PlatinumGames‘ Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya have been touring the interview circuit since being promoted to their new positions within the company. Inaba is now the president and CEO while Kamiya was promoted to vice-president. The pair have been talking about their plans for the company, future projects, and development on Bayonetta 3. In the latest interview with Video Games Chronicle, Inaba discussed the risks, or lack thereof, that the company has taken in the past.
Inaba explained that he felt as though PlatinumGames had strayed from its roots of making games with “original gameplay” and “original fun.” He went on to say that he wants the company to focus on those elements “200%.” Following those comments, Inaba was asked how he feels PlatinumGames has strayed from those ideals in recent years. That’s when Inaba said that he felt as though the company hadn’t taken enough risks.
The first thing that comes to mind is getting caught up too much in risk management, At any company that’s making games, especially the bigger ones, you’re always going to be thinking about risks. You try to plan to minimise those risks as much as you can. But they’re still always going to be there.
But what I was just saying about going back to our roots and just focusing on fun and originality… I just don’t want anything in our company to be caught up with worry about risk, getting caught up in those kind of things and losing focus.
I don’t think it’s a big issue, but in order to achieve what I feel is the goal that I have just laid out, I think that the most important thing there is just to remove that inhibition from people, so that they don’t worry about stuff like, ‘if this isn’t successful, what’s gonna happen to the company? Are we going to be okay?’ If something happens, it happens. But I don’t want that to affect our desire or to inhibit us to be creative.
Atsushi Inaba
When asked directly if the company has been too concerned about risk Inaba said, “I would say definitely yes, there has been in the past.” Inaba also said that he wants to be able to make decisions that he won’t regret in the future. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to be making decisions that I’m going to regret when I look back, right?”
For much more, be sure to check out the full interview with Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya at the source below.