–2007: Founding 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. 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. They worked closely together developing popular Capcom franchises, including
Resident Evil,
Devil May Cry,
Viewtiful Joe, and
Ōkami. Most of these games received critical acclaim, but under-performed commercially, leading to Capcom's decision to close the studio. 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,
Ōkamis 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. 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. 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.
2008–2012: Partnership with Sega The company had not revealed anything about upcoming games for a year, until 2008, when
Sega announced that it would be publishing four PlatinumGames' titles. Each was released in 2009. All the
intellectual properties created by PlatinumGames as part of the partnership are owned by Sega.
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. While the game received positive reviews, it was a commercial failure, despite Sega's heavy marketing. Though the game was a commercial failure, Sega felt that sales were "encouraging", and said that it 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. In 2010, Sega announced that it 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 it would like to make the sequel game. 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. Inspired by the works of
Arthur C. Clarke and
Greg Egan, PlatinumGames collaborated closely with
Nude Maker for the game. Produced by Inaba, it 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, 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". The third game is
Bayonetta, an
action game "evolved" from the
Devil May Cry series. The title was directed by Kamiya, who originally pitched several "casual" projects for the studio before starting the development of
Bayonetta. 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". The development team was credited as "Team Little Angels", as opposed to
Devil May Crys "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. 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. More than 1.35 million units of the game were shipped, 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. An animated film based on the game, called
Bayonetta: Bloody Fate, was later released by
Gonzo. The Sega-PlatinumGames original partnership announcement teased a mysterious fourth game from Mikami. 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. 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. 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. 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". In 2011, PlatinumGames announced that it had extended its partnership with a new title called
Max Anarchy. The game was released in western territories as
Anarchy Reigns in 2012. The game serves as a sequel to
MadWorld, but it does not feature the
Sin City graphic style, though players assume control of
MadWorlds protagonist Jack Cayman for most parts of the game. The game received mixed reviews on its release, and it was a commercial failure.
Anarchy Reigns was the final game created by PlatinumGames and Sega. 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. 's
Wii U console within two years. The same year also saw the release of PlatinumGames' second game,
The Wonderful 101 for the
Wii U. While Kamiya directed the game, Minami offered creative advice. According to Kamiya, inspiration was drawn from classic
tokusatsu series like
Super Sentai, and that the game was designed to appeal to all types of audiences. The game was originally planned for the Wii, and was set to feature classic
Nintendo characters. However, as the team found that it was difficult to use these characters creatively, the game was put on hold temporarily. Its development was restarted later, with 50 original characters being featured in the final game. Nintendo provided feedback during the game's development hoping that it would reach a larger audience. and was voted one of community's Nintendo favorites. However, the game underperformed in Japan, and was outsold by
Pikmin 3, which had already been released before the launch of
The Wonderful 101.
VG247 attributed the game's failure to the low sales of the
Wii U. Their partnership continued with
Bayonetta 2, which sparked controversy for being a Wii U exclusive when its predecessor is a multi-platform title. According to Inaba, the company worked with Sega to create the game's sequel. It was later cancelled in the middle of the game's development until Nintendo offered to work with the company to revive it and fund the project. Sega only served as the game's advisor. Inaba added that Nintendo did not actively interfere with the game's development, and compared its role to that of an observer. Kamiya, who did not direct the sequel game, It became the seventh best-selling retail game in the UK in its first week of release, but sales declined significantly in the second week. The company gradually developed more and more licensed titles based on existing properties. Their partners grant it creative freedom while creating these games' gameplay. Their second licensed title is
The Legend of Korra (2014), based on
Nickelodeon's
animated series of the same name. Published by
Activision, the game's story was written by Tim Hedrick, the show writer. The game received a mixed reception when it was launched. The company later worked on the game
Transformers: Devastation, based on
Hasbro's
Transformers: Generations. Directed by Saito, the game was designed to look and feel different from previous
Transformers games. The title received favorable reviews when it was released in 2015. The third licensed title,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan was released in May 2016. According to game designer Eiro Shirahama, the team watched the
TMNT animated series and also played the old
TMNT games for the
Super Famicom while working on the game so as to understand the universe and the characters. The game garnered mixed reception when it was released. In 2013, Kamiya revealed that he would like to have an opportunity to continue PlatinumGames' partnership with Nintendo, creating new properties or working on extending the universe of its existing franchises such as
Star Fox.
Shigeru Miyamoto, who produced
Star Fox Zero, expressed his desire to work with external developers so that the project can have a shorter development cycle. The team was asked to serve as the game's co-developer after Nintendo saw the Arwing stage of
Bayonetta 2.
