Ex-Clover chaps sign up with SEGA

SEGA has signed a multi-game publishing deal with PlatinumGames, the studio set up by ex-Capcom developers Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba.

If those names are familiar, it's because you've played Resident Evil, Devil May Cry or Okami, for which the three Japanese men respectively were key figures.

Three games are being announced today, with one more - directed by Mikami - also in the works. The three games are called Bayonetta, Infinite Line and MadWorld, and are being produced by Atsushi Inaba.

Bayonetta is due out on PS3 and Xbox 360 and is being directed by Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya. It's been described by our correspondent as a "stylish action game" with "a witch battling angels". Apparently she has guns on her feet. Try and make out what's going on in this Bayonetta trailer gallery.

Infinite Line, meanwhile, puts you in the role of a starship captain, customising your ship and crew. It's in development at NudeMaker - an external team, but close colleagues of Platinum, previously responsible for Clock Tower and Steel Battalion among others for old bosses Capcom.

We're told that the third game, MadWorld, has "black and white Sin City graphics, with red blood", is "ultra ultra violent" and has "fatality moves like shoving a post through someone's head" with "a chainsaw on your right arm". It's being directed by Shigeru Nishikawa, who previously worked on Resident Evil 4. Check out the MadWorld screenshot gallery to see how it's shaping up.

Until recently, PlatinumGames had been known as "Seeds", but the developers decided to change the name after they got their heads round what they wanted to do.

Check out our SEGA Goes Platinum feature for a bit more detail on each of the presentations we witnessed.