Rumor: PlatinumGames Has Quietly Undergone Talent Drain, CEO Inaba Is To Blame

A host of rumors have spread that bode ill of PlatinumGames, the studio that built Bayonetta and Astral Chain.

While we can’t verify all the claims and sources, some of these sources are certainly more credible than others. And it lines up with some stuff that just publicly came to light.

As we reported, Kamiya revealed in a new interview that PlatinumGames was pushing to enter live-service games full scale, and push finally came to shove. Kamiya is now in a new independent studio, CLOVERS, to make a new Ōkami game for Capcom.

Kamiya also revealed in this interview (translated in ResetEra by user vestan) that PlatinumGames staff were enthusiastically approaching him about their desire to keep working with him wherever he went. And this is where we start covering the rumors.

The rumor spread that Kenji Saito (director for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance), Abebe Tinari (director for Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon), Masaki Yamanaka (director for Anarchy Reigns), and Takahisa Taura, (director for Astral Chain) removed references to PlatinumGames in their online profiles, suggesting that they had followed Kamiya in leaving the company.

This led to several video game press writers to comment.

James Galizio, who lists RPG Site and GamesRadar as some of his freelance credits, confirmed that Taura left, adding:

“Last I heard, his project was canned by the partner company and that was probably the onus for him to bail.”

Galizio added:

“They’ve had a lot of projects cancelled. It really feels like their shenanigans finally have made them persona non grata in the industry.”

And then, GamesBeat writer Imran Khan shared his commentary, also on Bluesky:

“Takahisa Taura leaving PlatinumGames is truly the death knell for that studio. Hashimoto was Kamiya’s heir apparent, but he got sick of the shitty management and went to Capcom and a lot of attention was focused on Taura as the next in line after Nier Automata’s success. Obviously that’s changed.

Kamiya starting something called “Clovers” without Inaba but with the developers he likes feels fairly pointed. It definitely seems like he’s become disillusioned with Inaba over the years and if you ever catch me in a bar and off the record I can tell you why. Inaba did some bad shit.

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I have had a lot of conversations with Taura over the years regarding Nier. Here’s a picture of us together! Much like Kamiya, he really just wanted to make fun games and did not have a lot of patience for bad management.

I guess it’s always possible Inaba does go to Clovers but man what an unforced error that would be.”

At this point, it’s easy to conclude that PlatinumGames must be a dead studio at this point. This is what we all said about Konami when Kojima was ousted from the studio, and especially after the failed release of Metal Gear Strive. Of course, today we are talking of Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater releasing nearly a decade after Kojima’s exit.

And so we will note that Abebe Tinari confirmed they have left Osaka for Helsinki on Bluesky. But then, they shared these comments on the rumors:

“I have seen some talk about directors departing PlatinumGames (in which I play a small part.)

Games are not made by a single person.

There are many talented Artists, Designers, Programmers, and Musicians still at PG. I suggest you do not count them out yet.

I can’t wait to see what they do next!

Part of the DNA of PG is taking on challenges. Sometimes these risks work out, sometimes they do not. However, it means that there are many creators there who are hungry and eager to make their mark on the industry.

These folks will now get a chance to show us what they’ve got. Let’s enjoy it.”

And we will leave this story on that note, as in the very same way that we don’t know how CLOVERS and the new Ōkami will turn out, we don’t know quite yet what the future holds for PlatinumGames.