PlatinumGames better sticking to one IP?

By Robert Purchese Published 18 May, 2011

"They are an excellent studio," says Sega.

PlatinumGames makes great games, but they don't sell as many copies as they should - Vanquish hasn't broken one million sales.

Would the maker of MadWorld and Bayonetta be better off sticking to and establishing one IP?

"They are an excellent studio. They're one of the best in Japan - we certainly saw that with Bayonetta," Sega West CEO Mike Hayes told Eurogamer.

"And even though Vanquish didn't achieve the commercial success that we hoped, it got a great Metacritic. Even MadWorld, which was as bizarre as you like, had a Metacritic of 81 per cent. An exceptionally good studio.

"The nice thing about working with PlatinumGames," he added, "is that you can dip into their pool of creativity and see what they come up with next. And that's like gaming used to be. To have the freedom to have a partner like that is good. We tend not to put the suits and restrictions on them and 'you now must do this'. It's like, 'What have you got next then guys?' And if we think there's a commercial opportunity then we want to partner with them."

Gary Dunn, senior vice president of production at Sega, offered: "They are more than one team. There are different teams inside PlatinumGames and they have different DNA, and you expect to see different excellence out of them."

More than one team - a Bayonetta 2 team?

"I've got no comment on that," said Hayes.

Sega announced this week that Vanquish has sold 830,000 copies. Vanquish scored 9/10 on Eurogamer. Bayonetta faired better, breaking the one million mark early in 2010. Bayonetta also scored 9/10 on Eurogamer.

MadWorld flopped commercially on Wii despite strong critical backing (7/10 on Eurogamer). Infinite Space on DS was forgotten as quickly, although again, the game came recommended (7/10 Eurogamer).

Now PlatinumGames beavers away on another brave new IP called Anarchy Reigns.

It's an approach that's against the grain in a post-recession world, where Call of Duty annually reigns supreme, Dragon Age and Mass Effect are franchises and the fourth Assassin's Creed is in development.

But PlatinumGames' creative free-spirit lives on, undaunted. In April, CEO Tatsuya Minami wrote an open letter lamenting video games today.

"Series grow ever-longer, original titles are on the decline," he said. "Games with new at their core are disappearing. Japanese games that garner worldwide acclaim are slipping away.

"This state of affairs deeply saddens us."

PlatinumGames was founded by key members of Capcom's Clover Studio and populated by many of its staff. Clover was responsible for Okami (10/10 PS2, 2007, 10/10 Wii, 2008), God Hand (8/10 PS2, 2007), Viewtiful Joe (9/10 PS2, 2004) and Viewtiful Joe 2 (8/10 GameCube, 2005).

Bayonetta.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mr2ange #1 1 year ago

    as much as i loved Clover Studios, I dont think Sega really has a huge amount of credibility seeing as everything they touched in the last decade or more has turned from glorious gold to fermenting bacteria ridden shit.

    Edit - But i love Okami and the fact that Platinum try other things that other dare not.

    Its sad that so many great games trying to do something new get left in the shadows, It seems that the one dimensional COD - shoot someone in the face 10,000 times for as many hours as you can possibly get is what the general public want.

    A sad day we live in.
    Edited by mr2ange at 18/05/11 @ 16:02

  • wizlon #2 1 year ago

    Would love to see another Mad World sans the waggle, either on PS360 or something like the 3DS. Either, more Jack please.

  • randompanda #3 1 year ago

    Vanquish is one of those games that looks kinda "alright" from the trailers - only to find it's extremely slick, responsive, bonkers, fun and surprisingly unique when you actually get to play it.

    If there were some way I could force everyone on EG to play it, I would consider using that method for your own good - even if it meant having to electrocute your nipples.

  • Golgo #4 1 year ago

    It wouldn't be Platinum games if they did that. The standout developer of the 'generation' so far, for me at least.

  • HyperTails #5 1 year ago

    I loved Bayonetta, thought it was brilliant. However, for some reason I haven't got Vanquish, and I don't know why because I loved the demo.

    Platinum are clearly a talented company and Sega are right to support them. I hope to see more from them (Bayonetta 2 please Sega) and hope that their games do well, as lord knows the industry needs creative talents like these guys.

  • sonicyoda #6 1 year ago

    Surely Anarchy Reigns is going to be a somewhat spiritual sequel to MadWorld? Either way, it looks wicked. I'm kinda glad they've opted for an original IP for each game though. Sometimes I think series' can spoil a game's heritage.

  • midnight_walker #7 1 year ago

    I played Vanquish. It was quite good... but maybe I didn't get it. It was hardly the second coming.

  • HL706 #8 1 year ago

    I may get Bayonetta to tide me over the summer. Loved Vanquish and really want to 'do my bit' in supporting a dev studio that actually strives to achieve innovation over annual pap.

  • dadrester #9 1 year ago

    Would love to see another Mad World sans the waggle, either on PS360 or something like the 3DS. Either, more Jack please.

    Doesn't 'Anarchy Reigns' star him as a playable character?

  • Snufkin #10 1 year ago

    Bayonetta is a superb game. Old fashioned gaming in some respects yet full of innovation and flourishes that raise it above the crowd. It's also bloody hard, if you ask me.

    Vanquish was also enjoyable, but I felt it lacked the replay value. It also felt less creative than Bayonetta, which was completely bonkers.

    I hope Platinum continue making games that remind us what gaming is all about - bashing buttons to summon huge hairy boots out of the air to squash angelic lions.

  • NunianVonFuch #11 1 year ago

    In my mate's words: "I wish I'd never played Vanquish. It's so good whenever I try and play another game I just wish I was playing Vanquish again. It's ruined gaming for me!"

