PlatinumGames pivoting to live service games, CEO says

digitaltrends.com:

Atsushi Inaba, PlatinumGames’ co-founder, president, and CEO, recently spoke of a potential future for the celebrated action game development studio in an interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. He hinted at titles “that are different from the past,” with a focus on larger games and live service systems.

“The projects that we are trying to create for the future will be different in terms of their structure,” Inaba said when asked where he’d like Platinum to go next. “Considering the changes in the market over the next five years or so, I think it is absolutely necessary for us to do this.”

The new CEO largely believes the studio needs to create fewer one-off titles and start pushing more games that “can be enjoyed and loved for a longer period of time.” The assumed testing phase of this new era can be seen with the recently announced live service hack-and-slash title Babylon’s Fall. However, the current state of the game, as seen in its past closed beta play period, along with this planned shift in focus from the highly acclaimed developers, has many fans worried.

I'd take one-off, well designed titles over something like Babylon Fall's which looks poorly designed.

— Stealth (@Stealth40k) February 7, 2022

Despite any worries fans may have, it seems Platinum is moving full-steam ahead in this new direction with Babylon’s Fall and possibly Hideki Kamiya’s next title, dubbed Project G.G.

“Project G.G. is still in the stage of testing various things, so I can’t tell you much about it, but when it comes to future game production, we want to focus on creating games that are different from the past,” Inaba said when asked about the upcoming title. “I would like to focus on creating games that can be