PAX East is underway, and while the event has been pared down a touchdue to coronavirus concerns, those still attending the event were treated to an interesting Q&A with PlatinumGames director Hideki Kamiya.
The director behindViewtiful Joe,Okami, andBayonettatook part in the panel “101 Things You Didn’t Know AboutPlatinumGames” alongside producer Atsushi Inaba on Saturday, and during the panel fielded questions from fans.
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While fans may have had questions regarding therecently announcedProject GG, a new title from PlatinumGames that will finish the “hero trilogy” started byViewtiful JoeandThe Wonderful 101, it was a question about revisiting older or failed IPs that is setting online forums alight. Kamiya was asked if he would like to seeOkami 2, or work continued onScalebound, to which the charismatic director replied “Okami 2…Scalebound…Viewtiful Joe 3…Dante VS Bayonetta…Devil May Cry 0… I want to make everything! Please email Capcom.”
Kamiya’s enthusiasm to visit older IPs in the company’s history is exciting, as a number of PlatinumGames developed titles are highly regarded classics. Actually getting a sequel made is largely dependent on whether the publishers (who own the rights) are interested in pursuing such a project, hence Kamiya telling fans to let Capcom know. He hadpreviously teased the return ofOkami, leading to speculation of a sequel being in the works. Since then, nothing more has been said, and because Capcom owns the rights toOkami,it is dependent on that company to get the ball rolling on any future projects.
Scalebound,the once Xbox One exclusive, finds itself in a similar situation, with Microsoft owning the rights to that abandoned project. So while Kamiya would surely like to continue work on some of these projects, his hands are tied when it comes to actually moving forward with revivals of these IPs.
PlatinumGames is going to be self-publishing “Project GG” which marks the first IP to be developed and published by the company. Following this path will allow the company to retain the rights to any sequels it wishes to make in the future, so as to avoid issues like a potentialOkami 2orScaleboundrevival.Fans will have to wait and see if any of the publishers behind these titles are as enthusiastic as Kamiya about revisiting them.
