Acquisition fever has gripped the industry, with Microsoft snapping up the likes of Bethesda and Activision Blizzard, amongst many others, and Sony grabbing Bungie. With all these moves going on, some have wondered what the future of Bayonetta and NieR: Automata developer Platinum Games might be. The studio has been fiercely independent since its founding, but it’s also often struggled to make ends meet, with Platinum’s leaders admitting they were often one success or failure away from shutting their doors. Being acquired would afford Platinum some security, while instantly bolstering the Japanese presence of whoever bought them. So, could it happen? Turns out it just might.
Speaking to Video Games Chronicle, Platinum CEO Atsushi Inaba admits they’re open to acquisition talks, provided they get to retain their creative freedom…
The most important thing for us is to have the freedom to make the games that we want to make. What I hear about the recent acquisitions, I don’t think Microsoft is going to start micromanaging Activision to where they take away all their freedom… I don’t think it’s going to be a relationship like that. I think there’s going to be a lot of mutual respect there and I think Activision will be able to continue doing what they do best. That’s also what’s most important to us at the end of the day, whatever form that takes for us and our company. So I would not turn anything down, as long as our freedom was still respected.
Inaba doesn’t come right out and say it, but his answer certainly seems to hint they see Microsoft as their most likely buyer. Platinum auteur Hideki Kamiya recently made comments about wanting to finish the canceled Xbox One exclusive Scalebound with Microsoft, so Inaba isn’t the only one dropping hints in that direction.
Platinum’s next game is the Square-Enix-published Babylon’s Fall, which launches on PC, PS4, and PS5 on March 3. A PlayStation demo of the game will drop on February 25.
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