Zero, along with its spin-off
tower defense game
Star Fox Guard, was released in April 2016 to mixed reception. By the end of March 2016, Minami stepped down from his position as president and CEO, with executive producer Kenichi Sato replacing him. In August 2016, PlatinumGames was revealed to be in a collaboration with
Cygames in the development of the action role-playing game
Granblue Fantasy: Relink, but in February 2019 it was announced that PlatinumGames would no longer be involved in the project, leaving Cygames to handle the rest of development. Kamiya worked on the
Microsoft Studios game
Scalebound, but it was cancelled in January 2017. Creative producer Jean-Pierre Kellams left the company, while Kamiya stopped working as a director and served as a
vice president.
2017–2021: Nier: Automata and "Platinum 4" The studio collaborated with
Square Enix, and released
Nier: Automata for
PlayStation 4 and
Windows in 2017, with an
Xbox One version being released in 2018. Directed by
Nier creator
Yoko Taro, the game received critical acclaim and more than 2 million copies were sold. According to Kamiya, Taro "saved" PlatinumGames after the cancellation of
Scalebound. The positive reception of
Nier Automata had sparked public interest in Platinum's work once again. In May 2017, Inaba announced the company was working on a new
intellectual property. At
The Game Awards 2017,
Bayonetta 3 was revealed as an exclusive for the
Nintendo Switch. It was also announced that Nintendo Switch ports of the first two
Bayonetta games would be released in February 2018. At the ceremony,
Nier: Automata also won in the Best Score/Music category. In April 2018, the company announced a partnership with
DeNA for an action game that explores Japanese folklore for
Android and
iOS devices, titled
World of Demons. Its development began in 2015 with 30 employees attached to it, including staff who had worked on
Star Fox Zero and
Bayonetta 2, was
soft launched in some countries in 2018, but was pulled from storefronts the following year. Platinum then released
World of Demons for
Apple Arcade on April 2, 2021. Another game,
Astral Chain, was released for the
Nintendo Switch on August 30, 2019. In 2019, Inaba revealed that the studio was working on two new unannounced intellectual properties owned by the studio, one of which he described as "truly unlike anything else."
Tencent Holdings supplied capital investment into Platinum in January 2020, which will allow the studio to self-publish its future titles. Platinum's CEO Kenichi Sato stated that the Tencent investment changed no aspect of Platinum's ownership and it remains an independent developer. On February 3, 2020, PlatinumGames launched a website titled "Platinum 4", revolving around four announcements, which included: • The launch of a
Kickstarter campaign for a remastered port of
The Wonderful 101 on modern platforms. This is PlatinumGames' first self-published title, although it has stated Tencent's investment has no part in its development. • A new game with the working title
Project G.G., described as the final game of Kamiya's self-titled "hero" trilogy following
Viewtiful Joe and
The Wonderful 101. Kamiya said while
Viewtiful Joe was about one man transforming into a hero, and
The Wonderful 101 was about a team transforming into heroes,
Project G.G. involves a similar concept around a giant hero. • The opening of PlatinumGames Tokyo, a new studio for about 100 staff to support live service games for the company. Heading the studio include staff that had formerly worked on
EA Sports FC Mobile. • A new game titled
Sol Cresta, in collaboration with
Hamster Corporation, originally announced as an April Fools' joke in 2020 was then confirmed a year later to be releasing as a digital-only title for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Windows in 2021 as the first entry of Platinum's “Neo-Classic Arcade” series. In addition to these announcements, the research and development side of Platinum had been developing a new in-house
game engine named PlatinumEngine to power its new titles. Chief technology officer Wataru Ohmori said that the need for a custom engine over other existing solutions like Unreal or Unity was needed to give it better customization and control over its games, and to improve their performance. He said, "We came to the frightening realization that if we don’t make our work more efficient, we’re simply not going to be able to keep making the games that we want to make as technology and expectations grow." For example, Bayonetta 3, one of the titles using the engine.
2022–present: Inaba appointed CEO and staff departures On January 13, 2022, former CEO Kenichi Sato stepped down from the position after five years and eight months in the role, with Inaba replacing him. On November 1, 2022, Platinum announced the opening of a third studio: PlatinumGames FUKUOKA. By February 2025, Abebe Tinari, Takahisa Taura, Yusuke Miyata, Kenji Saito, and Masaki Yamanaka had seemingly also left the company. ==Philosophy==