    I completely agree :D

  • miiiguel #12 1 year ago

    I don't agree with the exteme (does everything must be either "glorious gold" or "bacteria ridden shit" ?) opinions which says Sega doesnt' do anything right. They publish Platinum and they keep on doing it, they re-publish old titles on digital networks, they do HD versions of some hits, even they latest sonic titles are not bad at all like Sonic and Sega Racing or even Unleashed.
    Edited by miiiguel at 18/05/11 @ 16:33

  • Sonic_D #13 1 year ago

    Sega talk sense shocker. Let Platinum be and they will create great games.

  • ukuleleimport #14 1 year ago

    Just reading today on how Gears of War 3 in breaking all records. Yet, am playing Vanquish for the first time these days, and I find it a lot better than either GoW 1 or 2. So go ahead and buy it if you still haven't!

  • evild_edd #15 1 year ago

    @HyperTails & anyone else who doesn't have this already:

    <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sega-Vanquish-Xbox-360/dp/B003EYUFLI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305732916&sr=8-1">£13.82 new from Amazon</a href>

    Really no excuse not to get this game when it's now so cheap.
    Edited by evild_edd at 18/05/11 @ 16:39

  • ukuleleimport #16 1 year ago

    Cheaper at Play: [link url=http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-/17123365/Vanquish/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=vanquish&urlrefer=search
    ]http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-/171...[/link]

  • evild_edd #17 1 year ago

    @ukuleleimport

    Yeah but only from their other sellers rather than Play themselves. Personally I only get from retailers themselves (Amazon, Play, HMV, Zavvi etc) rather than others selling through their sites.

  • randompanda #18 1 year ago

    It doesn't matter where it's cheaper - you won't feel ripped off either way ;)

  • makariel #19 1 year ago

    I just hope they don't force them to make a new Sonic game...

  • ukuleleimport #20 1 year ago

    @evild_edd good point, and well made. Seems the price suddenly spiked also.

  • GozuTennai #21 1 year ago

    FUCK OFF SEGA!! Platinum are doing what all devs used to do like 10 years ago, I.E. make more than one game without 3.2 million billion sequels ringed out of it!
    Also sega have consistently spooned every game since making my sonic on the megadrive.
    Edited by GozuTennai at 18/05/11 @ 18:06

  • joelstinton #22 1 year ago

    Okami, Vanquish, Ico/SOTC, De Blob 2, Valykriya Chronicles.... Some great games out there just that they never got brought. I know reviews label great scores on these games, but i wish there be a voice, a website cough, *eurogamer* cough, would make a point out them being great games on a consistant basis, get people talking about them. Call of Duty gets an article a day on here, although they are fairly good, and obvs had amazing commercial success, its just fueling there sales.

  • Toothball #23 1 year ago

    Edit: I was posting something harsher, but it seems that it was the headline that suggested Platinum stick to one franchise rather than Sega.
    Edited by Toothball at 18/05/11 @ 18:50

  • Kaminari #24 1 year ago

    Clover had nothing to do with Okami on the Wii. Dont make Kamiya-san more angry than he already was.

  • jambii267 #25 1 year ago

    You know what would help? Not releasing Vanquish in a busy holiday season. Wouldn't hurt to properly advertise either FFS.

    Let them do what they want, they are the best japanese developer at the moment (sans Nintendo.)

  • Shwing #26 1 year ago

    Have to agree with a few others here...
    I too thought Bayonetta was SUPERB - but Vanquish a bit meh!
    I've been gaming for 32+ years and would put Bayonetta in my all time top 10 games, it's that good!

  • tomjoadsghost #27 1 year ago

    Vanquish is £10 in store at HMV at the moment too (infinite space is a tenner also, if you need even more platinum action) it's a good solid action game but not even close to the calibre of bayonetta for me. I'd put it more on a par with bionic commando or dark sector personally.

  • FeralYouth #28 1 year ago

    "We also can't wait until Virtua Fighter 5 Final Revolution is released on home consoles.," Sega West CEO Mike Hayes told Eurogamer.

  • Lawrens #29 1 year ago

    This generation is really mostly about PR and advertising tbh, there were absolutely no hype about Vanquish and being another shooter without MP with no focus on story, it's lucky to have sold 850k. Sega's marketing is really bad imo, PG has a lot of blogs on their site and on social networks, but it's really just for fans who's been following them, everyone else don't give a shit, there's a lot of information regarding their gameplay/story design and from their team on their blog, how many of these were on actual gaming websites with a big header?

    The only news are from their CEO saying it sold really bad, if it's Bioware they'd already be spinning it. Why isn't Sega making countless interviews about how awesome it is to press a button? That could work, instead of releasing dumb story segments of an action game and 3 short gameplay videos.

    Bayonetta sold a lot better because there were no competition in the genre at the time, DMC4 and NG2 came out a long while ago and a lot of people starves for another action game, Kamiya being the director of DMC and the controversy of lolsexsells also helped raised awareness ironically.

    There's also the shitty port fiasco with Bayonetta, come on sega, you're partly to blamed if PG's games aren't selling.

  • SpaceMonkey77 #30 1 year ago

    Sega are out of touch with what gamers want these days, but Platinum realised new stuff is needed. That's why Platinum was set up.

    If Sega had any balls left, they give us gamers we want. So far, we've all been suffering from Sonic overkill. We don't need Platinum to do the same. Why not get Border Break onto consoles, Sega?

    However, I would like to see Platinum opt to remake some of Sega's dusty unused IP, like Burning Rangers, Eswat, etc. I think if anyone could make these titles special again, it would be Platinum. Of course, Platinum should put their own original IP first.