Hideki Kamiya has made an amusing comment about what he wants in 2024.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Kamiya was one of many developers who was asked by Japanese news outlet 4Gamer about what they would want for the video game industry in 2024. This was Kamiya’s quip:
“I want to get a job making games so that I can have a meal.”
Now, in most circumstances this would sound like a plea for help, the degree to which it would be considered seriously depends on your interpretation. But there’s a reason for us not to take this too seriously.
Hideki Kamiya resigned from PlatinumGames in 2023, with no apparent explanation, leading to a lot of fans suspecting friction had arisen between the developer and the company he helped found. Kamiya would later start a YouTube channel, and reveal there that he left because he wanted to pursue making games as an art form. He very much implied that PlatinumGames was going on a different direction from that, but he did not elaborate on this.
At the time that Kamiya had left, he was in a senior management position at PlatinumGames. This implied that Kamiya’s squabbles must have been with people in high positions like himself, possibly over some major decisions in the company.
But in another YouTube video, Kamiya explained that he was taking a break from making video games, heavily suggesting that he was under a non-compete clause preventing him from jumping immediately into a PlatinumGames rival.
So, when Kamiya shared this message to 4Gamer, he did so with the knowledge out there that he couldn’t actually find work for a year. So this was intended to be in jest, with a bit of self-effacement thrown in.
Make no mistake, Kamiya is one of the most influential game developers in Japan’s history. While he is best known for Bayonetta today, Kamiya’s body of notable work dates back to Resident Evil 2.
When Kamiya does return to the video game industry, there will be no lack of suitable studios for him to join, with one very obvious studio already the subject of rampant speculation.
It should be self-evident but Kamiya rejoining Capcom would be a serious shock to that studio, which is currently preoccupied with remaking Resident Evil games, as well as making more Monster Hunter titles. One could easily imagine Kamiya jumping back into Devil May Cry, but he could just as well make more new IP for them too.
But this talk isn’t for now. We hope Kamiya is enjoying his time away from the industry in the interim.
