In somewhat unexpected news (Technically what news is expected, really), today PlatinumGames revealed in a social media post that studio co-founder Hideki Kamiya is set to exit the studio on October 12th. The post felt very boilerplate, stating his departure date and support on his future endeavors. Kamiya co-founded the studio with Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba, Tatsuya Minami in 2007 after the closure of Capcom subsidiary Clover Studios. Kamiya would go on to create Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta, with the latter getting 3 main titles and a spin-off title.
Speaking of Bayonetta, the last time Kamiya was in the news was during the spat regarding the replacement of Hellena Taylor with Jennifer Hale. The initial backlash from the news actually drove the developer off Twitter (now X), the social media platform where he garnered a reputation of blocking users at the drop of a hat.
While the true reason for the departure will never see the light of day, it’s unlikely this will be the last we hear from him. To close this article on a personal note, I once ran into Kamiya during media hours of a PAX East (this was around the time they were promoting the re-release of Wonderful 101), while I seldom will approach developers of his stature, I went for it anyway, asking him has he stopped tweeting on twitter, he remarked something to the effect of “no I’m still tweeting”. After returning home from the show I found out why…I was blocked by the man himself. I found the situation to be hilarious and despite the block I’ll still show interest in any project he is attached to, let’s hope we hear from him sooner than later, hopefully he won’t be making the announcement just on Twitter/X…cause well, you know.
